Even people who believe in climate change are climate change deniers: you might know, intellectually, that our World is coming to an end.

But it is hard to truly register this fact, the same way you both do and do not believe that you will one day die.

Most of us are asleep, no matter how many grim articles you might read. One development that will likely make things real: the end of the Earth’s drinkable water supply.

The question is not if, but when.

So the next time you open a can of soft drink, consider where the water inside it came from.

You have to change your attitude about water and realize it is a precious resource.

Water demand is projected to increase by 55% between 2000 and 2050.

The demand is driven by agriculture accounting for 70% of global water use and food production will need to grow by 69% by 2035 to feed the population.

Water withdrawal for energy for cooling power will increase by 20%. The future presents one big freshwater drain after the next.

In certain large cities it is becoming a bigger crisis. Climate change is really about water change – in some place it is going to get wetter, and we will have more floods.

In some places it is going to get dryer, and we will have droughts, and so that is a problem.

Our water system is out of balance.

We are not living within the natural constraints of our most precious renewable resource and communities.

Ecosystems will face growing water scarcity, shortage, contamination, and disruption if we fail to move to a more sustainable approach.

Can you talk about it?
I can, because we are shooting in 6 weeks. It is not a feature; it is a short, probably 40 minutes, about the World running out of water. That is the big framework. There are cities with millions of people that are running out of water. And it is going to happen to cities in Europe and America in the next 20 years.

So is this story set in the future?
No, it is a true story. I have got to be careful because it is very political. I can not say where, but basically there is a city of tens of millions of people that started to run out of water about a decade ago.

This is a story about a criminal network that started to steal water from poor areas, pumping tankers into the water supply, and selling it to rich areas. They were making hundreds of millions of dollars a year. It is a story that follows someone who cottoned onto this and was assassinated. It is a bleak future!

Why can’t you say where?
There are some powerful people involved in the story, and they will be exposed once it comes out. So while we are shooting, for safety, I would rather not.

Oscar-winning director Orlando von Einsiedel