The world will run out of fresh drinking water by 2050 because of the Western world’s meat centered diet, according to a secret report just released on WikiLeaks.

Nestle executives, concerned about the company’s future in a world threatened by climate change, commissioned the report in 2009 and discovered that high meat consumption is depleting the world’s fresh water supply.

The report, titled “Tour D’Horizon with Nestle: Forget the Global Financial Crisis, the World Is Running Out of Fresh Water,” was first published by Reveal at The Center for Investigative Reporting.

The report, secretly released to U.S. officials seven years ago, details how the West’s meat centric diet is draining the world’s supply of fresh drinking water.

“Nestle thinks one-third of the world’s population will be affected by fresh water scarcity by 2025, with the situation only becoming more dire thereafter and potentially catastrophic by 2050.”

Eating meat requires much more fresh water than a vegetable diet because each animal requires tons of crops like corn and soy, which require thousands of gallons of water themselves. It requires far less water if humans ate the vegetable crops directly.

Americans eat too much meat and now the world is on a “potentially catastrophic” collision course with fate as developing countries like India and China begin to eat more beef, chicken and pork, according to Reveal.

“The current US diet provides about 3600 calories per day with substantial meat consumption. If the whole world were to move to this standard, global fresh water resources would be exhausted at a population level of 6 billion, which the world reached in the year 2000.”

There’s plenty of water on Earth to feed everyone, however, the world simply needs to switch to a diet that’s not so meat centric.

Meat and dairy = the Diet of Disaster. Do your body and the planet a favour: Go Vegan https://t.co/2Gz4BPa2Kc pic.twitter.com/Qtel8dp8sL — Vegan Future (@veganfuture) April 28, 2016

When the report was released in 2009, the Chinese were recorded as eating half as much meat as their American, Australian and European counterparts, but that figure was expected to climb as the country’s economy improved.

A cache of classified water documents released on WikiLeaks and made public by Reveal at The Center for Investigative Reporting details how the refugee crisis in Syria was sparked by a water crisis.

“Problems will be severest in the Middle East, northern India, northern China, and the western United States.”

Secret messages from U.S. Ambassador Stephen Seche in Yemen, written as the country was in the middle of water riots, described the water shortage as the biggest threat to mankind’s stability, reports Reveal.

“Water shortages have led desperate people to take desperate measures with equally desperate consequences.”

There's enough fresh #water on Earth to meet global demand. But daily, 663 million people go without v/@unicefwater pic.twitter.com/k1ZWI8mnQg — Kent Page (@KentPage) April 26, 2016

To save mankind, the countries of the Earth merely need to change to a vegetable centric diet instead of one focused on meat, according to a NewsWeek report.

“There is not nearly enough fresh water available to provide this standard to a global population expected to exceed 9 billion by mid-century.”

Nestle, the world’s largest food company, commissioned the mind boggling water report, but don’t expect to see the company lead a crusade anytime soon. The same report that warned Nestle executives the world was running out of water, also reminded them to keep a low profile for the sake of the company. The multinational conglomerate tries not to preach and desperately attempts to avoid confrontations that could cost the company profits.

Parched: If the rest of the world ate like Americans, we'd be out of fresh water already https://t.co/keyYxSAFMZ — John Tierney (@Tierney_John) April 29, 2016

Short of saving the world’s water supply it’s always possible mankind will have the ability to leave the Earth behind and colonize other worlds. Maybe that’s why Elon Musk announced plans to launch a Mars mission by 2018: to colonize another world in case mankind is killed off on Earth.

After all, that’s exactly the situation how Stephen Hawking said we would find aliens, if they ever discovered Earth.

“I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet.”

What do you think? Is it worth changing your diet to save the Earth?

[Photo credit: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki]