Difference between revisions of "Water"

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Water covers 70% of the earths surface with most of that being covered by the largest bodies of water on earth, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans. It may not be obvious, but looking at a human is a good indication of how important water is for survival, as more than half of our body is composed of water. We use water as a cool down method like sweat, which is a mechanism that we would die without. Many countries would be willing to fight over water, as water is very scarce in a number of different areas of the world. In 1990 there were 20 nations throughout the world that were qualified as water scarce countries. Most of these countries are either located in Africa or near the Middle East, which causes even more problems because of the rapidly growing populations of these countries. As many as 15 more countries are expected to join the other water scarce countries by the year 2025. The increase in water scarcity also presents another problem, that being water quality. As water becomes increasingly difficult to come by, people in these nations will have to start drinking water of a very low quality because most of these third world countries cannot afford water management resources.
The collective mass of water found on, under, and over the surface of a planet is called hydrosphere. Earth's approximate water volume (the total water supply of the world) is 1 360 000 000 km³ (326 000 000 mi³). Of this volume:
 
1 320 000 000 km³ (316 900 000 mi³ or 97.2%) is in the oceans.
25 000 000 km³ (6 000 000 mi³ or 1.8%) is in glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets.
13 000 000 km³ (3,000,000 mi³ or 0.9%) is groundwater.
250 000 km³ (60,000 mi³ or 0.02%) is fresh water in lakes, inland seas, and rivers.  
13 000 km³ (3,100 mi³ or 0.001%) is atmospheric water vapor at any given time.
 
Water is not a finite resource, but rather re-circulated as potable water in precipitation in quantities many degrees of magnitude higher than human consumption. Therefore, it is the relatively small quantity of water in reserve in the earth (about 1% of our drinking water supply, which is replenished in aquifers around every 1 to 10 years), that is a non-renewable resource, and it is, rather, the distribution of potable and irrigation water which is scarce, rather than the actual amount of it that exists on the earth.
 
Many countries would be willing to fight over water, as water is very scarce in a number of different areas of the world. In 1990 there were 20 nations throughout the world that were qualified as water scarce countries. Most of these countries are either located in Africa or near the Middle East, which causes even more problems because of the rapidly growing populations of these countries. As many as 15 more countries are expected to join the other water scarce countries by the year 2025. The increase in water scarcity also presents another problem, that being water quality. As water becomes increasingly difficult to come by, people in these nations will have to start drinking water of a very low quality because most of these third world countries cannot afford water management resources.


We have a number of different forms of water on the planet earth, with the largest being oceans. Oceans although not freshwater, contain a large portion of the earth’s biomass, and they play a huge role in the earth’s ecosystem. Our oceans act as a cooling agent for the earth, because without them the earth would probably be a huge desert. Our four main oceans in order from smallest to largest are the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans. Our oceans contain almost 97% of the earth’s water, with the other 3% being freshwater. Our freshwater comes in a variety of different forms such as lakes, rivers, streams, glaciers, groundwater, and wetlands.


<br><p align="right">''Go back to [[The_increasing_scarcity_of_resources | The increasing scarcity of resources]]''</p>
<br><p align="right">''Go back to [[The_increasing_scarcity_of_resources | The increasing scarcity of resources]]''</p>

Revision as of 12:59, 3 May 2008

The collective mass of water found on, under, and over the surface of a planet is called hydrosphere. Earth's approximate water volume (the total water supply of the world) is 1 360 000 000 km³ (326 000 000 mi³). Of this volume:

1 320 000 000 km³ (316 900 000 mi³ or 97.2%) is in the oceans. 25 000 000 km³ (6 000 000 mi³ or 1.8%) is in glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets. 13 000 000 km³ (3,000,000 mi³ or 0.9%) is groundwater. 250 000 km³ (60,000 mi³ or 0.02%) is fresh water in lakes, inland seas, and rivers. 13 000 km³ (3,100 mi³ or 0.001%) is atmospheric water vapor at any given time.

Water is not a finite resource, but rather re-circulated as potable water in precipitation in quantities many degrees of magnitude higher than human consumption. Therefore, it is the relatively small quantity of water in reserve in the earth (about 1% of our drinking water supply, which is replenished in aquifers around every 1 to 10 years), that is a non-renewable resource, and it is, rather, the distribution of potable and irrigation water which is scarce, rather than the actual amount of it that exists on the earth.

Many countries would be willing to fight over water, as water is very scarce in a number of different areas of the world. In 1990 there were 20 nations throughout the world that were qualified as water scarce countries. Most of these countries are either located in Africa or near the Middle East, which causes even more problems because of the rapidly growing populations of these countries. As many as 15 more countries are expected to join the other water scarce countries by the year 2025. The increase in water scarcity also presents another problem, that being water quality. As water becomes increasingly difficult to come by, people in these nations will have to start drinking water of a very low quality because most of these third world countries cannot afford water management resources.



Go back to The increasing scarcity of resources

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