¶ … Water Crisis
Background on Water
The Planets Water Problems
Freshwater Shortage Ideas
Argument
There is an abundance of water on the planet and the melting of ice continues to contribute to even more water in the oceans through sea level rise. However, the water in the oceans is not something that can sustain life for most of the population of the world and fresh water is of key importance. Although water is the most abundant chemical compound in the universe, the fresh water cycles that support life on the planet Earth have been rapidly changing. Some have predicted that we will have a full-blown water crisis in the near future which will be followed by a range of problems that result from the lack of the availability of water. Not only does this affect people in Third World, but there are examples in the First World where marginalized communities have had trouble affording clean drinking water such as Detroit and Flint in the U.S. This analysis will provide a background on the looming water crisis and attempt to make a few broad predictions about how the availability of fresh water might affect the inhabitants of planet Earth in the near future.
Background on Water
Water is the molecule that sustains life more than any other. In fact, when scientists search for life in the universe, the first requisite is typically the presence of liquid water. It is water that provided the environment which allowed for evolution to occur and more we learn about how Earth acquired and retained its water, the more it seems the situation was incredibly fortuitous (Zalasiewicz & Williams, 2014). However, most of the water that is in the universe is not in liquid form though it is among the most common substances. Liquid water has been on Earth for roughly 3.8 billion years and has formed a constant cycling of water that is driven by plate tech tonics among other natural processes.
The water cycle provided the churning environment that mixed up various chemical compounds that are believed to be the source of life; although such processes occurred over millions of years and are hard to replicate fully. However, the planet is in something called a "Goldlilocks" zone in which developments can take place and there are few other planets that are known to share the same characteristics. For example,
" The super-Earth 55 Cancri e has a density consistent with a water envelope, but orbits so close that it is likely to be supercritical water -- not quite liquid water and not quite steam, but more like the superheated steam used to decaffeinate coffee beans. Another large, hot, low-density planet, GJ 1214 b, might be a true water world, with the pressure in its thousand-kilometre ocean depths transforming the hot water into hot ice. Neither scenario seems quite suitable for life as we know it. (Zalasiewicz & Williams, 2014)"
As humans we are so used to the substance that we are predisposed of taking this substance for granted. We are born in water, most of body is composed of water, and water surrounds us throughout our lives. Yet, despite preciousness of this substance in its life supporting role, the final billion years of Earth's oceans is off to a sticky start, with over-fishing, choking plastic debris and rapidly looming global warming and acidification (Zalasiewicz & Williams, 2014).
The Planets Water Problems
There are basically two forms of fresh water on the planet. There is surface water in a variety of forms as well as ground water. Humans have strongly impacted both sources of fresh water through their interaction with the water cycle; not only the water that flows, but the water that is stored in the ground (Doll, et al., 2012). It is estimated that groundwater contributes 42%, 36% and 27% of water used for irrigation, households and manufacturing, respectively, while most assume that only surface water is used for livestock and for cooling of thermal power plants (Doll, et al., 2012). Through the manipulation of the water flows and underground reserves, the human impact on the water cycle are greater than most realize and this impact will have a detrimental effect on many populations.
Many studies that much of the groundwater reserves are being overexploited on massive scales. Researchers have calculated the rough amounts that these reservoirs may have now, their regeneration rate (if any such as many glacier reserves), and how much water is being extracted over a given period. They access the mathematical relationship of the groundwater footprint and compare these figures to the ecological footprint and previous water stress indicators, as...
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