| Water Wisdom |
Student
Fact Sheet
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W |
hat
do polar bears, plum trees, poodles, porcupines, and people all have in common?
They all need water to survive!
Whether from a lake, a stream, a river or a well, fresh water is what
keeps all of us alive. A human being can go weeks without
food, but only days without water.
Water is the most abundant substance on Earth. In fact, water covers nearly three-fourths
of its surface. Only a tiny amount
of that water however is usable as drinking water. For instance, of all the water present
on Earth, more than 97% is found within oceans as saltwater. Two percent of the water present on Earth
is in the form of ice caps, glaciers and icebergs and is not usable by living
things. About 1% of the total
water on the Earth is in the form of fresh water found in lakes, streams,
rivers, soil and underground reservoirs (aquifers). Since most of this water is not easily available to people,
that leaves much less than one percent (about 0.34 percent) available for
humans and animals to drink and use.
ThatÕs like having one hundred dollars in your bank account but only
being able to use 34 cents!
Human beings use water for many different reasons.
Since the human body requires about one gallon of drinking water every
day to stay healthy, the most important uses for water are for drinking and
growing food, because without these we wouldnÕt be able to survive. Other
uses for water include: cleaning and cooling machines in factories, growing
crops to feed cattle and other livestock, growing cotton for fabric and clothing,
watering the lawn and garden, washing the car, taking a bath or shower, brushing
teeth, doing the dishes, cleaning the house, washing clothes, filling swimming
pools and artificial lakes, watering golf courses, making ice, making ice
skating rinks, and many other uses.
Water
gets recycled through a process called transpiration. That means that the heat of the sun evaporates water into the
sky. When enough water evaporates,
it forms into a cloud that drops rain onto the earth. Most of this rain falls into the ocean,
but some of it falls onto our mountains, rivers and streams, replenishing
our fresh water supply. This
endless recycling of water is how the Earth has maintained its fresh water
for millions and millions of years.
In fact, itÕs possible that the last soda you drank contained water
that was once drunk by a Tyrannosaurus Rex!
Even though it seems like we have an endless supply of
water, we donÕt. At this point
in history, human beings are using up fresh water faster than it is being
replenished. ItÕs possible that we could run out of fresh, clean water at
some point in the future if we donÕt get wiser about how we use this precious
resource. Not only that, but much of our fresh
water is being polluted with toxins or chemicals that are being dumped and
drained into our water systems. Some
of these chemicals are common household items like chlorine bleach and paint
thinner, and some are widely used agricultural and industrial chemicals like
petroleum products and pesticides. If human beings only dumped a tiny bit of these chemicals into
our fresh water systems, it wouldnÕt cause much damage. Unfortunately, tons of chemicals are being
dumped and washed into our water every year. This water pollution is not only
damaging the environment, animals, birds and fish that depend on a healthy
water system, but it is also harming our fresh water supply and making some
people sick.
Fresh, clean water is the most important natural resource
we have. There are many things
we can do to conserve our fresh water supply. Learn more about how to save
water and protect it from harmful chemicals. By doing our best today, we can make sure thereÕs plenty of
clean, fresh water left for our future.