DROP BY DROP
Water scarcity already affects every continent, and 4 of every 10 people on
Earth.
"From 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth by John Javna, Sophie
Javna, and Jesse Javna Copyright (c) 2008. Published by Hyperion. Available
wherever books are sold. All Rights Reserved."
BACKGROUND
Experts predict that water is going to be “the oil of the 21st century.”
Actually, that may be an understatement: Fresh water isn’t just essential to
making our society run; we literally can’t live without it.
All you have to do is look at what’s happening with droughts, sinking water
tables, and polluted waterways to understand that access to clean, fresh water
is an increasingly serious—and potentially explosive—issue.
DID YOU KNOW
- There’s plenty of water on the planet—an estimated 370 billion billion
gallons. (Yes, you read that right.) But only about 2.5% of it is fresh
water…and only about 3% of that is water we can actually use. The rest is
stored in glaciers and snow cover.
- Think of it this way: If the world’s entire water supply was 1 gallon,
fresh water would make up 4 ounces, and readily accessible fresh water—our
drinking, bathing, life-preserving water—would make up 2 drops.
- Population growth is creating water problems (see p. 112). So is
pollution; it’s estimated that we dump two million tons of waste into our
precious rivers, lakes and streams every day. And development has turned
forests and meadows into paved surfaces that can no longer absorb rain and
snowmelt to replenish aquifers (see p. 40).
- Climate change is increasing the stress on our water supplies even more.
U.N. scientists calculate that global warming will account for about 20% of
the increase in water scarcity.
- People are already suffering from water shortages. According to the
World Health Organization, “Today 1.1 billion people lack access to clean
water and 2.4 billion lack access to proper sanitation.” But it will get
worse: “By the middle of the century,” they say, “7 billion people may be
faced with water scarcity.”
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