Water is crucial to life. It is the “the essential elixir” to life as Cynthia Barnett states in “Our Water Ethic for Florida”. People are told this in elementary school and onwards yet few people truly grasp the truth behind this seemingly simple statement. “We are bound in the memory and mystery of exhilarating, confounding, life-giving rain”, Cynthia Barnett states as she ends the prologue for her book Rain. Water is fundamental to cooking, washing, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, energy production, and waste disposal. Seemingly contrary to its many uses, water itself has a simplistic composition. A water molecule is composed of two hydrogen and one-oxygen atoms. The hydrogen atoms each share an electron with oxygen in a covalent bond.
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Globally, the mains concerns facing water are climate change, quality of water, the distribution and usage of drinking water, and population growth. Climate change can lead to reduced precipitation which impacts water resources downstream. For drinking water problems, many countries have insufficient water to meet daily needs. “Almost one quarter of the world’s population face economic water shortage”, stated in the YouTube video “Topic 3.6: Water resources” by NicheScience. An every increasing population spurs concerns over an increasing freshwater required. The four main causes of this water scarcity are dry climates, drought, desiccation, and water stress. Water stress refers to the low availability of water caused by an increasing population. Countries are classified as water stressed when the amount of reliable runoff per person is below 1700 cubic meters per year. The depletion of freshwater sources can be seen in many rivers and streams as they have low, and lowering, water levels. The Colorado River is a great example of how over usage and dams can severely impact even major rivers. Increasing water pollution is also a major concern. Water pollution is defined as any physical or chemical change in water that adversely affects the health of humans other organisms. There are eight main categories of water pollution sewage, disease-causing agents, sediment pollution, inorganic plant and algal nutrients, organic compounds, inorganic chemical, radioactive substances, and thermal pollution. Water pollution negatively impacts human health, causing sicknesses like cholera and tuberculosis. Water pollution also can harm and kill aquatic animals, as well as land animals that drink from the polluted sources, which many humans rely on for food. Major pollution has the capacity to entirely disrupt ecosystems. Unfortunately, water pollution is not uncommon. The EPA’s 2-10 National
Globally, the mains concerns facing water are climate change, quality of water, the distribution and usage of drinking water, and population growth. Climate change can lead to reduced precipitation which impacts water resources downstream. For drinking water problems, many countries have insufficient water to meet daily needs. “Almost one quarter of the world’s population face economic water shortage”, stated in the YouTube video “Topic 3.6: Water resources” by NicheScience. An every increasing population spurs concerns over an increasing freshwater required. The four main causes of this water scarcity are dry climates, drought, desiccation, and water stress. Water stress refers to the low availability of water caused by an increasing population. Countries are classified as water stressed when the amount of reliable runoff per person is below 1700 cubic meters per year. The depletion of freshwater sources can be seen in many rivers and streams as they have low, and lowering, water levels. The Colorado River is a great example of how over usage and dams can severely impact even major rivers. Increasing water pollution is also a major concern. Water pollution is defined as any physical or chemical change in water that adversely affects the health of humans other organisms. There are eight main categories of water pollution sewage, disease-causing agents, sediment pollution, inorganic plant and algal nutrients, organic compounds, inorganic chemical, radioactive substances, and thermal pollution. Water pollution negatively impacts human health, causing sicknesses like cholera and tuberculosis. Water pollution also can harm and kill aquatic animals, as well as land animals that drink from the polluted sources, which many humans rely on for food. Major pollution has the capacity to entirely disrupt ecosystems. Unfortunately, water pollution is not uncommon. The EPA’s 2-10 National