Water? Is it being created and destroyed on earth? How?

Question

I hear all the time that the water is running out. Surely it's just a matter of distribution, or is it really being destroyed? Is it being created?

Answer 1

For all practical purposes, the quantity of water on the earth is the same as when the earth was formed.

When you hear that water is being "destroyed," it usually means that water fit for human consumption is being polluted or wasted.

It's the same when you hear that the environment is being destroyed - how pompous of us to think we can destroy an environment that has gone through meteor crashes and at least two ice ages - what we can destroy, however, is the ability of the present environment to sustain our existence on this planet.

Answer 2

Water is not running out: it is simply that there are steadily more of us to share it.

Climate change will also have an effect on water - just what effect, though, nobody can really say.

Some regions will become drier, some wetter. Deserts may well spread and rivers shrink, but floods will also become more frequent.

Most of the world's water is already inaccessible, or comes in the form of storms and hurricanes to the wrong places at the wrong times.

But there is certainly room for better management of water in agriculture - which currently takes ups 70% of the water we use.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2943946.stm

The world's fresh water supply is dwindling every year, according to research in the United States.

Within 25 years, half the world's population could have trouble finding enough fresh water for drinking and irrigation.

The study was carried out at Colorado University, which surveyed river basins all over the planet to identify those under most pressure.

It found a third of the world's people already live in regions considered to be "water-stressed" - where there is not enough, or barely enough water to go around.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/566809.stm

Answer 3

I think the issue with water scarcity has to do with whether or not it's fresh and clean enough for human consumption. The problem is apparently related to distribution -- as you noted in your question, growing demands for water based on population growth, the growing demands for water as populations become more industrialized, and problems of water contamination associated with all of those growing numbers of people and added industrial growth.

On a slightly different note. To some degree, water is being lost into space in the form of atmospheric constituents, but the same time, water is being added back into the biosphere from volcanic activity, so the overall effect is that the amount of water pretty much remains constant.

Answer 4

I think that it is a distribution problem. It is a seasonal problem in some places. In other places the aquifers are overused and cannot recharge as fast as they are being pumped.

I heard the Governor of my state talking about a "wonderful" new way to harness wind energy:
Pump the aquifers of eastern Montana out and use wind mills to push air into the chamber under pressure and then release it at a steady pressure to generate electricity. Stupid!

Water quality is the key. Keeping the ocean salty enough where it needs to be, warm or cool enough or ice where those things need to be. Of course with some deserts blooming
other places dry up or go without.

Answer 5

water is here on the planet it is the oldest thing on this planet 3 million years is pretty close to its age water is not destroyed or created it is used then the planet recycles it it evaporates into the atmosphere then it makes its trip back to the earth in the form of precipitation, rain , snow ...etc it does not change its mass is always the same it just depends on where its at

Answer 6

The water is being consumed daily by a lot of means. The water is used up and added up again to the environment by some different means. This addition and removal of water is reffered to as the water cycle.


Below is a diagrammatic representation of Water Cycle.

Answer 7

It is being neither created nor destroyed. It is being impounded in chemical compounds. The shortage is in fresh water, particularly easily available fresh water. We only have to find an economical way to process sea water.

Answer 8

what they mean by that is that there is a certain proportion of water on this planet, no more no less. and everyday it is being polluted therefore the water on the planet is running out, meaning clean water is going fast. some day there will be less and less clean drinking water.

Answer 9

All I can tell you is that the Ozone layer is being depleted and the Glaciers are melting, this creates a huge problem, maybe not now but in just a few years..☺

Answer 10

Water cycles. That is, it evaporates from oceans, rivers, and streams and is redeposited on the earth as rain. As far as our fresh water, we use it for sewage and many other things. It's my knowledge that we treat that at sewage plants and re-use it. Also, glaciers are melting, so at that rate, wouldn't we be ADDING water that we previously couldn't use? I agree on distributions.