We have millions of gallons sitting on shelves (coke, water, etc.), billions sitting in water lines, septic systems, holding towers, and pools. There are another billion people (in the last 20 years) on earth who are 90% water. Since all this water is in constant limbo and the amount will only increase with population increase and as other nations industrialise what effect if any will it (does it) have?
Will our locking up of water effect the climate.
- Thread starter fredtam
- Start date
I'm curious to know why Earth has godzillion gallons of water and other planets does not have that much.
DrPizza
Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
I'm not sure what you mean... there are comets that are mostly water, and one of the moons of Jupiter has quite a bit of water on it (Io? I always get them mixed up) And, Mars has evidence that there may have been a LOT of water on the surface, as well as there is evidence of a lot of water near the surface at northern latitudes.
Do you mean, liquid water then?
DrPizza
Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
oh, btw, while we're "locking up" water, we're also burning a lot of fossil fuels and burning down rainforests, etc. Activities which actually release a lot of water. Burning 1 molecule of methane releases 1 molecule of carbon dioxide, and 2 molecules of water. And, the melting of the polar ice caps (evidence the caps are getting thinner, especially in the arctic) is releasing far more water than we're storing.
The amount we have stored, in relation to what there is on the planet, is merely a drop in the bucket
The amount we have stored, in relation to what there is on the planet, is merely a drop in the bucket
I have no idea that some comets are mostly water. Thought they have little gravity to hold them and water are vaporized into the space (vaporized/boiled in vacuum?). Anyway, I'm referring to the planets in our solar system. Yes, they MIGHT have water. That's why they are sending rovers all over
Mars to find out.
I rephrase the question as this. How many ways can water be produce by natural forces? volcano, earthquakes? There must be a cycle to this.
>> And, Mars has evidence that there may have been a LOT of water on the surface, as well as there is evidence of a lot of water near the surface at northern latitudes.
So there must be some clouds on Mars right?
fredtam:The earth is recycling the water through weather. H2O is a perfect solvent/transport so it's everywhere where moist or wet. As industrialization and world population, the direct effect is that water will be contaminated by chemicals and dust. I believe you are referring to the reserve of fresh water like sea, lake, rain and stuffs.
I happened to work for the local water district around the time of the Y2K thing when everyone was worried about blackouts, water supply shortages, and the like. In order to conserve peak energy usage requirements, most of the water pumped out of our local water sources is pumped at night. The system of reservoirs is capable of storing enough water to last between one and two days (depending on the season). Because of this capacity, we can easily go an entire day cycle without running out before we have to top everything off at night. Even so, we only have enough storage capacity for 2 days, even though our supply (local fresh water lake, underground water table) is essentially unlimited, with the extra making it's way out to the sea.
The amount locked up artificially really is tiny compared to the amount available from nature.
I'm sure you know that the earth's surface is about 70% covered in water. Even though most of it is salt water, it still is the primary source of moisture in the atmosphere through evaporation. Much of the freshwater rainfall actually comes from the oceans. We are so incredibly far from locking up a significant amount of water, that it isn't even funny.
Moreover, many of our other actions will have a much greater impact on global climate than our water management. The continued clearing of rainforests and gradual accumulation of greenhouse gasses will probably affect our climate more than anything else we do.
Personally, I would be more worried about the rapid melting of our polar ice caps. As the cold, dense water runs into the ocean, it disrupts the natural convective heat currents which is responsible for much of our weather. If it progresses enough to halt the gulf stream (which is a possibility), the earth may be looking at another ice age. It may or may not happen in my lifetime, and it may or may not be part of a larger natural cycle, but it is looking to happen eventually.
That oughta cheer you up
LF
The amount locked up artificially really is tiny compared to the amount available from nature.
I'm sure you know that the earth's surface is about 70% covered in water. Even though most of it is salt water, it still is the primary source of moisture in the atmosphere through evaporation. Much of the freshwater rainfall actually comes from the oceans. We are so incredibly far from locking up a significant amount of water, that it isn't even funny.
Moreover, many of our other actions will have a much greater impact on global climate than our water management. The continued clearing of rainforests and gradual accumulation of greenhouse gasses will probably affect our climate more than anything else we do.
Personally, I would be more worried about the rapid melting of our polar ice caps. As the cold, dense water runs into the ocean, it disrupts the natural convective heat currents which is responsible for much of our weather. If it progresses enough to halt the gulf stream (which is a possibility), the earth may be looking at another ice age. It may or may not happen in my lifetime, and it may or may not be part of a larger natural cycle, but it is looking to happen eventually.
That oughta cheer you up
LF
DrPizza
Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Found it! Ice on Mars
matt426malm who seems to be up on the subject posted that in OT along with a lot of other cool info that has regained my interest in mars.
Evadman
Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
- Feb 18, 2001
- 30,990
- 5
- 81
Most of the dams in the world are in the northern hemisphere. Believe it or not, we (as humans) have changed the center of mass of the planet by holding back all that water. Not by much mind you, but I remember an article in scientific american on the issue. Unfortunately, I tossed all my old issues a while ago, so I can not go check. But it should be possible to find on their web page.
Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 20
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Little gravity on comets - true, however, the water that they hold is frozen, though some of it does vaporize when the comet gets closer to the sun. That produces the "tail" that we can see.
And yes, we do know that there is water on other planets. This can be determined from Earth-based telescopes (not using visible light spectrums), as well as probes. Europa (a large moon of Jupiter) contains water, mainly frozen, and possibly liquid beneath the crust of ice. Mars has ice caps. Pluto's moon Charon is supposed to be made of water; Neptune's moon Triton has "volcanoes" of water. And there is water in the atmospheres of the gas giants themselves.
Why does Earth have so much? I'd say because of its distance from the sun. Water can exist very freely as a liquid or here, which allows it to interact very well with other substances.
And how can water be produced? Burn hydrogen, and you get some water. And there's no shortage of hydrogen anywhere in the Universe.
Clouds on Mars? Yes, but they're mainly dust coulds during the huge dust storms that happen sometimes. The atmosphere there is mostly carbon dioxide, and it's very thin.
hey, how about catalytic converters converting pollution to water as a by-product, over theoretically a million years, would this create flooding? I guess a stupid question....but does anyone know?
I think it would take a lot longer then a million years to make a difference, probably several billion...
Plus I don't think that's what the by product of catalytic converters. Water vapor is produced as a natural by product of the combustion chamber.
Anyways less then .5% of the total water on earth is aviable to us at usable fresh water.
And out of that tiny percent comes another tiny percent of what we actually use and another tiny percent of that is what we keep inside our bodies and containers.
As humans our perceptions of the world are realy messed up. For instance I live close to one of the largest rivers in the world. The Mississippi river, and as far as rivers go it is pretty gigantic. Over a mile wide in the lower states, and in it's natural meandering (and very destructive) form it would get up to 2-3 or so miles in width.
And that's just the run off. A tiny part of the river is actually what you see as the "river" part. The part you can drown in. That's just the tip of the iceburg and the vast majority of it is underground; extending 20 miles or so in either direction, easy. The flowing water you see is just the runoff.
We all are very very tiny. It takes billions of us to just begin to make a noticable impact on the world, and that impact is dwarfed by the natural forces surrounding us.
We can easily scum up the small layer of this earth that we exist on and around, but that doesn't compare against the absolute massiveness of everything around us.
For instance the one explosion of Mt Saint Helens a few years back spewed out more dangerous chemicals and greenhouse gasses (It varies to the type of gass/chemical of course) then the entire human race has since before the industrial revolution. And that volcanic explotion is again tiny in size to some we've seen in the historical record.
So even if we made a unified effort to bottle water or store it in gigantic containers it would be years and years of work until you could positively measure the difference in the climate by even hundreds of a percent. And that would be again dwarfed by the natural variations in the heat/radiation output by our sun and our naturally varying climate.
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