Enough water to go around?

sumsung submitted, created time 9 months 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

If our planet were perfectly flat and its water covered all the surface, it would create a layer 2.7 kilometers deep. While this seems like a lot, less than 3% of that is freshwater. Of that, nearly 70% is in ice caps, glaciers, and permanent snow, and 30% sits in ground water. Rivers, lakes, and clouds carry less than 1% of the world's freshwater.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: ice snow ground water economics ecology climate fresh water water

Microbes make snow

"Rain-making" bacteria found around the world

Greenhouse effect has "significantly dried" the western United States

sumsung submitted, created time 11 months 6 days (www.nature.com)

Human activity is largely to blame for the worsening water shortages in the western United States over the past half-century, a new study shows. The analysis of climate trends that influence the availability of freshwater shows that humans are responsible for 60% of the observed changes.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: rainfall snow agriculture water precipitation climate change greenhouse effect