DOES CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT WATER RESOURCES?
Water. Water is the basis for life on earth. It hydrates our agricultural resources, powers our hydroelectric power stations and is essential for human hydration, sanitation, and all around survival. So it’s lucky that on earth, 70.8% of the surface is covered with water, however 97% of that water is high salinity seawater. The remainder is fresh water, but in that sliver of fresh water, only 25% is fluid water with 75% locked in polar ice caps in the arctic and Antarctica. Even though we can’t reach them, we’re contributing to the greenhouse effect (which effectively melts the caps and raises the sea level). But the freshwater we do have access to is usually locked away in groundwater reserves (or aquifers) or in an expansive lake/fast flowing river. But as we perform our daily activities, we add to climate change and in the last century, humans have caused the earth’s temperature to rise by 1˚C by releasing tonnes and tonnes of CO2 into our atmosphere. As we use up our water resources and contribute to climate change, we might start seeing water become either become a rare commodity, or an enemy to be hated as it can not only cause droughts and consequently, famines, but it can also have a positive effect. It can create larger rivers and lakes due to increased snow runoff, but this has a negative side-effect in its own right. The increased flows from rivers and runoff can create raging floods that can tear towns apart and leave thousands stranded on rooftops waiting for a helicopter or boat to pick them up. Here are a few perspectives on how climate change can not only create droughts and dust storms, but floods and erosion as well, and the sobering thought that all of this i...
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...t our immediate area will not be adversely affected by a lack of clean, usable water. I think we can safely say that it is not foreseeable that we will be in a position like Africa, California or even central Otago.
Conclusion
During this research I found out that climate change is actually having some positive effects on water resources, at least in some locations. For example, the increased snow runoff will increase, lengthening the Taieri and providing water for all of the valley, and the wastewater systems could potentially provide clean water for all of Dunedin for years to come. No one knows for certain what effects our changing climate will have on our immediate environment. One thing is certain, however, and that is that we all need to conserve the precious supplies that we have available to us, and ensure that they remain clean for future generations.
For years to come there will always be a speculation on whether the climate change has really taken place or not. Many believe that large companies launched this topic in order to benefit from it in profit, as there are also those who are convinced that this are consequences that have emerged from human mistakes in understanding the environment. As humans are struggling to trust one another whether it is just a big conspiracy or not or environment changing itself, we are slowly starting to feel the effects of climate change. Because of the gasses (CO2) that are in the air, atmosphere is getting warmer, thereby triggering the Greenhouse effect. Almost 70% of emitted gasses in air are CO2, which leads us to believe that this is the main cause of Global Warming. Since it is billions and billions of metric tons per year that are being released in air, many scientists conclude that temperature will most likely be more higher in twenty years from now, than it was in near past.
Water is the dominating force of life; it has etched, carved and determined the fate of humanity itself since the beginning of time. All living organisms are reliant on water; forced to migrate or adapt at a turn of events as simple as a drought. Despite pipes, wells and most other man made engineering, even humans still spend their days chasing clouds. So for once on this planet there are no arguments, no debates, as to the fact that we need water to survive. We even depend on the undrinkable oceans coating the earth; that act as a shelter for tens of thousands of ecosystems, food chains, and organisms. Some of which have achieved such a precarious balance, that the loss of any creature in a food web may lead to the downfall of the planet itself. “We are already well into a new geological era… where human interference is the dominant factor in nearly every planetary ecosystem, to the detriment of perhaps all of them” (Lynas, 49). So why exactly are humans shifting such an important balance for the sake of excess? We’re tipping the scale; and might not be able to tell when the water starts to burn. Ocean acidification is a process that disrupts some of the most important biological functions and processes that all living organisms are dependent on.
Although the United States is secure for now in our water sources, there could be trouble in our distant future. The USGS water science school website states, that as of 2013 Rhode Island has the most water out of all of the states in the US with 17% of the state being made up of water. New Mexico has the least water at 0.2%. Due to the geographical position of the US, this is a historical pattern in America; the Western half in general has less water than the Eastern half. Places like New Mexico, California, Nevada, and the western part of Texas have had to enforce strict water conservation and cut back drastically on their uses of water. These acts have been essential in order to ensure they have enough water for simple necessities. The sources of these trials in the west are largely contributed to two factors, climate change and fracking. Clim...
Introduction: Drought affects our lives in many different ways because water is such an important part of so many of our activities. We need water to live, and animals and plants do too. We need water to grow the food we eat. We also use water for many different things in our lives, like washing dishes, cooking, bathing, and swimming or river rafting, so water is very important for us to survive.
High carbon monoxide, ocean heating, glacial melt, acid rain, ocean acidification, and coral bleaching are just a small number of the adverse effects that we as humans are having on the planet. The earth’s waters are an excellent source to find out the adverse effects of climate change. The surface of the earth is covered in more water than land and knowing how our waters are affected is a key element to understanding the true dangers of climate change.
If this carries on at the current rate, Australia will not have a sustainable water supply. On a global perspective, according to the researchers from institutions such as ‘Vermont Law School’ if people keep using water as much as they are there will not be enough water to sustain the world in
It covers 70% of our planet, makes up 75% of our body, it is necessary for survival and it is declining at a rapid rate (http://www.sscwd.org). It is water. Unfortunately, clean water is rare, almost 1 billion people in developing countries do not have access to water everyday. “Yet, we take it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic bottles” (The Water Project). Use of earth’s natural resources should be seen as prosperity, although it is taken for granted, every aspect of daily life revolves around the environment, forcing water conservation to be necessary for future on this planet. Many people grab a water bottle to go as they head to life as normal, others in developing countries spend their lives searching for water that is rarely found. Even if they do obtain water, it is seldom clean and usually comes with the risk of disease. As more developed countries pay a dollar or so for a bottle of water, others in less fortunate places worship water as if it is gold.
There are a variety problems in the world, ranging from starvation and mental illnesses to taxes and military spending. Climate change, a change in global or regional climate patterns, is just one of the major troubles of the Earth. A portion of those patterns includes the weather, ocean, ice/snow, as well as ecosystem patterns. Climate change provides several damaging effects on society and the earth itself including droughts, loss of vegetation, and an increase in natural disasters. Although it is not realized by many, climate change affects all aspects of human life. If no action is taken to fix or at least help this issue, it will diminish the human population, eventually leading to extinction. In order to reduce the negative impacts of
It includes the water found in lakes, reservoirs, and groundwater that is shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. These freshwater sources are the only sources that are frequently replenished by rain and snowfall, and therefore are renewable. At the current rates of consumption, however, this supply of fresh water will not last. Pollution and contamination of freshwater sources exacerbate the problem, further reducing the amount of freshwater available for human consumption. Something must be done if humans want to even survive in the near future: the lack of clean drinking water is already the number one cause of disease in the world today.
Water is on of the most precious natural resources that exist on our planet. “It is delivered from the atmosphere in the form of rain, snow, hail, fog, and condensation and returns to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration” (Hannigan 1969). Although many of us love activities that have to do with water, we disregard it and pollute out rivers, lakes and oceans. Slowly but surely we are going to harm out planet till no return. Protecting and conserving nature will secure a better future. 71% of earth is covered with oceans. Sounds like a lot right? Imagine ...
People don’t appreciated the many advantages that comes with having clean potable water to use, taking it for granted. A lot of clean useful water is wasted by humans all the time that people don’t care about saving water because they have easy access to it. Clean and safe drinkable water resources are getting scarce as the population grows. The world is facing many problems, but the most important needed to survive, is water. Water is getting low in many countries, therefore habitants are suffering the misfortune of not having the reliable source of clean water. Today many countries are having water shortages; meaning rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater are not enough to rely on for supplying water demands. For example, California is facing a drastic water shortage, the natural water resources are not enough to fulfill their water demands. Water shortage affects the agricultural sector, so as a consequence the price for production
70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well as not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human-caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to a UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades. One of the main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide.
Water is our main source of our life. We need it to live, drink, bathe,
Water is the most important resource on our planet. The causes of not protecting will be very dire because, water like most things on this planet isn’t endless. We must conserve the drops of precious water we have and protect it, because at the end of the day we can’t afford not to protect it.
Freshwater in the world makes up only a small portion of water on the planet. While the percentage of water in the world is nearly 70%, only 2.5% is consumable. Even further, only <1% is easily accessible to basic human needs. According to National Geographic, “by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.” With this current trend, water will become more immersed in environmental, economic, political, and social changes. Many of these in later years shall need to be addressed as tension rises: