The theme of the end of the world is a favorite not only among science fiction writers, but also among scientists. Nuclear weapon, a volcanic eruption, a huge meteorite - there are many scenarios for the termination of life on Earth, but we decided to talk about one more.
What will happen to the planet if water disappears? And now we are not talking about people who will die out very quickly without having time to adapt to new conditions, but about the whole Earth and nature.
Can anything survive in such conditions tried to understand the biologist Dosty Schell.
Suppose suddenly the oceans, rivers and seas disappear. All life in them will perish within a few hours, and the continents will suddenly grow over the dry pools that have appeared. In some places, the height difference will reach 3.8 kilometers.
Do not forget about the Arctic, which will disappear, and in its place will appear numerous cracks, free from the ice blanket. Instead of an icy desert, there will be a real desert with barren land, mountains and frightening canyons.
There will be no more clouds familiar to us, rains, snow and thunderstorms will disappear, but the planet will be at the mercy of sandstorms.
In the end, all vegetation will die out, but people will no longer see it.
Do not forget that the main storage of carbon is the ocean, when it disappears the Earth will be in a heat trap, and the rate of global warming will not be 1 degree per year, but at least 36.
In support of this theory, Dr. Dosty Schell cites the example of Venus, whose geological features similar to earth. Once upon a time, this planet also had water, but it was not enough to cope with the high amount of carbon dioxide. As a result, the planet turned out to be too hot, and the water evaporated. Now its surface temperature reaches 462 degrees Celsius.
Without water, the Earth is waiting for the same to take into account. At the same time, one should not lose sight of the death of vegetation, which means no photosynthesis and processing of carbon dioxide.
And now the worst thing: water is contained not only on the surface of the planet, but also inside. It's the water that allows you to drift tectonic plates, it is from water that 84 percent consists of the mantle of the Earth. This means that when the oceans disappear, the earth will turn into a brown world with an absurd high mountains and a single continent.
At the same time, scientists are sure. that even in such conditions life can remain. For example, microbes that do not depend on water have every chance. Many types of microorganisms have already proven their ability to survive in high temperatures, high acidity, with a minimum of oxygen, not paying attention to the lack of sunlight.
The conclusion is obvious, humanity could not survive with the disappearance of water, the planet would turn into a desert, but it still had a chance to save life.
Water is the source of life on earth. But most often the question arises about the purity of water and its shortage. In the territories of many countries, there is a catastrophic lack of water, some peoples generally use poor-quality water, which entails the development of many diseases that lead to death.
It is difficult to say whether today there are countries and territories where the water is not polluted and does not contain harmful impurities. We constantly hear that there is practically no clean water left on Earth, and if there are such places, then people do not live there.
This is due to the fact that water sources people themselves pollute, as industrial, agricultural, and municipal enterprises dump waste from their activities into water bodies. In addition to the fact that these effluents pollute the water with various harmful substances, from which oil, phenol, detergents are released. active substances, pesticides and other complex chemical compounds, carriers of dangerous infectious diseases and this can lead to disastrous consequences.
Many years ago, the governments of many states faced the issue of protecting water from pollution, because if nothing is done soon, there will be no drinking water at all, and people will die. To this end, environmental requirements for industries aimed at protecting water resources from pollution began to be developed. But the fact remains: many in pursuit of material gain they are not able and do not want to understand that without clean drinking water they and the planet Earth itself have no future. And what is even worse, there are territories where there is no clean water at all, people have nothing to drink, water is either imported there, or they have to use it. high tech for its cleaning, which requires large material costs, which many simply cannot afford. The question arises why pollute water and create many problems for yourself, if it is easier to protect your life and the life of your descendants by introducing new environmentally friendly technologies into production, albeit not cheap ones. this moment, but they are equivalent healthy life Not only today's people but also for future generations.
The problem of clean water is also associated with the ever-increasing volumes of its consumption, as there is an increase in the number of inhabitants of the planet and the volume of economic activity person. Rivers and lakes serve as the main supplier of water, and their water content may decrease as a result of deforestation, plowing of meadows, and drainage of floodplain swamps. All this leads to a decrease in ground water, which are the main source of food for rivers and lakes.
The lack of clean fresh water is a problem that worries a third of the inhabitants of the entire planet, since most of the reserves of such water are located where people do not live. It seems that nature protects the water, hiding it from people who do not protect it. This is indeed the case: in Everyday life many, opening a tap, can pour out as much water as they want, without even thinking that other inhabitants of the planet do not have enough of it. Others do not close the taps well, from where such precious water also flows aimlessly. If everyone thought how many liters fresh water spent thoughtlessly, it was possible to save it, and solve many complex problems.
Modern inhabitants of the planet should think about fresh water purification, about developing ways to protect fresh water from pollution by waste from any type of production and life. If this is not done, the question arises future fate of our planet, because, as you know, life and health depend on what kind of water to drink. The main thing is that tap water, which also cannot be called high-quality, even when it is passed through a filter, it cannot be completely cleared, for example, of impurities heavy metals, because this requires more stringent measures than a conventional household filter.
Oil production has no less impact on fresh water pollution, especially if some accidents occur that cause irreparable damage and water resources and ecology in general. But it is also dangerous that other harmful substances and compounds can dissolve in oil, which then enter the waters of the World Ocean, and hence the water that people use.
Today, only a small number of organizations are engaged in solving the problems of preserving and increasing the supply of clean water on a global scale. But one of the main tasks they consider to be the fight against the reduction of harmful runoff into rivers and lakes, as well as work aimed at developing systems for desalination of salt water from the seas and oceans, which would solve this problem. main problem providing the population the globe clean water. Although, so far, desalination of salt water is a very complicated process both in terms of material costs and in terms of energy, and few people can afford such an expensive pleasure.
But the hope that the people of the whole Earth will begin to think about the preservation of clean water reserves remains.
And now we want to remind you that the easiest way to get tasty and clean water at home is with the help of
Fresh water is no more than 2.5-3% of the total water reserve Earth. Most of its mass is frozen in the glaciers and snow cover of Antarctica and Greenland. Another part is numerous fresh water bodies: rivers and lakes. A third of the fresh water reserves are concentrated in underground reservoirs, deeper and closer to the surface.
At the beginning of the new millennium, scientists started talking seriously about the shortage of drinking water in many countries of the world. Every inhabitant of the Earth should spend from 20 to 50 liters of water per day for food and personal hygiene. However, there are countries in which drinking water is not enough even to sustain life. The people of Africa are experiencing an acute shortage of water.
Reason one: an increase in the population of the Earth and the development of new territories
According to the UN in 2011, the world's population has grown to 7 billion people. The number of people will reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Population growth is accompanied by the development of industry and agriculture.
Enterprises use fresh water for all production needs, while returning to nature water that is often no longer suitable for drinking. It ends up in rivers and lakes. The level of their pollution in recent times became critical for the ecology of the planet.
The development of agriculture in Asia, India and China has depleted the largest rivers in these regions. The development of new lands leads to the shallowing of water bodies and forces people to develop underground wells and deep-water horizons.
Reason two: irrational use of fresh water sources
Most natural fresh water sources are replenished naturally. Moisture enters rivers and lakes with atmospheric precipitation, some of which goes into underground reservoirs. Deep-water horizons are irreplaceable reserves.
The barbaric use of clean fresh water by man deprives rivers and lakes of the future. Rains do not have time to fill shallow reservoirs, and water is often wasted.
Some of the water used goes underground through leaks in city water networks. When opening a faucet in the kitchen or in the shower, people rarely think about how much water is wasted in vain. The habit of saving resources has not yet become relevant for most of the inhabitants of the Earth.
Getting water from deep wells can also become big mistake, depriving future generations of the main reserves of fresh natural water, and irreparably disrupt the ecology of the planet.
Modern scientists see a way out in saving water resources, tightening control over waste processing and desalination of sea salt water. If humanity now thinks and takes action in time, our planet will forever remain an excellent source of moisture for all kinds of life existing on it.
Water on Earth
It is well known that no living organism on our planet can live without water. In one of his physical states Water is present in almost every corner of the Earth. A huge impact it also had an effect on the history of the planet - only thanks to it did the Earth take on its current appearance with oceans, plants, living beings.
General stock water on the planet today is about 1.4 billion m³. For each person, this accounts for about 200 million m³. At first glance, this great amount. However, one must take into account the fact that 96.5% of the reserves are salt waters of the World Ocean, which are unsuitable for consumption, and another 1% are groundwater. Thus, fresh water reserves are only 2.5% of total water on earth. At the same time, almost all the water that humanity consumes today is taken from lakes, rivers and underground sources, while the main reserves are in glaciers and deep aquifers.
catastrophic statistics
The UN publishes a report every three years that presents the most exact description current state world freshwater resources. Latest research was published in 2012 - and its results are disappointing.
On 12 March in Marseille, United Nations experts announced that the planet is today on the verge of water disaster. An acute shortage of drinking water on Earth is experienced by every 10th - and this is about 780 million people. Of these, 40% are residents of Africa: countries located south of the Sahara. And, according to forecasts, this figure will only worsen every year.
Even more depressing data is provided by the French charitable society Solidarites International: at present, out of 7 billion inhabitants of the Earth, more than 1.9 billion people need access to clean water.
It is also necessary to take into account the fact that as the world's population grows, not only the need for drinking water will increase, but also for food products, the production of which is impossible without fresh water. According to the UN forecast, by 2050, humanity will need 70% more water and 20% more food.
A huge burden will fall on groundwater: according to experts, within 50 years, the flow will increase by 3 times. UN scientists predict that by 2050 the world's population will reach 9 billion people. Today, each person drinks 2 to 4 liters of water per day, but most of the reserves are spent on food production. For example, to get 1 kg of beef or 1 kg of wheat, you need 15 thousand liters.
According to representatives of the organization, the problem of lack of water resources has become so urgent today that it requires an immediate rethinking of approaches to its solution. Water has great value to save natural environment and reducing poverty and hunger. Without it, it will be impossible to talk about the health and well-being of the world's population.
Main risks
Significantly complicating the problem of fresh water scarcity are factors such as high rates an increase in the human population, climate change, including global warming, pollution of water resources.
Many states today are at the limit of the use of water resources. The depletion and deterioration of water quality is due to the rapid growth of the population, the irrational use of resources. In many countries there is a serious social tension caused by the lack of water resources between peasants, townspeople and industry. This forces the UN experts to talk about the transition of the problem from the environmental to the political sphere.
In developing countries, unequal access to services that require the use of water still remains commonplace. States are not secured clean water for food consumption and production. If nothing is done, then by 2030 almost 5 billion people, i.e. 67% of humanity will not be provided with clean water. According to the presented report, if in 2000 the water shortage was estimated at 230 billion m³ per year, then by 2025 it will increase to 2 trillion m³ per year.
By 2030, 47% of the world's population will live under the threat of water scarcity. In Africa, up to 250 million people will find themselves in a similar situation by 2020 due to climate change. It is expected that water shortage will cause active migration, which will affect up to 700 million people living in desert and semi-desert regions.
According to the United Nations, almost 80% of the diseases that affect 3 million people in developing countries every year are caused by bad quality water. 5,000 children die from diarrhea every day. By improving water supply and water treatment methods, 10% of all diseases in the world can be avoided.
According to the World Resources Institute, the most disadvantaged countries in the world in terms of water supply are 13 states, of which 4 were part of the USSR - Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova.
According to UN experts, by 2025 Russia, the Scandinavian countries, South America and Canada will be the regions that are best provided with fresh water - more than 20 m³ per year per inhabitant. In terms of the volume of fresh water, Russia occupies a leading position in Europe.
New leverage for Russia
Water may soon become a strategic resource. Scientists are seriously talking about the possibility of water wars and armed conflicts. There are about 215 in total on Earth. major rivers and more than 300 groundwater basins controlled by several countries at once.
Per Last year over 20 million people were forced to leave their homes due to lack of water. Its acute shortage is experienced by the countries - the southern neighbors of Russia. If measures are not taken, in half a century humanity will face a difficult choice: what is more important - food or water. The only consolation is the fact that the main reserves of fresh water on Earth are located in Russia and Brazil.
According to Russian specialists, our country has a good chance of getting a new sphere of influence. Just think: at current water prices, the economic potential of the country's hydro resources is estimated at more than $800 billion a year.
“In the post-oil period, it is water-intensive technologies that can become the basis of the Russian economy. The country's hydro resources exceed 97,000 m³, which in monetary terms is $800 billion a year, says the director of the Institute water problems V. Danilov-Danilyan. “Russia has a great chance to jump from the “oil” period to the “water” one, having significantly strengthened its economic positions,” the expert notes.
The reports of scientists say that in the near future, not water itself, but water-intensive products will be of particular value on the world market. “Rising prices for water-intensive goods are inevitable as water scarcity increases. It is very difficult to win a war for water - therefore, it is very likely that competition will move into the field of grain production, ”says an academician of the Russian Ecological Academy and a presenter Researcher Institute system analysis RAS R. Flight. He also notes that the countries that win this competition will be stronger financially than militarily.
The annual volume of "virtual" water - i.e. the one invested in goods is about 1.6 thousand m³. About 80% of this volume is accounted for by agricultural goods, the remaining 20% - by industrial goods.
“Agriculture remains the largest consumer of water in the world. About 70% of all water from and groundwater is spent on irrigation of agricultural land. Another 20% goes to the needs of the industry and only 10% is spent on domestic purposes,” says A. Konovalov, founder of the Ecocluster association. In his opinion, if Russia rationally develops organic agriculture, which will not litter the soil and groundwater with chemicals, as well as introduce environmental technologies, then the country may soon become the largest exporter of water-intensive products.
Rinat Perelet also says that today the trade in aquiferous agricultural lands has begun to develop at a rapid pace. The expert points out that they buy not so much land for food needs, but the water associated with them. Since 2006, more than 15 million hectares of agricultural land in developing countries have been targeted by foreign investors. The amounts of transactions are astronomical - we are talking about 30 billion dollars.
Although Russia is definitely one of the leaders in terms of water resources, there are many problems associated with water supply in the country. One of the difficulties is the fact that resources are unevenly distributed throughout the country. Most of population and industrial enterprises are located in the European part of Russia, while the rivers are predominantly located in Siberia. As a result, only 3 thousand rivers out of 3 million are actively used. This creates a huge load on the rivers located in the European part of the country.
In the next 10 years, Russia will bypass the water crises that UN experts promise to the world community. However, this should not be a cause for rejoicing. Measures must be taken immediately to introduce technologies everywhere that prevent pollution of water resources and make their renewal possible.
The Middle East is on fire.
And what will happen when there is no water... Conflicts have engulfed the entire region. Social and economic problems brought the people to the streets. This important topic was devoted to an article in the British newspaper "The Observer" by the famous columnist J. Vidal. Here is the main point of the article. Among the reasons that led to the aggravation of the situation in North Africa and the Middle East, there is undoubtedly one very serious one - the lack of water resources. At the moment, it seems to have faded into the background, but still it is impossible to dismiss it, because it is connected with the problem of food.
Rising food prices in Arab world is a good reminder that, without solving the water problem, it will be difficult to count on a rise in agricultural production. The Arab countries are located in a very arid region of the world. There are few rivers here, and the demand for water increases as the population grows. Moreover, water resources are being depleted. As a result, almost all Arab countries are dependent on imported food, the prices of which are now at record levels. What could this mean for a region where the population will double in 40 years and could reach 600 million people, especially in the face of climate change and the availability of fundamental problems, they say various studies, including UN research, the newspaper notes. Demonstrations and uprisings three times within five years of a significant rise in food prices may give a glimpse of what can happen if a more equitable distribution of natural resources is not attempted and if water and oil policies are not changed.
In this regard, the appearance of the report prepared for the EU countries "Blue Peace" (The Blue Peace report), which was presented in Switzerland, is noted. The report was written by the so-called Strategic Foresight Group. At the presentation, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey noted that in the future the main geopolitical resource of the Middle East will be water rather than oil.
Unless there is a major technological breakthrough or some miraculous discovery, the entire Middle East will not escape acute shortage water. The authoritarian rulers of oil-rich countries have kept their peoples all these years by controlling natural resources and virtually kept the unrest at bay thanks to massive subsidies for "virtual" water in the form of basic food imports. But, this state of affairs may collapse as food prices soar and demand for water and energy increases. So far, the problem of water itself has had relatively little impact on the current turmoil. But when subsidies stopped, there was often a period of instability. It already happened. In the future, water shortages will be felt more severely, and so what rulers are doing now may not be enough. Arabs depend on food imports. Therefore, floods in Australia or frosts in Canada are of the same importance for them as the harvest, say, in Egypt or Algeria. The value of Arab food imports in 2008/2009 was $30 billion. Rising prices have exacerbated the plight of millions of unemployed and poor people. The paradox of the Arab economy is that it depends on the price of oil, and the price of oil pulls up the price of food.
One of the poorest Arab countries, Yemen, is the most vulnerable in terms of water and food availability. There is less than 200 m3 of water per person per year. Meanwhile international level"water poverty" - 1 thousand m3 per person. Yemen is forced to import 80 - 90% of food. The government is even considering moving the capital from Sana'a, with a population of 2 million, as the city will run out of water for six years. 19 out of 21 underground water reservoirs are no longer replenished. The country is torn apart by two internal conflict. Water scarcity is one of the aggravating factors.
In others Arab countries the situation is no better. In Jordan, water demand should double within 20 years. There is already a shortage due to population growth and a dispute over water with Israel. The World Bank estimates that within 30 years the availability of water per person in this country will fall from the current 200 m3 to 91 m3. Algeria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Iraq and Iran are experiencing water shortages. There is an excess only in Turkey, but she does not want to share it with anyone. Abu Dhabi will pump out its underground relict water reserves within 40 years. Libya has spent $20 billion drilling wells in the desert to exploit prehistoric deep aquifers. But at the same time, no one knows how long that water will last. In Saudi Arabia, water demand will increase by 500% in 25 years, and then double in 20 years. The fact is that the need for energy is growing by 10% per year. At the same time, the water level in the region as a whole is falling. Since the 1960s in the Dead Sea - about 30 meters. Swamps in Iraq have shrunk by 90%, and the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) may turn salty. Due to intensive irrigation, agricultural land becomes unusable, because water stagnates and salinization occurs. The oil-rich countries are trying to do something. Because they've already drained underground springs fresh water, massively began to build desalination plants sea water. There are already 1.5 thousand of them. Two thirds of sea water desalination in the world is carried out at these enterprises. It turned out, however, that this was not an easy decision. The water is either evaporated and passed through a separator or passed through filters. All this is very costly in terms of energy consumption. True, in some places the energy of the sun is used for this, but the most important thing is that the extracted salt is dumped back into the sea. That's the problem. Only now are they beginning to comprehend the reverse side of the desalination process. The salinity of the seas is rising and this is killing marine life. In the 70s–80s. almost 20% of Saudi Arabia's financial resources were spent on the creation of wheat fields, parks, lawns, golf courses. And how much energy and water have to be spent on cooling buildings in the Gulf countries! They are beginning to think about this, they have already begun to create fewer lawns. Instead, the areas around the buildings are poured with concrete. They begin to save water everywhere, even in mosques. For this, special equipment is installed that saves water. Saudi Arabia reduces wheat production at home and begins to acquire land abroad. The UAE is building an underground storage facility for desalinated water. At the end of the stock there will be for three months. Water scarcity is recognized by everyone in the Arab world, and this provides an opportunity, because the best way avoid conflicts - negotiate. Sounds encouraging, the newspaper concludes, but the wind of change in the region suggests that anything is possible there.
According to the United Nations, rising freshwater consumption, driven by population growth and migration, as well as the effects of climate change, is leading to growing water scarcity.
Every three years World program The United Nations Water Resources Assessment (WWAP) publishes the UN World Report, the most comprehensive assessment of the state of the world's freshwater resources.
The latest report was made public at the Fifth World Water Forum held in Istanbul in 2009. This is the result joint work 26 different UN entities united under the UN Decade "Water for Life" (2005-2015).
The report highlights that many countries have already reached the limits of their water use: freshwater consumption has tripled in the last half century. Wide areas of the developing world continue to have unequal access to safe drinking water, water treatment for production food products and wastewater treatment. If nothing is done, then almost five billion people, about 67% of the world's population, will be left without clean water by 2030.
In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 340 million people lack access to safe drinking water. In settlements where half a billion Africans live, there are no normal sewage treatment plants. Nearly 80% of diseases in developing countries are caused by poor water quality. They claim the lives of three million people a year. Every day, five thousand children die from "diseases of unwashed hands" - one child every 17 seconds! 10% of the world's diseases can be avoided through improved water supply, water treatment, hygiene and effective management water resources.
Now the population of the Earth is 6.6 billion people, the annual increase is 80 million. Every year we need 64 million cubic meters more water. By 2050, almost ten billion people will live on Earth, and population growth will occur mainly in developing countries where there is not enough water.
In 2030, half of the world's population will live under the threat of water scarcity. In Africa alone, by 2020 climate change will put between 75 and 250 million people in this situation. The lack of water in desert and semi-desert regions will cause intensive migration of the population. According to experts, from 24 to 700 million people will be forced to change their place of residence. In 2000, the world's water deficit was estimated at 230 billion cubic meters per year. And by 2025, we will lack water ten times more: up to two trillion cubic meters a year.
According to the UN, by 2025 Russia, together with Scandinavia, South America and Canada will remain the richest regions fresh water. In these countries, each person accounts for more than 20 thousand cubic meters per year. The region is the most provided with water resources Latin America, which accounts for a third of the world's runoff, followed by Asia with its quarter of the world's runoff. Then come the developed European countries(20%), sub-Saharan Africa and former Soviet Union, they account for 10%. The most limited water resources of the countries of the Middle East and North America(by 1%).
And the least water in terms of per capita, according to the World Resources Institute, falls on 13 states, including 4 republics of the former USSR:
Egypt - 30 cubic meters per person per year
Israel - 150 cubic meters per person per year
Turkmenistan - 206 cubic meters per person per year
Moldova - 236 cubic meters per person per year
Pakistan - 350 cubic meters per person per year
Algeria - 440 cubic meters per year per person
Hungary - 594 cubic meters per person per year
Uzbekistan - 625 cubic meters per person per year
Netherlands - 676 cubic meters per year per person
Bangladesh - 761 cubic meters per year per person
Morocco - 963 cubic meters per year per person
Azerbaijan - 972 cubic meters per person per year
South Africa - 982 cubic meters per year per person
The total volume of water on Earth is about one and a half billion cubic kilometers, of which only 2.5% is fresh water. Most of its reserves are concentrated in the multi-year ice of Antarctica and Greenland, as well as deep underground.
Almost all the water we drink comes from lakes, rivers and shallow underground sources. Of these reserves, only about 200 thousand cubic kilometers can be used - less than a percent of all fresh water reserves or 0.01% of all water on Earth. A significant proportion of them are located far from densely populated regions.
The renewal of fresh water supplies depends on evaporation from the surface of the oceans. Every year, the oceans evaporate about half a million cubic kilometers of water. This layer is one and a half meters thick. Another 72,000 cubic kilometers of water evaporate from the land surface. 79% of precipitation falls over the seas and oceans, another 2% over lakes, and only 19% of rain falls on land. A little more than two thousand cubic kilometers of water per year penetrates into underground sources. About two-thirds of all precipitation is returned to the atmosphere.
While the deposits of "black gold" will last another hundred years, drinking water may end much earlier - by 2030. Scientists come to such a disappointing conclusion every time they sit down to calculate.
The problem is not the amount of water resources - in this respect, the Earth has an enormous reserve at both poles. However, glacial water remains only a theoretical reserve, which has yet to be learned how to extract and transport in the future. Now many regions of the world are experiencing environmental and humanitarian catastrophe due to lack of drinking water.
As of 2006, only 42 percent of the world's population has access to clean water. AT next year this number will be reduced by another two percent. Every eight seconds, one child dies from diseases related to the quality and quantity of water. Such data were announced by representatives of UNEP - the United Nations program for environment. Senior UN officials seriously fear that the lack of fresh drinking water could lead to a violent struggle for it.
Fresh water makes up only 2.5% of the total water on the planet. However, this amount should be enough to meet all the needs of earthlings for the next 25 thousand years. The problem is that almost 70% of this reserve is concentrated in the ice of the Arctic and Antarctic. For comparison, we can say that traditional sources of water supply - rivers, lakes and artesian wells - contain only 0.26% of the world's fresh water.
Currently, scientists are looking for ways to desalinate and transport polar ice. Greatest Success achieved in this direction scientists of the Department Glaciology Institute of Geography RAS. They developed a technique to actually squeeze fresh ice out of icebergs and demonstrated its use in practice. If the proposed technology finds application in the industry, then in one day it is possible to produce fresh water in an amount sufficient to cover the needs of the entire Earth for a week.
Scientists are confident that desalinated water delivery systems in different regions the world can be built very easily. They refer to the fact that humanity already has experience in transporting another liquid substance– oil, which means that the use of pipelines and tankers can be applied in water production.
Serious concerns about the possibility of implementing this plan are expressed by environmentalists. According to the forecasts of the most radical experts in this field, by the end of this century, the average annual temperature on the planet will rise by 3 degrees Celsius. This will lead to an increase in the rate of ice melting, as a result of which the glaciers in the Alps will disappear, and the polar caps will decrease several times.
In accordance with modern scientific theories, process global warming precedes the new ice age and weakly related to human economic activity. It turns out that the problem of drinking water would face the population of the Earth with any development of scientific and technological progress.
To the question What can happen if there is no clean water left on Earth? (if possible, give a full answer) asked by the author Neurosis the best answer is Being left without water is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a person and to humanity as a whole. Our ideas about water as a renewable resource have already been revised today! Pollution of water bodies, deforestation along river banks, drainage of swamps - all this upsets the delicate balance, breaks the fragile natural mechanism that renews and returns lost water to the river. Some scientists believe that all the deserts of the world arose as a result of human activity, and even 5-7 thousand years ago, in the Neolithic, the Sahara Desert was a green savanna, in the expanses of which our ancestors hunted and then grazed huge herds here.
But we also know more recent examples of the disappearance of rivers, lakes, and springs. And if earlier people could move to a new place, to a clean spring, today it is no longer possible to move a populous industrial metropolis anywhere. It's time to seriously think about how to save every body of water, every drop of clean water! Why so much attention to water? because more expensive than water there is nothing in the world! If the reserves of coal, gas or oil run out, mankind, having made an effort, will find a replacement for them: energy and heat can be provided by the Sun, and wind, and even sea tides. And without water there will be no life on Earth! As the Russian hydrologist N. N. Gorsky said: “Humanity is not threatened by a lack of water. He is in danger of something worse - a lack of CLEAN water. Of the 6 billion inhabitants of the planet, almost 2 billion people do not have the opportunity to drink clean drinking water. The world's supply of drinking water may be depleted due to unsustainable water use or pollution. By 2050, 30% of the world's population may face a shortage of drinking water.
There are already countries that import clean water from neighboring countries. But there is not enough water!
In arid regions, water is scarce, as is bread. People carry it in pumpkin vessels, bottles for many kilometers from home. About 80% of diseases in these areas are associated with bad water. You cannot drink such water. Many diseases dangerous to humans can be transmitted through water: cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, jaundice, helminthiasis, etc.
Each person should remember that water is the source of life on Earth, and treat it very carefully.
Source: good luck!
Answer from 22 answers[guru]
Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: What can happen if there is no clean water left on Earth? (if possible, give a full answer)
Water is the source of life on Earth. But most often the question arises about the purity of water and its shortage. In the territories of many countries, there is a catastrophic lack of water, some peoples generally use poor-quality water, which entails the development of many diseases that lead to death.
It is difficult to say whether today there are countries and territories where the water is not polluted and does not contain harmful impurities. We constantly hear that there is practically no clean water left on Earth, and if there are such places, then people do not live there.
This is due to the fact that water sources are polluted by the people themselves, as industrial, agricultural, and municipal enterprises dump waste from their activities into water bodies. In addition to the fact that these effluents pollute the water with various harmful substances, from which oil, phenol, detergent active substances, pesticides and other complex chemical compounds are released, carriers of dangerous infectious diseases also enter the water, and this can lead to disastrous consequences.
Many years ago, the governments of many states faced the issue of protecting water from pollution, because if nothing is done soon, there will be no drinking water at all, and people will die. To this end, environmental requirements for industries aimed at protecting water resources from pollution began to be developed. But the fact remains: many, in pursuit of material gain, are unable and unwilling to understand that without clean drinking water, they and the planet Earth itself have no future. And what is even worse, there are territories where there is no clean water at all, people have nothing to drink, water is either imported there, or they have to use high technologies to purify it, which requires large material costs, which many simply cannot afford. The question arises, why pollute water and create many problems for yourself, if it is easier to protect your life and the life of your descendants by introducing new environmentally friendly technologies into production, albeit not cheap at the moment, but they are equivalent to a healthy life not only for today's people, but also for future ones. generations.
The problem of clean water is also associated with the ever-increasing volumes of its consumption, as there is an increase in the number of inhabitants of the planet and the volume of human economic activity. Rivers and lakes serve as the main supplier of water, and their water content may decrease as a result of deforestation, plowing of meadows, and drainage of floodplain swamps. All this leads to a decrease in the level of groundwater, which is the main source of nutrition for rivers and lakes.
The lack of clean fresh water is a problem that worries a third of the inhabitants of the entire planet, since most of the reserves of such water are located where people do not live. It seems that nature protects the water, hiding it from people who do not protect it. This is true: after all, in everyday life, many people, opening a tap, can pour out as much water as they want, without even thinking that other inhabitants of the planet lack it. Others do not close the taps well, from where such precious water also flows aimlessly. If everyone thought about how many liters of fresh water is spent thoughtlessly, it would be possible to save it and solve many complex problems.
Modern inhabitants of the planet should think about fresh water purification, about developing ways to protect fresh water from pollution by waste from any type of production and life. If this is not done, the question of the future fate of our planet will arise, because, as you know, life and health depend on what kind of water to drink. The main thing is that tap water, which also cannot be called high-quality, even when passed through a filter, cannot be completely purified, for example, from impurities of heavy metals, because this requires more stringent measures than an ordinary household filter.
Oil production has no less impact on fresh water pollution, especially if some accidents occur that cause irreparable damage to both water resources and the environment in general. But it is also dangerous that other harmful substances and compounds can dissolve in oil, which then enter the waters of the World Ocean, and hence the water that people use.
Today, only a small number of organizations are engaged in solving the problems of preserving and increasing the supply of clean water on a global scale. But one of the main tasks they consider to be the fight against the reduction of harmful runoff into rivers and lakes, as well as work aimed at the development of desalination systems for the salt water of the seas and oceans, which would solve this main problem of providing the world's population with clean water. Although, so far, desalination of salt water is a very complicated process both in terms of material costs and in terms of energy, and few people can afford such an expensive pleasure.
But the hope that the people of the whole Earth will begin to think about the preservation of clean water reserves remains.
