Water Today Nearly three fourths of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. Human life, as with all animal and plant life on the planet, is dependent upon water. Not only do we need water to grow our food, generate our power and run our industries, but we need it as a basic part of our daily lives – our bodies need to ingest water every day to continue functioning. Communities and individuals can exist without many things if they have to – they can be deprived of comfort, of shelter, even of food for a period, but they cannot be deprived of water and survive for more than a few days. Because of the intimate relationship between water and life, water is woven into the fabric of all cultures, religions and societies in myriad ways. Water is unique in that it is the only natural substance that is found in all three states – liquid, solid (ice), and gas (steam) – at the temperatures normally found on Earth.
Earth’s water is constantly interacting, changing, and in movement. Water freezes at 32o Fahrenheit (F) and boils at 212o F (at sea level, but 186.4 at 14,000 feet).
In fact, water’s freezing and boiling points are the baseline with which temperature is measured: 0o on the Celsius scale is water’s freezing point, and 100o is water’s boiling point. Water is unusual in that the solid form, ice, is less dense than the liquid form, which is why ice floats. Water has a high specific heat index. This means that water can absorb a lot of heat before it begins to get hot.
The Essay on Hydrothermal Vents Life Earth First
According to the Bible, God created the first man, Adam, from the soil and the first woman, Eve, from Adams rib. These events happened in the Garden of Eden almost six thousand years ago. That is one of the many beliefs of how carbon based life forms, otherwise referred to as living organisms, came to exist on Earth. Since the beginning of mans reign on earth he has tried to explain his origins. ...
This is why water is valuable to industries and in your car’s radiator as a coolant. The high specific heat index of water also helps regulate the rate at which air changes temperature, which is why the temperature change between seasons is gradual rather than sudden, especially near the oceans. Water has a very high surface tension. In other words, water is sticky and elastic, and tends to clump together in drops rather than spread out in a thin film. Surface tension is responsible for capillary action, which allows water (and its dissolved substances) to move through the roots of plants and through the tiny blood vessels in our bodies. There are million ways of water usage in our everyday life.
The most obvious and immediate uses occur in its natural setting. They are called instream uses. Fish live in it, as do some birds and animals, at least part of the time. Hydroelectric power generation, shipping, and water-based recreation are other examples of human instream uses. These instream uses are not always harmless. For example, oil leaking from outboard motors and freighters can cause pollution.
Large reservoirs needed for hydroelectric power generation remove water by evaporation and completely change the river regime for downstream users. The greatest number and variety of water uses occur on the land. These are called withdrawal uses. This term is appropriate because the water is withdrawn from its source (a river, lake or groundwater supply), piped or channeled to many different locations and users, and then is collected again for return to a lake, river or into the ground. Household and industrial uses, thermal and nuclear power generation, irrigation and livestock watering all fall into this category. Most withdrawal uses “consume” some of the water, meaning less is returned to the source than was taken out.
Furthermore, the water which is put back into its natural setting is often degraded. For example, water leaving our houses contains human and household wastes. The same is true of water used in many industrial processes. Often this liquid waste is only partially treated, if at all, before it is returned to nature. Withdrawal use is directly measurable as quantities of intake, discharge, and consumption. Water intake is the amount withdrawn from the source for a particular activity over a specific period of time.
The Essay on State a hypothesis about the quality of the water in the Grand River?
The hypothesis developed for water quality of Grand River is to test whether urbanization affects the quality of water in Grand River. The hypothesis is based on the effects of urbanization on the Grand River water quality, with focus on Lansing section. 2. What concerns does this section of the Grand River face? How does increased urbanization impact water quality of freshwater systems like the ...
This measure is important because it represents the demand imposed by that particular use on the water source at a given location. Usually, however, most of the water taken out is returned at or near the source. This is called water discharge. Water consumption is the difference between water intake and water discharge. Consumption removes water from a river system and makes it unavailable for further use downstream. The irrigation of crops is by far the largest consumptive use, followed by evaporation in large open water reservoirs and cooling ponds. However, because evaporation is difficult to measure, it is seldom recognized as water consumption.
In the global hydrologic cycle, water is never actually lost. For example, the water evaporated from industrial cooling towers or an irrigated field simply returns to the atmosphere, later to fall again as precipitation somewhere else on earth. Figure 1 The hydrological cycle. The hydrological cycle is the continuous movement of water between the earth and the atmosphere. Water evaporates from water and land surfaces and transpires from living cells. This vapor circulates through the atmosphere, condensing to form clouds and precipitating as rain or snow. When water hits the earth’s surface it either runs into streams and ends up in oceans or lakes, or seeps into the soil. The water that seeps into the soil is then either absorbed by the roots of vegetation, or it sinks into the groundwater reservoir.
With all the consumption of water and the development of modern technologies the problem of water pollution arises. It is easy to dispose of waste by dumping it into a river or lake. In large or small amounts, dumped intentionally or accidentally, it may be carried away by the current, but will never disappear. It will reappear downstream, sometimes in changed form, or just diluted. Freshwater bodies have a great ability to break down some waste materials, but not in the quantities discarded by today’s society. This overload that results, called pollution, eventually puts the ecosystem out of balance.
The Essay on Green Chemistry Chemicals Chemical Pollution
Green Chemistry Many companies all over the world produce chemicals for their products that are harmful to the environment, human health, and to all living species. Green Chemistry is the use of chemistry for the prevention of chemical pollution to the environment by using chemicals that are benign, or not harmful. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that the mission of Green ...
Sometimes nature itself can produce these imbalances. In some cases, the natural composition of the water makes it unfit for certain uses: e.g., water flowing in the highly saline terrain of the prairies or gushing from highly mineralized springs in some parts of the country cannot sustain fish populations. But most often our waterways are being polluted by municipal, agricultural and industrial wastes, including many toxic synthetic chemicals which cannot be broken down at all by natural processes. Even in tiny amounts, some of these substances can cause serious harm. We are a “chemical” society, using hundreds of chemicals in our normal daily activities: washing, eating, house-cleaning, tending the lawn and garden, driving. Of the almost 10million chemicals known today, approximately 100000chemicals are used commercially.
Most toxic chemicals are discharged directly into our waterways as waste, but many also enter the water after everyday use in the home, agriculture and industry. They constantly change the chemical composition of our waters. One way is seepage: the chemicals soak through the earth into the groundwater from waste disposal sites and agricultural lands, for example. Another way is runoff: the chemicals are washed into bodies of water from the land where they were used or spilled, or from the air into which they were emitted. The chemicals can cause problems with the taste, odor and color in water. Fish and wildlife can experience reduced fertility, generic deformities, immune system damage, increased incidence of tumors, and death.
Pollution is not always visible. A river or lake may seem clean, but still be polluted. In groundwater, on which over one quarter of all Canadians rely for their water supply, pollution is especially difficult to discern. Nor are the effects of pollution necessarily immediate; they may take years to appear. When pollution makes water unsuitable for drinking, recreation, agriculture and industry, it eventually also diminishes the aesthetic quality of lakes and rivers. Even more seriously, when contaminated water destroys aquatic life and reduces its reproductive abilities, it eventually menaces human health.
The Essay on Water Pollution People Government Waste
... cause of water pollution is industrial waste. Industries do not be harmed by water pollution but the cause much it. Many companies pour chemicals into ... they have a fishy smell, and are common in August through December. Water is our main source of our life. We ... and construct roads, provide pest control, preserve wood, and make Furniture. Water pollution doesn^1 t just effect humans, it affects are ...
Nobody escapes the effects of water pollution. The conclusion we make is that water is a precious resource of life on Earth. The humans can not live without water. The usage of water is so great that people wouldnt be able to survive without water a day. The modern world not only uses water, it also contaminates water. The problem of water pollution is too serious and the humanity must think of ways to make it cleaner. Works Cited “Water.” Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.
2004.12 August 2004 . The water page. 12 August 2004 . Freshwater Website 12 August 2004 . Water Science for Schools (USGS): All About Water! 12 August 2004 . The Worlds Water 12 August 2004 ..
