Where we get our fresh water - Christiana Z. Peppard

Fresh water accounts for only 2.5% of Earth's water, yet it is vital for human civilization. What are our sources of fresh water? In the first of a two part series on fresh water, Christiana Z. Peppard breaks the numbers down and discusses who is using it and to what ends.

Lesson by Christiana Z. Peppard, animation by Jeremy Collins.

[SnakesBeSnaken]

Is it just me or does the narrator sound like she is about to cry?

[ellesoft]

I wish they'd re-record this with someone who wasn't wavering so much vocally. The info and animation is great though.

[Baseballchampion]

This makes me feel a lot better about using water. I always felt like I was completely destroying the world when I took a shower. I'm not going to go out and use more water now, I just don't feel as bad for using as much as I do.

[DarkRougeDevil]

Thanks for the lesson, it has given me a good idea on how to start my university essay.

[jibby]

latitude and longitude lines cross at 90 degrees, so the shape of the country is distorted, but the areas are more close to real life.
this makes it easier to compare countries by scale.
its not used much in the west because it makes Africa, Australia and south America look bigger than the US and Europe, which they are.

[SanjeevKumar-odoo]

very much helpful from the point of view of my lesson

[knzdkss]

Our geography teacher forced us to watch this s

[HumanlyRobotic]

Lots of places DO use surface water for everything, though. In BC, where I live, we get our everyday tap water from a lake atop a nearby mountain. It basically sustains a city of 12, 000 people every day. But we get rain like nobody's business, so it's different.

[WASHLinkorg]

Very quick! synopsis of global water consumption- Serves as great into for deeper exploration of water or tangential topics

[TheRichmondnaviza]

The use of the word "literally" surprised.

[Lena-stww]

This is such a helpful video!!!!Thanks so much!!

[BurnabyAlex]

In a lot of areas, ground water is not replenished at the same rate was which it is used, and you see the ground water level go deeper. Even in rainy Vancouver. The wells in Langley see the ground water levels decrease and get contaminated by surface use.

[jdn]

Currently taking an environmental science course and the whole thing is about water and how to conserve it. People are actually trying to figure out ways to be able to reuse water. Right now, some ecofriendly buildings actually reuse water for their toilets. Some use rainwater for sewage and whatnot. But they haven't found a way to reuse water for drinking...so my teacher believes...

[MeisterDonDon]

Great perspective into the amount of water we have and use. Thanks!

[AkkayaOzgun]

Salty water would mean that there is a higher amount of solute outside of the plant cells than inside. This, in return, draws water out of the plant through osmosis and dehydrates the plant cells. This is called a hypertonic solution. As an experiment, try to drink salt water for a while. Sure it tastes bad, but what you'll notice is that you increasingly become more and more dehydrated. This is why we don't pour road salt over plants during winter as well.

[rickers]

IMO, what she said is true. Early forms of life came from and lived in water. So there really is no life (to begin with) without water. Peace. :)

[Aresftfun]

(from cont.) and uses something similar to Oxygen. We already know organisms that do not use Oxygen, but water is dipolar, so it has a wider range of things that it can dissolve. dipolar means both acidic and basic. Bases and acids are the same dissolving power based on how far from 7 in pH they are. Water has a pH of 7, but can dissolve many, many things.

[righturnonly]

I have been saving rain water for years for use around the yard, . It's not that much just about 200 gal.when full.I keep my consumption down.

[spinellackseverything]

Didn't think we only had 2.5 % freshwater... that gives me worry XD.

[thienfoil]

@Alec McKinney fences can be use as minerals for crops and trees. It is actually isny bad for your health because feces break dowb by bacteria then the trees use that mineral to grow. feces, dead animals and other dead stuff help crops to grow; that has been going on for million of years