• Question: Is there any possibility that we could (maybe in a very long time) start to negatively impact the earths water supply? Why?

    Asked by to Ben, Emily, Jemma on 26 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Emily Hayward

      Emily Hayward answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Great question Rhirhi2014,

      Sadly we are already having a negative effect on the earths water supply through pollution. There are a number of toxic compounds which have made their way into rivers and the sea. Currently scientists are working on ways we can remove these, and prevent more harmful things getting into our water supplies. Until around the last 20 – 30 years no one has really know about the impacts of pollution, however now that we know the impacts it can have as scientists we are doing our best to prevent further damage, and sort out any dammage that has been done.

      In my research I look at filtering things, putting a simple filter in place to remove contaminents and pollutants from water could be a huge help in preventing things getting worse, and allows us also to reuse things better.

      So in answer to your question we could negatively impact the earths water supply, but now that scientists understand more about it they are working to try to minimise this and prevent it happening.

      I hope this helps. If you have any further questions please ask 🙂

    • Photo: Ben Butler

      Ben Butler answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Hi rhirhi2014, really interesting question.

      Emily is spot on, we’re already polluting a lot of our water sadly. But scientists are constantly working out ways to keep it clean, which can only be a good thing!

      Aside from pollution, another negative impact that we could have on the earth’s water supply is that we could start using too much. This could create a lot of water shortages around the world. Only 3% of the water on Earth is freshwater, and most of this is locked up as ice, so there really isn’t much to go around!

      Luckily for us, there is a lot of water in the sea, but in order for us to drink it etc, we would need to take the salt out. Scientists around the world are trying to work out the best way to do this, because one day quite a lot of our water might have to come from the sea in this way!

    • Photo: Jemma Rowlandson

      Jemma Rowlandson answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Hi!

      Emily and Ben have pretty much got this question covered. Yes humans are having a big impact on the water supply right now. Only 1% of the Earth’s can actually be used for drinking, heating our homes, washing and everything else we need it for!

      It’s not just toxic chemicals that are polluting our water supply. All the chemicals we use from shampoo to paracetamol end up in the water supply. These are not a problem at the moment but there’s only going to be more of them in the water as times goes on.

      As Ben said we can take salt out of seawater. They already do this in hot countries like Spain, where there’s not much freshwater around. This is an expensive thing to do though, so cleaning up the fresh water we have is better.

      In my research I want to use water to power cars. The good thing is that the cars produce clean water again (so clean you could drink it straight form the exhaust!). The problem is we have to be very careful where you can use these cars. If you use them in parts of the world which already do not have enough water then you would only make things worse.

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