Our Thirsty World

Did you know that only 1% of Earth's water is fresh and available for consumption? Fresh water is the world's most essential natural resource, but it's also one of the most threatened. National Geographic magazine's April issue celebrates and explores this important resource.

Learn more about this Special Issue http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater

Water: A Special Issue http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/04/table-of-content

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[Sylvanace]

dude ur dumb, there are too many humans. Desalination of sea water is fucking costly as fuck, so its not that viable, and ur last sentence just makes no sense. People have never had to live in situations this poor environmentally before, and since were confronted with it now, we need to find a way to survive.

[TreeCutter2000]

This is rubbish. Water recycles itself, even our urine will be evaporated back to the sky as rain eventually. Dirt doesn't make water forever unusable! Its just mixed in with the water, like tomatoes in salsa. To reply to Sylvanace, desalination of sea water is free. The sky does it for us. The ocean is where excess water goes. That is why there is such a small percentage of water inland.

Don't believe things just because it shows Africans thirsty in the desert. That doesn't prove anything.

[PROsnipekid]

whaha i got a water commercial ad XDD

[Lillieinator]

@PROsnipekid That's exactly what I was thinking.

[PROsnipekid]

im thirsty now, i'm gonna drink some water...

[Sylvanace]

@cicamore think about it like this dude. American's as a whole are pretty well of in terms of standard of living, drinking water has not yet become a serious problem for us. Because of this, we are comfortable putting money into NASA because it seems o be a better investment. So yea the money is there, but no one wants to direct it towards water usage (aside from heavy supporters of this)

[cicamore]

@Sylvanace the Navy use evaporators to turn saltwater to fresh so apparently it isnt too costly for them. What is more important, the NASA program or water for the world to drink? The money is there.

[Harmon5131997]

hey it doesnt matter how much someone uses, it always go back to the atmosphere!

[350z350zify]

@EndlessT when you drop a small turd the water splashes up into your asshole, what if the water that goes up there has fuckin diseases? your asshole is fucked!

[neko1900]

@oyhacrnnR Yes, I agree with you, as well as social and economic problem.

[kyle7412]

really cool picture at 0:55

[oyhacrnnR]

There's no water shortage even with a large increase in global population. The surface of the earth receives more than 200 times the rain water than what is currently used by man. In my city, 99% of all rain water will have drained off to the ocean within one hour after it falls because no effort is made to capture it (typical as most cities in the world). The engineering and technology has long existed to capture, clean and transport water in massive quanities, it is a political problem.