Water – The Primary Resource We Have Local Control Over

The air we breathe is not under our control. It is a global source that  contains many impurities and toxins including nuclear radiation residues. It is a continuously recycling necessity  that sustains all mammalian life but  which no individual or government has control over. Another  essential contributor to life is food. While some food is available under local control,  most is not. It is imported or grown in areas that are not under individual control and people generally are dependent on its transport for their consumption.  The remaining  essential resource is water,  and it alone is generally the only necessity of life that we exercise reasonable, local human control over.

As a means of perspective, some of the data contained herein constitute food for thought for all of us. The origin for some of this data is https://www.seametrics.com/blog/water-facts/ . Other data cannot be substantiated by recent links. 

• Nearly 70% of the Earth’s fresh-water supply is locked up in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland. The remaining fresh-water supply exists in the atmosphere, streams, lakes, or groundwater and accounts for a mere 1% of the Earth’s total.
• In Washington State, the state with the largest area of glaciers in the contiguous United States, melting glaciers provide 1.8 trillion liters (470 billion gallons) of water each summer.
• One fifth of the world’s freshwater fish—2,000 of 10,000 species identified—are endangered, vulnerable, or extinct. In North America, the continent most studied, 67% of all mussels, 51% of crayfish, 40% of amphibians, 37% of fish, and 75% of freshwater mollusks are rare, imperiled, or already gone.
• 19 states rely on Colorado water
• 78% of all water from the CO River is for irrigation purposes. The CO irrigates 15% of the nation’s crops and feeds 13% of the nation’s livestock, including Imperial Valley (Mexico), which provides 80% of the country’s winter vegetables.
• it takes almost 49 gallons of water to produce just one eight-ounce glass of milk. That includes water consumed by the cow and to grow the food she eats, plus water used to process the milk.
• About 6,800 gallons of water is required to grow a day’s food for a family of four.
• It takes about 6 gallons of water to grow a single serving of lettuce.
• Over 1,300 miles of streams in Colorado are impacted by metals as a result of acid mine drainage.
• To create one pint of beer it takes 20 gallons of water.
• 70% of the human brain is water.
• A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
• 40% of freshwater withdrawals in the United States are used for agriculture.
• 1 pound of beef requires 1,799 gallons of water
• At any given moment, groundwater is 20 to 30 times greater than the amount in all the lakes, streams, and rivers of the United States.