Ask Clay: Lots of water, but not for us

Today’s question:

Is there less water on the planet than there was 50 or 100 years ago? I am confused about the frequently expressed concept about wasting water on plants. There are lots of large trees and shrubs in my neighborhood that all use lots of water. However, doesn't all this water flow through the natural cycle? This country used to be covered with forests. Did cutting most of them down somehow save us a lot of water?

Cutting down the forest doesn’t save us any water, but it does increase air pollution because trees lock in carbon.

The amount of water in the world is fixed and has been for billions of years. And it moves in a constant cycle of evaporation from the oceans, rain and the flow back into the oceans.

There are roughly 326 million trillion gallons of water in the world. The problem is humans can’t use most of it.

Yes, we can make water by combing the proper amounts hydrogen and water. However, the amount of water we create is so small it is insignificant in the great scheme of things.

About 98 percent of our planets water is in the oceans.

Of the remaining 2 percent, most of it is tied up in the polar ice caps, glaciers or underground aquifers.

There is only about 0.036 percent of the world’s water available from lakes and streams.

That is still a trillions of gallons of water, but really not all much.

That’s why it is so important to conserve water and to keep what we have from being ruined by chemicals, pesticides and other poisons.