Do you think we've robbed too much water from the environment?

Question

When you consider all the bottled waters, all the carbonated beverages with water, dairy products, frozen and canned goods in supermarkets as well as water contained in our sewerage systems - is it any wonder ponds, lakes and other bodies of water are drying up? Has our storage of water created too much of an imbalance for our environment to contend with?

Answer 1

Gulf courses and those super mega mansions of the rich take much of the water supplies of local cities.

Answer 2

It's impossible to 'rob' water. All the water that has ever been here is here now. Simple environmental science. You  drink beverages, you urinate, it's back in the water cycle.  You eat canned goods, your body absorbs the water, see above. More germane is water used by farmers reducing viable wetlands. It IS possible to do  that. It is also possible to contaminate water, rendering it unusable for human consumption, but it still exists.

Answer 3

Water is the only true recyclable resource that we have. The flow of water is the key.

Answer 4

i think we've taken too much fresh water from the environment. unfortunately, we have not found a cheap way to purify ocean salt water yet to the point where it would be afordable.

Answer 5

No. The earth's surface is 75% water, containing about 3.612 x 10²º gallons of ocean water. Nothing we do could make a scratch on that.

Answer 6

Considering a very, very small percentage of the fresh water on the planet is accessible at all, yes I agree we are pulling too much of it for human consumption.

And clearly the environment is not contending with what people are doing...  just look at the situation with Atlanta, GA.

Answer 7

As matter can not be created or destroyed only transformed into another form of energy water is still here although not where it would be naturally.

By robbing water do you mean the cola factory in the draught stricken area of India that takes water from the villagers at 3x the amount that is in their drink and then pollutes the surrounding area?

If you are really asking is the way we use water sustainable the answer is absolutely NO.

Since the advent of railways & refrigeration has enabled populations in towns to exist beyond the capacity of the local environment to support them there has been little effort to use water wisely.

Rivers have been re-engineered into life less drains to pass water as quickly as possible out into the sea so it does not flood the land although ancient Egypt only became a civilization because the Nile flooded over its banks every year to fertilize the desert. In this country when the flood pains were allowed to flood it allowed crops to be grown earlier in the year as the floods kept the land warm in winter. Recently there has been some work to restore the bends in rivers as the resulting different levels are used by fish as breeding grounds.

Water goes though several cycles of use -waste - treatment -transportation- use before it reaches the sea.

As urbanization has spread so has the risk of sewage entering the drinking water supplies as the sewage treatment works have only a certain capacity before they overflow back into the rivers. This is aggravated by the policy of mixing rain water with the waste water system and by the unlimited expansion of urban areas which create heavier storms; less ability to absorb the rain and increased volume of waste water form more people using more than they used to.

The environmental problems caused by our actions could be eased by not mixing rain water with waste water and redirecting the rain water to where it is needed -back at the source of the river.

Answer 8

There is just as much water on the planet as there ever was. It doesn't go anywhere it is a closed system. But yes more and more of that water is located somewhere other than streams and rivers etc. I think the root problem is just too many people on the planet. They use and create a demand for all of the products you listed and are 70% water themselves. Less people = more water.