Have we robbed the environment of too much water?

Question

Regardless of how much of the earth's surface is covered by H2O is it possible, through the Butterfly effect, that we've bottled and stored too much of it in our canned goods, frozen food products, sodas, water pipes and infrastructure systems, etc.? Considering the specific heat of water compared to dry air then if the water isn't there to moderate heat from the sun it seems that there will be much more variability in temperatures and the consequent weather patterns. Are icebergs melting to simply replace what we've put in our supermarkets, grocery stores and the bodies of our ever increasing world population of water storing peoples?

Answer 1

I believe the earth is evolving just like it has in the past bazillion years.  You can't change the amount of water on the earth (other than shooting it into space) because water H2O is an element and it's either a liquid gas or solid.  There isn't much we can do about the use of water and the earth balances itself out by tempature changes, weather patterns and cloud cover.  I hate to sound heartless but the entire world can't stop using water so that a few polar bears can migrate instead of swim.  I do think that you are on to something here.....I mean if the poles are melting and falling into the oceans why aren't we seeing the water levels rise and flood coastal areas right?  Well I think it is the earths way of "dealing"....there's not much we can do as humans to "change" the natural course of the earth changing.

Answer 2

i can tell you this, the biggest and greatest lakes are in my state ,(MICHIGAN) and the fresh water levels have dropped considerably. and BTW. the western and southern states are looking to buy it, pipeline it! so yes, we are running out of water due to global warming. i just wish people would subscribe to that belief, now that our president finally has! lake superior is quite a site too behold, along with the other great lakes, however they are losing water at an alarming rate!

Answer 3

no...silly

Water has a cycle.

We use it , clean it and put it back into the cycle.

Sequestering water for human purposes is insignificant compared to the Vast,Vast,Vast quantities on the Earth.

Every open can,bottle, and package returns water to the cycle.  Have you ever considered where the wastewater goes when it disappears down the pipe?  It is treated.  Cleaned.  Reintroduced to the cycle.

You are correct about Water being a stablizer in atmosphere, as far as temp is concerned.

edit:

LOL ...HESKETHB...

how very Fascist of you...lol

Answer 4

It is a very good and thought-provoking question, and one that has probably not been much in focus. I think you're right; while it is true that there has been an excessive usage of water that has been "bottled" up in canned goods, frozen food products, sodas, water pipes and infrastructure systems, it is actually difficult - possibly impossible - to estimate the amount of replenishment available for the depleting levels of water.

Maybe, all of us need to do some kind of research and apply more thought into this, and hopefully we should be able to take some positive action to make the environment around us more sustainable.

Answer 5

When you get to highschool in a few years you will learn your comments, from a scientific point of view, make no sense.

Answer 6

NO !!!   Do U not understand the water cycle?? There is still plenty water available..

Answer 7

People are also over 80% water, reduce the amount of people to save the planet

Answer 8

Your theory makes even less sense than the 'Global Warming theory itself!

Learn some basic science.

There is no way that mankind could store enough water to make any difference of any kind no matter how hard they tried!

Answer 9

no.  you could place all of the water you referenced into a small lake and not see any change in elevation.  it is a non-issue.

Answer 10

yes - here in michigan what used to be the great lakes are now known as the great sandtraps

Answer 11

You mean like the wide spread use of meat at least 2 or 3 times per day for most industrialized countries with China and India coming on the fast track to this dietary lifestyle as well?

"Intensive livestock facilities use the greatest amount of "service water". For example, intensive piggeries can use 7 times the amount of drinking water consumed by the pigs just to flush the waste away."

"it has been estimated that processing each chicken consumes about 1600 litres of water."

"As an example, a bullock grown for beef takes about 3 years before it can be slaughtered, when it produces about 200kg of boneless beef. During that time, it consumes about 1,300 kg of grains, 7,200 kg of pasture and hay etc, 24,000 litres of water for drinking and 7,000 litres of service water. The water cost for each kg of beef has been estimated at about 15,000 litres.[6] For chicken meat the water cost is about 4,000 litres per kg and for pork the water cost is about 5,000 litres per kg.

Translating this into products gives a water cost of about 2,400 litres for a hamburger "

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features...