Is there a finite amount of water on Earth, in any form, and could we ever run out?
In: Chemistry
There is a finite amount of water on Earth. The exact quantity changes, however. Certain processes, such as combustion, create water. Water also tends to become unusable- i.e. salty sea water cannot be consumed unless extensively treated. It is not possible for us to use most of the water on Earth because it uses too much energy to make it clean enough for consumption.
We could run out in the sense that usable water becomes so limited that we cannot supply or extract enough to meet the needs of humans. We see this in drought areas such as California, giant deserts, etc.
In the super long-term if atmospheric conditions change enough the Earth could become functionally barren. For example: the planet Mars used to have a functioning atmosphere and water on its surface, and now it doesn’t.
In the near future I would not worry about it, though.
there is a finite amount of water but it will stays the same amount. we’re not going off planet throwing out massive quantities. Drinkable water though, that might run out. But I believe that at a certain point, we really might finally filter ocean water, if fuckin Nestlé and big companies stop trying to make money off basic human rights. If we ever reach that point, which we could have many years ago, water will no longer be an issue… except for you know, rising tides, tsunamis, plastic and junk killing wildlife… all of that stuff… but hey, we wont run out
Technically yes.
But given that water can be created from other elements, that are in abundance on earth. in addition to the oceans. It would be very difficult to ‘run out’.
If we go on a slight detour and talk about ‘potable’ or ‘safe to drink’ water. Yes we can run out. very very much so.
It is actually a bigger and bigger issue every day. Cape Town in South Africa actually came very close to running out of usable water a year or so ago, despite enforcing rather strict water rationing
Two things:
1. There is a finite amount of everything in the universe.
2. Matter cannot be created or destroyed. There’s a lot of water on earth but no matter how much humans consume it almost never actually leaves the planet; it just gets recycled back into the environment.
I think want you really want to know is if we will ever run out of clean water and if the methods by which we recycle and purify our water can be sustained indefinitely.
Yes, there is a finite amount of water, but there is a lot of it and it’s doubtful we would “run out”.
The 2 challenges are the amount of fresh water, and getting fresh water to the right places.
This is why we really need to develop technology for cheap water desalination/water purification and to improve our water distribution systems. If we had the ability to cheaply irrigate more of the earth using desalinated ocean water, it would be a game changer for humanity.
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