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The Global Distribution of Water

unep.org — A visualization that puts the scarcity of freshwater into perspective rather nicely.

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  • chandan333, on 05/13/2008, -17/+90Means: Save it.
    • thelastcivilian, on 05/13/2008, -6/+84Means: In case of water shortage, melt the glaciers!
      • mCanada, on 05/14/2008, -2/+15too late
        • tkotam, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1Sorry for a comment hijack here, but where does Lake Baikal stand in the picture? It's definitely fresh water but it should be a whole lot of fresh water...
      • radsprack, on 05/14/2008, -6/+8Don't worry, Al Gore is working on that right now.
        • tyleristheshyt, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1Yeah guys, he's super duper cereal!
          xD
        • Lanlost, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Uhm, maybe I'm an idiot, but isn't Al Gore's idea to prevent Global Warming?

          If there is a joke here that is going over my head, well.. ... sorry.
      • Synyk, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2omg I understand Nature's simple balanced equation now:
        humans + global warming < > dead humans + drinking water
        Nature is a twisted *****.
      • soogy, on 05/14/2008, -0/+15Or squeeze that last delicious 0.008% from animals.
        • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2I believe a company called "Water and Power" is doing that now, and has even gone into human trials.
    • DykeStew, on 05/14/2008, -17/+0Dykestew?
    • nitesoulja, on 05/14/2008, -12/+3Means: were too stupid to understand without having a diagram with water represented as rectangles.
    • dfsjdkflasjk, on 05/14/2008, -4/+12Or: Understand the actual quantities instead of merely basing our environmental decisions over out-of-context percentages.
      • Katana314, on 05/14/2008, -1/+5Agreed. Take a look at a map sometime. Realize that the enormous block on this graph is taking up MOST OF THE WORLD. Of course it's going to be 99.999 something percent, because it takes up such enormous space anyway. This does not necessarily mean we don't have much water. Granted, it's a problem, but compared to such things as global warming and energy crises I think it's a little out of scope at the moment.
        • ICSU, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1Global warming and drinking water are interlinked problems. The problem is that we pollute even the small amount of fresh water we have.
        • Lanlost, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1ICSU:
          Thank you for understanding the point here. I'm not being sarcastic either.
    • mooseontheloose, on 05/14/2008, -6/+24Because water isn't a renewable resource or anything.
      • lamiaconfitor, on 05/14/2008, -9/+4not until there are too many people hoarding it in their stupid bodies? where is that on the chart? oh, wait, its at the bottom... okay, you live. for now...( glances back and forth with a scheming face...holding a bottle of water...)
      • powatom, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1Uhh the point isn't that there's less water in the world, the point is that we can't make NEW water (Oxygen + Hydrogen = Kaboom). We can extract water from other liquids via various chemical reactions, but there aren't enough of these liquids to make a real difference.

        As long as humans keep breeding, we will have less and less water available. Also, water privatisation is a growing problem, and the world is desertifying fairly rapidly, meaning springs and lakes are drying up all over the place and there's nothing we can do about it.

        The only real way to solve the water shortage problem is to find a cheap way to make sea-water safe to drink, and get this water to places which are currently dry (or close to being dry), otherwise people will die in huge numbers.
    • sh4rkb1t3, on 05/14/2008, -2/+2Even though the parent post is complete crap, due to the fact that all the water you don't use gets sent straight into the ocean, it's probably going to reach around +200 diggs.
    • jonathanforpres, on 05/14/2008, -1/+23I'm buying stock in Desalination. :)
    • grodrigu, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1Makes me thirsty
    • lordmetroid, on 05/14/2008, -1/+2No, not save, care for it and collect it in order to sell it to the ones that needs it so it is an economical asset and possible to make a living of providing good quality water so that water will continue to be cared for.
    • JettaMan, on 05/14/2008, -0/+8No, the ***** evaporates from the oceans and falls from the sky. Use as much as you want and it comes back purified as ever.
      • Knowa22, on 05/14/2008, -3/+1you know how long it takes to fill a bathtub with rainwater?
      • stretch611, on 05/14/2008, -3/+1"Use as much as you want and it comes back purified as ever."
        You mean urine?!?
  • MereLars, on 05/13/2008, -4/+110Clear visualisation! Water is getting more and more important. I think I'll buy some water stocks.
  • bosssmiley, on 05/13/2008, -4/+56Nice snapshot, I didn't know 68+% of freshwater was in glaciers and icecaps.
    • DeskFlyer, on 05/13/2008, -6/+15The bad thing is as they melt, the freshwater gets blended in with ocean water, rendering it useless (for human consumption anyway).
      • rockefeller2, on 05/14/2008, -0/+34When I was in the Navy, I was responsible for turning seawater into drinkable water.
        I AM GOD!!!!!!!!!!
        • JohnFrum, on 05/14/2008, -0/+8The god of sun worshipers perhaps. Although I will say, you're more useful than most gods.
        • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2Oh, god, but those desalinators were a bitch to clean.
      • elnerdo, on 05/14/2008, -5/+4Which sucks, because they're so useful for human consumption while they're in ice form.

        (That was sarcasm, by the way)
        • hairydotus, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1no but they do help keep the earth cooler and while in ice form prevent the oceans water level from rising.
      • iDe1337, on 05/14/2008, -1/+5Filtering it makes it drinkable.
        • burketo, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2no it doesn't... the salt is dissolved so you can't filter it. you have to turn it into steam and then back to water. look up desalination.
          • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2Though pretty inefficient, you can increase the overall efficiency of evaporative desalination using insulated piping and a couple of reverse flow heat exchangers. The major problem is that a lot of heat is lost in the removed salt.
        • SealandRes1, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Reverse osmosis can be considered as a special method of filtering. Although it probably won't filter the other crap in the water.
        • hairydotus, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1the only problem with having to use desalination or reverse osmosis is that it consumes energy and costs money.
    • Connormac44, on 05/14/2008, -7/+2This was surprisingly less interesting than I expected.
    • tama00, on 05/14/2008, -0/+0thanks to global warming it soon will leak into our rivers and lakes :D or into the air and seas :(
    • akamurph, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3When I hit 'view 3 replies' how did I know some diggtard would bring up global warming?! Don't you know the new trend is to call it 'climate change' now?
  • wwjbaby, on 05/13/2008, -19/+15Mirror in case:http://www.linkinn.com/_The_Global_Distribution_of ...
  • Shadowdev, on 05/13/2008, -2/+152Well.. lets start wringing bunnies dry... Need to start harvesting that .6% of easily attainable water.
    (I chose bunnies first cause they just seem like they would twist very well.)
    [Don't think about it for to long... otherwise the image gets very grotesque]
    • jackalsclaw, on 05/14/2008, -1/+9nice warning
    • MrSlumberjack, on 05/14/2008, -3/+2Ferrets twist real well too
    • GhandicapXRS, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1Yes but they don;t make those cute popping sounds like bunnies do...
    • Navicerts, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2i bet people would have the best rate of return.
  • Alphateam, on 05/13/2008, -8/+122Seriously...why is desalinization so difficult?
    You can buy distilled water at stores...why can't that be done with sea water?
    • DeskFlyer, on 05/13/2008, -1/+137It's not difficult, it's just expensive. And it is being done, Dubai and Tampa, FL being notable locations.
      • Danby123, on 05/14/2008, -0/+45In Dubai, the entire oceans are desalinated.
        (The tourists like it better.)
        • PabloIV, on 05/14/2008, -0/+42Not only desalinated, but distilled and approved by professional water tasters from France.
          • Misogyny, on 05/14/2008, -0/+32Has anybody noticed that more and more, people are talking about Dubai just like immigrants used to talk about the U.S. a hundred years ago? Streets of gold, and all that.
          • evolvingthought, on 05/14/2008, -0/+9although in Dubai, the streets are made of gold
          • mrASSMAN, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3Actually their streets are basically just rivers of black gold.
      • doctorfungi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+12We're doing it Sydney now too.
        • DeskFlyer, on 05/14/2008, -0/+4Oops, I forgot to mention the land down under. You guys are doing a fantastic job with this stuff.
        • bonez56, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Perth was first! Sydney stole our idea.....We have one Desal plant near Fremantle and are currently building another about 150km south of Perth. (Western Australia)
        • McWombo, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Desalination.....good?
      • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Hm.

        I wonder how difficult it would be to design a thorium-fueled microreactor with built in desalination plant.

        Essentially: The steam that comes off nuclear stacks? Condense that using air ambient and pump it into an artificial lake.
      • mrASSMAN, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Israel does this.. also in the Negev there's a massive underground lake.
      • madbadger, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1and also, desalination creates industrial waste (concentrated brine), which is damaging to the environment.
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalinization#Geogra ...
        • PdxPhoenix, on 05/15/2008, -1/+1Oh christ-on-a-rubber-crutch... It's always something... Nothing humans have ever done has had zero impact on the Earth. There is always some price for continued survival.
    • ladyarcher85, on 05/14/2008, -0/+10It's not difficult at all I just don't want to buy a liter of water for $$$ especially since I drink a lot of that stuff daily.
      • hairydotus, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1buy a water filter and save yourself some money and some plastic
    • sh4rkb1t3, on 05/14/2008, -20/+101) Hippies believe desalinization kills animals.
      2) Hippies like animals.
      3) The only people who would buy desalinized water are hippies.

      That's why it's so hard.
      • 15thPD, on 05/14/2008, -4/+144) We need to convert the hippies to drinkable water.

        Kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
      • Gizza, on 05/14/2008, -0/+5Well, that's because without taking precautions it does kill animals. All that salt removed from the water goes back into the ocean increasing the salt level of where ever they pump it back in. This kills most sea life that might be in that area.
        • emjaymj, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Right now the world is more than sustainable with a fraction of a percent of the water the oceans have. The extra salt from the water would be such a relatively small amount so as to be negligible. Either way it appears moot to me because it seems to make incredible economic sense to keep the leftover salt for increased revenue rather than just throw away such a commodity that often actually happens to be the primary reason for desalination in the first place.
        • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Actually, since sea salt is quite marketable, I doubt that salt redeposition occurs outside of nuclear powered ships.
    • TheMooCow, on 05/14/2008, -2/+331) Melt Glaciers
      2) ???
      3) Profit !
      • thzae, on 05/14/2008, -2/+111) Melt Glaciers
        2) Flood Earth
        3) Species Extinction!

        .........
        4) Profit!
        • cvxdes1, on 05/14/2008, -1/+3Quick, sell your homes to avoid flooding.
        • hairydotus, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1My house will soon be waterfront property so I think I'll wait
    • kleinfelters, on 05/14/2008, -0/+6there are two main ways to desalinate: reverse osmosis and distillation. reverse osmosis uses membranes, to trap the ions. the ions have build up over time (like an air filter) and the membrane needs to be replaced or cleaned. distillation is extremely expensive in terms of energy because it requires the water to be boiled.
      unfortunately both are expensive and inefficient especially compared to just pumping from a lake or river..
    • friedcalamari, on 05/14/2008, -0/+27Desalinization occurs everyday. It’s called rain. And it’s free. Problem is collecting it.
      • DeFex, on 05/14/2008, -1/+10Its not free in england. even if you are not connected to the water system and only use rain you still must pay.
        • mypetridish, on 05/14/2008, -0/+7please elaborate. i dont understand how they are charging you guys for collecting rain water, unless im misunderstood what you said.
        • ivantalboys, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2You pay to have a supply of water and you pay to have your waste water taken away. Sometimes this is the same company.
      • jon30041, on 05/14/2008, -0/+16.... Rain barrels?
        • thzae, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3You're shattering my mind man, you're shattering my mind.
      • evolvingthought, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1a well? seriously
    • Tekmet, on 05/14/2008, -0/+4Last gallon of D. H20 I bought was $1.59...when you consider that the daily water needs of just the USA, where the avg citizen needs 1380 gallons of water for hygiene, water treatment, irrigation, manufacturing, drinking, lawn watering, car washing, etc...Desalination is incredibly expensive.
      • Antwan718, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Over what course of time? If you do anything in mass quantities up till a certain point the cost is brought to a more nominal level.
      • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2I'm assuming you're talking yearly consumption, so:
        1380 * $1.59 = $2194.20 - not a crippling yearly expense for an American, but I can imagine it being a terrible cost for any third world individual.
    • FearLess77, on 05/14/2008, -4/+6Its simple, not cost effective.
      Welcome to capitalism.
    • jefferygomer, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3There are "better" alternatives, if you're going to pollute.
      http://www.pacinst.org/reports/urban_usage/waste_n ...
      *PDF Warning*
      • ghank, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Dugg up for "*PDF Warning*", I wish more people had your courtesy.
    • thegenome, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2Yeah it is not cost effective atm. There will come a time though that it will be :(
      • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1I believe cost effectiveness will come at around the same time as cost effective fluid cycle thorium nuclear.

        Which, surprisingly, isn't far off. Also, since thorium cycle doesn't produce weapons grade anything (or even long-half life isotopes), you end up with electricity, distilled water, and no proliferation or insurmountable waste disposal issues.
    • Suricou, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2Desalination takes energy. A *lot* of energy. That makes it expensive. Desalination capacity is increasing as rising water demand makes it more commercially viable, but it's still more expensive than other means in use.
      • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1The energy it takes to desalinate is based on how much you can recapture on the outlet. 100% efficiency, for example, would mean that it only takes the initial seed energy to desalinate. This is, of course, not what you get; the best I've seen is around 33% efficiency - so 2/3 of the energy you use to convert water into steam is wasted.

        Better efficiencies = better access to desalination for all.
    • theculchie1, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2Solar stills, simple, cheap and effective.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_still
      • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1And don't produce nearly enough water for the effort.
    • Navicerts, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1it takes tons of energy.
  • suzywang3000, on 05/13/2008, -34/+13 there's a lot of water in the oceans
    • Beanstudd2, on 05/13/2008, -3/+31wow, that one of the most fascinating and insightful comments I've ever read.
    • UltramegaOK, on 05/13/2008, -3/+52............................................________
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    • PATSCRU, on 05/13/2008, -2/+34I encourage you to drink as much of that ocean water as possible, suzy.
      • mooseontheloose, on 05/14/2008, -22/+7wtf? DO NOT DO THIS

        it is possible dangerous. wow. buried for spreading misinformation
        • ArielMT, on 05/14/2008, -0/+8Since it was aimed at just one user, that was the point.
        • AudioPhil3, on 05/14/2008, -0/+12I just checked out mooseonthelooses' other comments.

          o_0 - wow.

          I now propose a mini IQ quiz upon digg registration.
        • Fordi, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3The term is 'decidedly fatal', not 'possibl[y] dangerous' - as anyone with even a grade school education can tell you.
  • Plomo, on 05/13/2008, -9/+3let's start harvesting those dam glaciers!!

    ...till no more fresh water left, or the global warming melt them.
    • AtWorkSurfer, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Well, if we don't harvest the glaciers, they will eventually melt and run into the ocean, drowning coastal cities, so maybe if we get to them before global warming does, we can solve our water supply problems and save Venice and Amsterdam, all in one fell swoop! I think your idea is brilliant!
      • Plomo, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1well, It's not, I trying to be sarcastic, but fail miserably....
  • coffee200am, on 05/13/2008, -10/+2So...If we ration water one place that means there will be more water in another? /s
  • myststrngr, on 05/13/2008, -19/+15Did this picture make anyone else have to pee?
  • EvansHall, on 05/13/2008, -17/+6I wish there was more serious discussion about our imminent global water shortage. This is certain to kill us before global warming.
    • Murdats, on 05/14/2008, -1/+3so things like recycled water and desalination dont exist then?
      I would say we have the technologies to solve this, its just not enough of a problem for people to bother investing in it yet.
    • Antwan718, on 05/14/2008, -1/+2Everything is always going to kill us all, you people and your sky is falling logic need to go and cry to yourselves and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
    • init100, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Water shortage won't kill me. Global warming will likely increase rainfall here, and we already have a lot of water.
  • x0rcist, on 05/13/2008, -15/+9So desalinize and filter ocean water...? What are you getting at here? It's not like we're drinking freshwater out of the lake. Buried as trash.
    • supras, on 05/13/2008, -0/+6Build and operate desalinization facilities in every third world country!!! Except for the money thing. Minor.
      • Cyona, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2I don't really think water is the biggest threat in the world. I just thought that the visualization of where water is was pretty cool.
  • supras, on 05/13/2008, -1/+27Water wars!
    • Janizzary, on 05/14/2008, -0/+12There are a lot of scientists who believe that, unless there's a breakthrough in cost effective water desalinization, the next wars will be fought over fresh water.
      • tim620, on 05/14/2008, -1/+2I've also heard this and agree with it. There is very little clean fresh water left. Some time back I posted a comment on Digg about the next major war being fought over fresh water and a number of people thought I was crazy.
      • smurfsahoy, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1You mean cheap solar energy? Phew, that was close.
      • 15charmaxwtf, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1Or unless governments stop trying to play god and allow people to buy/sell to allow supply and demand to work properly.
    • Beanstudd2, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Resource wars!
    • smurfsahoy, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Quick, buy up the super soakers at your walmart.
    • someidiotinnj, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Water World?
  • GeoBjorn, on 05/13/2008, -5/+53so clearly we need to melt all those glaciers to get at all that fresh water... =P
    • JohnFrum, on 05/14/2008, -0/+7The trick is catching the runoff before it gets to the ocean and becomes salt water. Let's dig moats around all of the mountains.
    • guibom, on 05/14/2008, -0/+5We are on the right track then...
    • montroller, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3Score one for global warming
  • urbandistrict, on 05/13/2008, -8/+10I'll drink to that!
  • smoothmann, on 05/14/2008, -21/+3Lame = Buried
  • xhawkbc, on 05/14/2008, -12/+7drink the plants and animals, bathe in their watery goodness
  • ceredron, on 05/14/2008, -10/+3So... let's melt the glaciers to triple the overall fresh water supply. Okay. Great information, buddy.
  • ethornquist, on 05/14/2008, -15/+8Another inaccurate study on water. What about the 8% in Snoop Dogg's quintuple-chambered bong?
  • mal1964, on 05/14/2008, -8/+2What Is water shaped like a box the new trend?
  • edrainkona, on 05/14/2008, -3/+27Where's chapter 3?
  • VirginiaWoolfe, on 05/14/2008, -18/+8***** the animals. let them die, except the snakes cuz snakes are cool.
    • mal1964, on 05/14/2008, -1/+5And they taste like chicken. mmmm
      • ArielMT, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Actually, it looks like chicken but tastes like fish.
    • edrainkona, on 05/14/2008, -4/+2You're a ***** animal. Literally.
      • mal1964, on 05/14/2008, -0/+6And he taste like chicken. mmmm
      • mal1964, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1"The abusers of literally are not describing an event nearly so much as they are asserting their sincerity."
    • res8qr6m, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Snake? Is that you?
  • RussLieber, on 05/14/2008, -11/+4i felt the graph could have been represented clearer, took me a while to figure it out
    • Ryan166, on 05/14/2008, -1/+3im still attempting to figure it out.
  • rrdavenport, on 05/14/2008, -4/+25And how much of that water is polluted?
    • Misogyny, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3All of it, minus the glaciers, perhaps...
  • Starznhl, on 05/14/2008, -11/+6Who has time for this when American Idol just came on... //sighs//
  • maldovix, on 05/14/2008, -7/+1They've used red to signify water in plants and animals..mm, delicious?
  • mogebier, on 05/14/2008, -9/+2Good thing the glaciers are melting then. We all need fresh water.
    • ExRe, on 05/14/2008, -1/+3Ya, melting...into the ocean...where it becomes salt water...
      • mogebier, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1But then we can desalinate that water and have fresh water!!
  • cubicledrone, on 05/14/2008, -14/+32Water is not scarce. Neither is food.
    • ArgusDrake, on 05/14/2008, -1/+42I don't see why you're being dugg down. You're technically correct. There's enough food in the world for everyone to enjoy a 3,000 calorie diet. The cause of starvation is the way the food is used and distributed.

      In a similar way, water scarcity is only due to distribution; some places have plenty of fresh water, while some places don't.
      • tmbrwolf19, on 05/14/2008, -3/+12He's probably being dugg down for terrible general comment that adds no incite. Yours is specific which makes the difference.
    • JonnyG24, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1If food is supposed to be so scarce, how come everyones so fat? Also, how come I can get a double cheeseburger and water at McDonalds for $1.00.
  • Collins23, on 05/14/2008, -1/+57Gatoraaaaade
    • jmpeagle, on 05/14/2008, -0/+14H2O
    • Puppetfunk, on 05/14/2008, -5/+13Gatorade is full of Electrolytes! Everyone knows Electrolytes are THE ***** THAT PLANTS CRAVE! Therefore no more Gatorade for us, we must save it for the crops.
    • clickx, on 05/14/2008, -1/+14It's got what plants crave.
    • coreyb, on 05/14/2008, -0/+7Water sucks, it really really sucks...
    • troycott, on 05/14/2008, -5/+5don't drink that! it's toilet water!
      Quotes from the film "Idiocracy" for those just joining us.
      • blazes816, on 05/14/2008, -2/+4False. Quotes from Waterboy. Other than yours and puppetfunk's.
  • badjoke, on 05/14/2008, -0/+60Why can't all graphs be this fun?
  • Ryan166, on 05/14/2008, -14/+143I brush my teeth with the water on. Thats right, WITH THE WATER ON!!!!!
    • DannoSpeaks, on 05/14/2008, -1/+18:'(
      • jon30041, on 05/14/2008, -0/+12Quick, catch that tear! You could totally use about 3,000 of those to have some small amount of water!
        • dopplerdog, on 05/14/2008, -0/+6Salt water
        • smurfsahoy, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2you can drink tears all day long. It's not salty enough to be bad for you. Actually, it replaces electrolytes probably almost perfectly.
    • staeiou, on 05/14/2008, -0/+26Damn! You're so ***** edgy!
    • brad3378, on 05/14/2008, -0/+7http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/499/
    • stonebear, on 05/14/2008, -2/+50I took the flow restrictor out of my shower head: 5 GALLONS A MINUTE BABY! YEEAAAH!
    • scojerroc, on 05/14/2008, -1/+4i can brush my teeth with the water on, the water on, the water on.
      • Ryan166, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1ok thats just wasteful.
      • vashth3stampede, on 05/14/2008, -0/+0i'm trying to think of something witty to respond with to go along with handlebars, but i just can't do it
    • CrackyJSquirrel, on 05/14/2008, -2/+3I always flush before and after I piss..
    • bkedersha, on 05/14/2008, -2/+4I have no problem with you runnign the water, but you still have to pay the water bill!
      • William36, on 05/14/2008, -4/+2At my flat, I don't have to pay for water! I also removed the water-saving...er stopping things from my shower and my showers average 20-45 minutes. i (read in the shower) I cannot find the sources right now, however I once saw that if every man woman and child just used as much water as they wanted at any time and in any amounts, that we will still not run out of water for centuries. NOW, those that live in places like deserts that are having shortages, ...I have no answer for them....move to were the water is I guess. After those Centuries are up....who cares none of us will be around to care either....because the big meteor will hit before then wiping us out anyhow...LOL I'm tired....sorry hehe
        • smurfsahoy, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1... Use up all the water?
        • rootbeerinacan, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Hah, in Canada, there is no water bill...
    • leesuhyung, on 05/14/2008, -0/+5I don't like that Raymond.
    • beatleman, on 05/14/2008, -3/+2I don't find that nearly as impressive as the fact that I can keep rhythm with no metronome, NO METRONOME!!!!
    • bmystry, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1I like the way you think! People like you and me we should stick together.
    • aelias, on 05/14/2008, -0/+5I wipe, like, five times, minimum.
  • highlyhigh, on 05/14/2008, -6/+1i hear that the glaciers are melting. i feel relieved.
    • DrNafork, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1They are melting in the Oceans.
    • highlyhigh, on 05/14/2008, -0/+0well if you look at the graph, freshwater is included in the ocean
  • prodigy13, on 05/14/2008, -10/+5Wow, that truly made me think for a second. It may be obvious to some, but I believe water will soon become precious of a commodity as oil is today. Incredible...
    • Ryan166, on 05/14/2008, -1/+7I live on a freshwater lake and would LOVE to sell the Arabs fresh water for $125 a barrel.
    • Jhiaxuz, on 05/14/2008, -1/+4We are charging people anywhere between 1$ to 2$ for 512 mL of water. I'd say it's already a commodity to some.
    • kadaan, on 05/14/2008, -1/+5Except the total amount of water on the planet doesn't change. It may change forms, be unfit for drinking, etc, but it's not like oil. It won't "run out."
      • jon30041, on 05/14/2008, -1/+2Just gotta clean the ***** again. Wasn't that machine the Segway guy made that he unveiled on the Colbert Report good for that?
  • NeoNcP, on 05/14/2008, -1/+7http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/media/graphics/

    more graphs than you can shake a stick at
  • Jhiaxuz, on 05/14/2008, -0/+33Kevin Costner knows how to solve this problem.
  • pissinguparope, on 05/14/2008, -5/+2Mogebler
    Bad thing glaciers are melting. Their raising sea levels and diluting the oceans.
    • aelias, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Try tossing a single ice cube into a 5 gallon bucket of salt water and let me know if you can taste the difference.
    • MixMasterK, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2*they're
  • lovestospooge, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2And that's still a lot of water.
  • jmpeagle, on 05/14/2008, -0/+13water is only a problem for 3rd world countries. Desalinization plants solve it for rich ones.
    • BlackJackJester, on 05/14/2008, -0/+4Yes, because it's so easy to get water in the middle of the ***** Sahara from the ocean.
      • Peko, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1I believe you're talking about Vegas. I'm pretty sure it's a bylaw that you must at least appear to be wasting water.
      • jmpeagle, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1we build pipelines for oil and natural gas that are thousands of miles long...I think doing the same with water wouldn't be that hard
      • JonnyG24, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Too bad for 3rd world countries...Survival of the Fittest!!
  • Quote737, on 05/14/2008, -14/+1Buried as inaccurate, there's nothing called "glaciers".
  • Pinkertinkle, on 05/14/2008, -1/+540% of our freshwater is lost through leaks and such in the system.
    • SyntraFTW, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1But that just evaporates and goes back into the cycle.
  • DaviDTC, on 05/14/2008, -8/+4***** the Oceans!
  • truthrewards, on 05/14/2008, -10/+5This proves that if all the icecaps melted, it would only add 1.7% volume to the oceans. In sea level terms, it would be unnoticed. It is impossible for ALL the ice to melt, so this proves that Global Warming and Al GORE = SCAM.
    • banshee9x, on 05/14/2008, -0/+0i dont remember anyone saying ALL the ice was going to melt
    • res8qr6m, on 05/14/2008, -1/+7Let's assume that the average ocean depth is about 3500 meters, then the 1.7% volume change would be equivalent to a 59.5m rise in height if the ocean is modeled as a simple box. Granted that this is a worst case scenario, but nonetheless cities like New York (10m elevation) and Tokyo (18m elevation) would be wiped off the face of the planet.
      • JointVenture, on 05/14/2008, -1/+1Too bad you started that brilliant hypothesis with "lets assume".


        Nice try Sparky, they told me when I was in school during the late 70's that we were headed towards an Ice Age.
      • Antwan718, on 05/14/2008, -2/+3You aren't including the new land acquired from the oceans when the sea level does rise, thus making that many more cubic feet of water that needs to be included in the ocean to make the ocean levels rise another inch.
  • redassassin7, on 05/14/2008, -1/+6Interesting graph!

    ...I don't see why everyone has to think that just because something is on digg that it has to have some underlying social or political commentary. Just enjoy learning for the sake of learning!!
  • mycatsasha, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2Wow. Like I haven't been seeing images like this since 3rd grade.

    Did you guys ever have the water-conservation volunteers come to your elementary school with diagrams like this and tell you that you should turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth and take 5-minute showers?
    • JointVenture, on 05/14/2008, -0/+5They said the same things back in the late 70's when I was in 4th grade.

      They also said that we were headed for an ICE AGE.
  • SamyK, on 05/14/2008, -3/+4They showed me the same thing in Biology four years ago, why is this getting dugg now? It's been a problem for a while people, it's amazing that we are only digging the graph. It should be common knowledge.
    • dood, on 05/14/2008, -0/+4Most diggers weren't in your Biology class 4 years ago -- I think the class filled up and some of them had to go other quarters or try another science.
    • kowalzki, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1The graph looks neat and simple in comparison with all those pie charts you keep getting now. It's a nice graphical representation of a well-known problem. That's why ppl like it. PLus, it looks like a glacier!
  • nullcodes, on 05/14/2008, -1/+39All water, sea water, pissed in water, etc. can be purified. Furthermore, water never gets used up, it just changes in purity (for example all the molecules of water you drink ends up back in the environment as piss or sweat or breath etc.). There is more than enough water on the earth for everyone's consumption.

    Three things are the cause of problem

    1. Lack of canals or pipelines to carry the water to people (this too is actually an energy problem .. it's running excavators is too expensive to build the canals etc.)
    2. Lack of energy for desalinating or purifying the water
    3. Lack of adequate sanitation facilities


    Build more solar power plants (or nuclear, but I wont say it since that will distract the argument) and the problem goes away.
    • lilsis, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3best post in the thread. the water isn't going anywhere. the problem is we make it dirty.
    • Zaggynl, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PY-- DESALINIZATION PLANTS!
    • Suricou, on 05/14/2008, -0/+5It occurs to me that using solar power directly for desalination could be very efficient - rather than use the sun to heat water to make steam to drive turbines to transmit power to the desalination plant, why not just use the sun to boil water and condense it immediatly? You could even stick a turbine in the middle and still get a bit of power out - not so much as in a dedicated solar power system, but enough to run the pumps bringing in saltwater. All you need is a large sunny location close enough to the coast to run intake and waste pipes and close enough to a city to run an outlet.
      • Suricou, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3How very, very strange... when not logged in, a word of my post is censored - replaced by the ***** symbol. This word that is so dangerous it must be hidden is... 'Saltwater.' I wonder what strange regex runs the Digg swear-filter.
      • nullcodes, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2I believe it'll still be cheaper to run the water through desalination filters, it costs 30 something cents per cubic square meter of water (that's a LOT of water)..I think you would need to cover a huge area of land to have the water evaporateand then condense etc. and then you need to scrape off the salt it evaporated from etc. so there are expenses in doing it the way you say. I don't know for sure about the costs involkved in your method .. but that's the way it seems to me (that it'll be more expensive).
        • Suricou, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1I was thinking of reducing, not entirely evaporating - evaporate off some water but not all, then you can just pump the brine left back to the sea. It depends on area, I think - if there is a lot of skilled labor and support infrastructure, reverse osmosis might very well be cheaper. But in less developed countries where land is cheap, skills expensive and capital short, simple solar distilation might win.
    • known, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Is there a cost effective way to distribute bottled HOT water at 50 degrees centigrade?
    • ciaran036, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3Basically, too many people. Not saying we need depopulated but it would be wise to keep birth rates low. Adoption is a good idea. The more children you have, the more likely that those children or children somewhere less fortunate will suffer because of lack of resources.
      • Suricou, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1I understand what you say, but after a few reflections through the hall of funhouse mirrors that is politics it will be heard as 'We must ban children to save Mother Gaia from our selfish ways' and you will be dismissed as a hemp-wearing hippy. Politics is fun - noone need attack their opponent's actual arguments when a straw man is so much easier.
    • antdude, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Water can go away. If we take it to space or something.
  • sherbertbones, on 05/14/2008, -7/+2Isn't this public knowledge? Watch the news people.
    • Knucklecallus, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Haha, a Digg user telling other Digg users to watch the news.
  • jjpertusch, on 05/14/2008, -3/+7damn, where be the water go at?
  • nullcodes, on 05/14/2008, -0/+7I also want to point out that the cost of desalinating a whole cubic meter of water (that's a lot if you think about it) is measured in pennies. So it's really a water distribution and desalination/purification issue we're looking at. Sure it's nowhere near as cheap as tapping available freshwater (1 or 2 cents) .. but it's not THAT expensive either.
    • Peko, on 05/14/2008, -1/+3I would like to mention that $100 can also be measured in pennies. Just sayin'
  • uberskib, on 05/14/2008, -4/+8What software packages are used to create such pretty graphs?
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