Water is crucial to life; wait, back up: water IS life.
Every organism on Earth is partially made up of it and every species has to continually have access to it.
But since almost three-quarters of Earth is covered in non-consumable (for land-dwelling creatures at least) saltwater, how in the world do the trillions of humans, animals, and plants get the freshwater they need? After all, nearly 98% of the world's water is unusable saltwater, and around 2% of the available freshwater is trapped in ice caps-leaving humans less than 1%.
The Skinny on the Bottled Water Industry Bottled water manufacturers have gotten a bad rap over the last couple of decades, and perhaps rightfully so.
Big conglomerates like Aquafina and Dasani make patrons believe that their product is far safer, far better tasting than tap water.
Yet, a major federal study recently revealed that over one-third of bottled water is or is of the same quality of tap water: sometimes even worse.
Couple that with the fact that discarded plastic bottles could circle the Earth hundreds of times every year-and you'll probably want to switch to tap water, perhaps in tandem with a quality filter.
Consider the fact that your average bottle of water costs up to 10,000 times that of an 8-ounce glass of water from your tap.
Now, guess how much revenue bottled water companies reaped from selling ludicrously overpriced water in 2008: over $38 billion on over 34 billion gallons.
Globally, Water Supply and Demand Is Detrimentally Unbalanced According the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1.
138% of Earth's human population lacks access to freshwater.
The countries where the majority of these people live-around the Middle East and Northern Africa-water shortages continue to deprive millions of their most basic, essential need: a clean water supply.
Much of the problem is blamed on excessive crop irrigation, while many cite that the rest of the world has largely turned a blind eye to it.
Over Half of Americans Live on Groundwater ...
and there's no better example of this than the monstrous Ogallala Aquifer-which runs about 800 miles under the United States, primarily in the Midwest, and is considered one of the largest natural aquifers in the world.
It supplies Americans with millions of gallons of water for drinking, industry, as well as crop irrigation.
Groundwater lies in-between (in pockets) the soil, sand, and rock in the ground.
It gets there mainly from precipitation, but also from lakes and rivers.
Aquifer is the term used to describe the open pockets between soil and rock underground; most of these 'pockets' reside above Earth's impermeable layers, which are layers of rock and sand that water cannot penetrate.
Every organism on Earth is partially made up of it and every species has to continually have access to it.
But since almost three-quarters of Earth is covered in non-consumable (for land-dwelling creatures at least) saltwater, how in the world do the trillions of humans, animals, and plants get the freshwater they need? After all, nearly 98% of the world's water is unusable saltwater, and around 2% of the available freshwater is trapped in ice caps-leaving humans less than 1%.
The Skinny on the Bottled Water Industry Bottled water manufacturers have gotten a bad rap over the last couple of decades, and perhaps rightfully so.
Big conglomerates like Aquafina and Dasani make patrons believe that their product is far safer, far better tasting than tap water.
Yet, a major federal study recently revealed that over one-third of bottled water is or is of the same quality of tap water: sometimes even worse.
Couple that with the fact that discarded plastic bottles could circle the Earth hundreds of times every year-and you'll probably want to switch to tap water, perhaps in tandem with a quality filter.
Consider the fact that your average bottle of water costs up to 10,000 times that of an 8-ounce glass of water from your tap.
Now, guess how much revenue bottled water companies reaped from selling ludicrously overpriced water in 2008: over $38 billion on over 34 billion gallons.
Globally, Water Supply and Demand Is Detrimentally Unbalanced According the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1.
138% of Earth's human population lacks access to freshwater.
The countries where the majority of these people live-around the Middle East and Northern Africa-water shortages continue to deprive millions of their most basic, essential need: a clean water supply.
Much of the problem is blamed on excessive crop irrigation, while many cite that the rest of the world has largely turned a blind eye to it.
Over Half of Americans Live on Groundwater ...
and there's no better example of this than the monstrous Ogallala Aquifer-which runs about 800 miles under the United States, primarily in the Midwest, and is considered one of the largest natural aquifers in the world.
It supplies Americans with millions of gallons of water for drinking, industry, as well as crop irrigation.
Groundwater lies in-between (in pockets) the soil, sand, and rock in the ground.
It gets there mainly from precipitation, but also from lakes and rivers.
Aquifer is the term used to describe the open pockets between soil and rock underground; most of these 'pockets' reside above Earth's impermeable layers, which are layers of rock and sand that water cannot penetrate.
Source...