– If water is constantly recycled, why are we concerned about conservation?
In: Planetary Science
Not every clean water source we use replenishes at the rate we use it. For example, much of the US depends not on the water cycle, but on aquifers, that are limited in amount and refill *very slowly.* And, using more water from aquifers doesn’t mean the clean water in the world will increase by that amount after it is used. There’s *lots* of water in the global system, and that additional amount we are adding makes little difference–after all, the vast majority of water is in the ocean (~96%), and a vast majority of fresh water is ice (~70% of that remaining ~4%).
Using more water than our fresh water sources can replenish genuinely means less for the future, or much more quickly needing to find other sources, which our system isn’t equipped to accommodate now or in the near future–nor are we investing in it enough for it to be viable soon to meet our demands.
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