[google is very unhelpful, it’s broken now. I can’t find any posts explaining the specific thing I want to know]
Was asked this question by a friend.
When we say that producing one item of clothing uses x amount of water. She doesn’t see the harm because the water used to grow cotton doesn’t disappear “it’s part of the cycle”.
Pollution must be a factor right? There is a difference between drinking water, saltwater and contaminated water? (Surely they’re not using clean drinking water for production?)
Exasperated by the fact that production is usually performed in areas with poor regulation/infrastructure.
(Is it inherently damaging, or damaging because of how it’s performed?)
Is the water “used” because it becomes vapor? Is it used because the molecules are taken apart? Either way shouldn’t this technically be reversible?
[I am not very articulate, and I find it very difficult to organize my thoughts to words. This question ended up frustratingly inprecise!]
Edit: thanks for the good responses:)
In: Biology
As others have said in many different ways, the applicable resource isn’t water, it’s clean usable water, not at all the same thing.
Polluted runoff from cropland is water, but it’s not going to contribute to healthy river ecosystems. Fish going extinct because water has been diverted from their rivers is a real problem.
There are agricultural techniques that help keep usable water in the soil instead of letting it evaporate, but they aren’t suitable for all crops and in general are more expensive.
Aquifers are like huge sponges a hundred meters down, they can hold vast amounts of water with a natural cycle refilling them, but if we pump out too much water too fast the sponge is crushed flat by the weight of the ground and will never refill — the nice convenient source of water is just permanently gone.
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