Quote:
Originally Posted by PaugusBayFireFighter
I never really questioned the "wasting water" phrase as a kid but as an adult I have come to look at that phrase the same way I do "you'll catch a cold if you go outside without a jacket " or "Don't go swimming after you eat or you'll get a cramp and drown", both myths. I wonder how running your faucet is really wasting water? You pay for it and it ends up back in your faucet eventually. We have no less or no more water on this planet than we did 100 years ago and there's very little difference of water content since the oceans were formed.
Truth is we abuse the natural "water cycle" with plastics and other environmental waste, that slows the cycle. Some day we will pay if bad habits don't change.
You may be wasting money when you let the water run, but the water isn't gone forever.
I'm not questioning the idea of conserving and preserving water, I'm questioning the old phrase "wasting".
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What you say is true and thanks to the hydrologic cycle, we drink and bathe in the same H2O that rained on the dinosaurs.
However...water shortages are really a problem of distribution. We may have enough freshwater on Earth to meet the global population's current needs, but we can't always make it available where it's needed, when it's needed, and in the quality in which it's needed.
You can think of a community's water supply as a bank balance: If the community takes out more than can be returned in a timely fashion, it may reach a point at which it doesn't have enough water to grow crops, wash clothes, or flush toilets. Communities withdraw water from local surface waters (such as rivers, lakes, or reservoirs), groundwater aquifers, or both. Those sources do eventually get replenished by precipitation, but that can be a very long, slow process—with groundwater, for example, it can take hundreds or even thousands of years. Storing the water is a challenge as well: According to a 2003 report from the Government Accountability Office, the holding capacity of the United States' existing reservoirs may be declining due to aging dams and increased sedimentation. Constructing new dams is not only expensive but can also damage aquatic ecosystems.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health...verywhere.html