Name: 【TED-Ed】Where we get our fresh water - Christiana Z. Peppard
Uploaded: 2013-05-27T15:19:29.000Z
Duration: 3 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

At birth, our bodies are roughly 75% water.

Adverbs of manner

We remain mostly water for the rest of our lives.

Adverbs of degree

We cannot survive even a week without fresh water.

So, how much usable water is there on Earth?

That little sliver of liquid sustains human life on Earth,

and even that is broken down into smaller parts:

All the liquid water above ground is surface water

0.3% of all fresh water is surface water.

but it accounts for little streams all over the planet.

All rivers, including the Nile, the Jordan, and the Mississippi,

like Victoria, the Great Lakes, and Baikal.

freeze up to 70% of the planet's fresh water.

but it isn't available for human use in a regular way.

Finally, nearly 30% of all water on Earth is ground water.

As the name suggests, that's water in the ground.

It can rest still and deep in huge caverns,

or it can snuggle in the little crevices of rock and pebble.

The upshot - thank goodness for ground water!

but it is much more plentiful than surface water.

Without ground water, our societies would be parched.

As a result of industrialization and population growth,

demand for fresh water skyrocketed in the last century.

Still, some general information can help us

And, what sectors consume the most fresh water?

Well, the United States consumes the most water

per capita of any country in the entire world,

and large industrializing nations like China.

But, this doesn't tell us what water is being used for.

If we ask what kinds of uses water is going towards,

Agriculture accounts for roughly 70% of global fresh water consumption.

Again, remember the numbers vary by region,

and the more water is required to produce our food.

Furthermore, 22% of all fresh water worldwide

This includes the production of electricity,

and the manufacturing of all manner of goods,

- it's a drop in the bucket of overall water use.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

【TED-Ed】Where we get our fresh water - Christiana Z. Peppard

literally

entire

significant

context