A Water Planet


If it were spread evenly over the surface of the planet, the world’s water would form a global ocean 1.5 miles [2.5 km] deep, states the magazine People & the Planet. In fact, all the earth’s land surfaces could fit inside the Pacific Ocean basin with plenty of room to spare. Yet, of all the earth’s vast reserves of water, only 3 percent is fresh, not salty. And only 1 percent of the planet’s freshwater is readily accessible to humankind. The rest is locked up in glaciers and ice caps or lies underground. Even so, that 1 percent is enough to sustain two or three times the world’s present population. "Unfortunately," laments the magazine, "freshwater is very unevenly distributed and is wasted everywhere." Consequently, according to one estimate, two billion of the earth’s inhabitants live in regions where water is critically scarce