Water Everywhere And Not a Drop to Drink?

Does anyone forget the first time they saw the sea? I had seen lakes as a small boy growing up in Michigan, even the big lakes that stretched to the horizon. But oceans rumble and heave with a darker, stronger texture. My first ocean was the Atlantic, off the eastern coast of Florida. I was seven and I remember being tossed and pulled by the huge waves that even knocked my father off his feet.The earth's ocean - the famous seven seas - are powerful, probably the major force of nature. And they are the most important key to our survival.Humans are the great despoilers of the earth. Ever since we migrated out of Africa and we slowly, over the next 60,00 to 100,000 years, spread ourselves across the planet, we have been driving indigenous animals (and later peoples) into extinction. We have deforested huge tracts of land, poisoned water, dirtied the air all creatures breathe.Does everyone know that the human body consists of about 60% water? We take in about two quarts of water daily (by drinking it, in our food and in our breathing). The water in our bodies is mostly intracellulaire—inside the cells in all our tissues and organs. Cell membranes are selectively permeable, exchanging various body chemicals (electrolytes, gene messengers, hormones, peptides, etc.) and water.Water is critical to the maintenance of life. The blood that carries oxygen. glucose, amino acids, hormones and so many other life-supportive components to all the cells of our bodies is 92% water. The brain and heart are composed of 73% water. Ninety percent of bottled drinking water is contaminated by microplastics. Ordinary drinking water may contain "safe" contaminants that could eventually affect our health and our lives.Oceans are under attack from climate change: carbon dioxide gas, created by fossil fuel burning, is turning the oceans more acidic. This alteration of the ocean's chemistry has deleterious effects. The acidification is now proceeding at a rate ten times faster than in the previous 55 million years. Shellfish rely on carbonate ions to build their shells and these ions are decreasing. Corals are being similarly affected and may eventually dissolve..

"The United Nations estimates that in twenty years the global demand for potable water will exceed the supply by 40%."

.Oceans are also undergoing a pollution process now known as plastification: non-biodegradable plastic containers, plastic bags, abandoned fishing gear and fishnets, even plastic soda straws (Americans use 500 million a day!) are finding their way into the oceans where they are ingested by fish and attract adherent toxins all of which enter the food chain.High seas fishing is also threatening to reduce the population of fish life in the oceans of the world. Ultimately this means the loss of a major part of our food supply. The melting of glaciers in both the north and south poles may ultimately drown major cities around the world while decreasing the total land mass. As the human population continues to grow, this means a loss of arable land.The supply of drinking water is already decreasing. One in four of the world's largest cities cannot always meet the demand for fresh water. The United Nations estimates that in twenty years the global demand for potable water will exceed the supply by 40%. A water supply crisis is coming.Water, bodies of water large and small, natural and man-made, attract people to observe them, cuddle up to them, bathe in them, admire them for their variations in the color blue, their movements, their wave formations, their spewing from fountains, their cascades, even their storm-driven terrors. These bodies of water have forever drawn people to them. Their beauty is praised in poems and song and visual arts and even in dance and music.We use the power of flowing water to create energy, to drive mills and machinery. We divert water to irrigate crops, to feed our supplies of fresh water, to keep or lawns and gardens green and growing. We tame water to make fountain spectacles. Thirst, perhaps forming our most primitive appetite, can be quenched only by water or drinks based in water.We might say we have a fetish for water, for how we use it - and perhaps abuse it.  We transform water into alcohol, in all its many varieties, and use it for making tea and coffee which form critical, usually daily, moments in many peoples' lives.Water is so necessary to our lives and so prized for its many wonders that its endangerment is a concern we cannot, should not, flush away.