What would Earth be like without water?

How often do you think about water? Only when your thirsty? When going fishing or swimming? Water is everywhere, even in the desert. 

First of all, the human body is composed of 70 percent water. While the human body can endure a month without food, it can only go a week without water. Likewise, all plants and animals need water to survive. 

Sockeye salmon, like all animals, need water to survive

Animals and plants, including humans, obtain most of their water from rivers, lakes and groundwater--the main sources of freshwater on earth. Amazingly, this accessible freshwater only comprises one percent of all the water on earth. Ninety-nine percent of earth’s water is unusable to us. 

The majority of water is salt water (97.5 percent). Freshwater accounts for only 2.5 percent of total water and of that 68.6 percent is locked in glaciers and icecaps (mainly Greenland and Antarctica), 30.1 percent is groundwater and the remaining 1.3 percent is surface water and other freshwater sources (such as atmospheric water). 

Ice crystals that look like snowflakes on a frozen puddle

If all the water on earth was contained in a gallon jug, the freshwater available to us would be about one tablespoon (less than one percent). Rivers and lakes only constitute a small portion of all the water in the world and one lake, Lake Baikal, contains 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen freshwater. Located in southeast Siberia, Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world (over 5,000 feet) and the most voluminous freshwater lake. 

In regards to water, the earth is a closed system, much like a terrarium. The earth doesn’t gain or lose water, except for the occasional incoming meteor. The same water molecules that were on earth millions of years ago are still present today. The water coming from your faucet may have eroded part of the Grand Canyon or been ingested by a woolly mammoth. 

The Grand Canyon was formed by the erosive forces of water

On average, during a 100-year period a single water molecule (H20) will spend 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, two weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere. 

Water is unique in that it is the only substance naturally found on earth in all three forms: liquid, solid and gas. How many naturally occurring liquids can you think of that don’t contain water?

What would the world be like without ice? No ice fishing, glaciers or ice cubes. What if ice didn’t float? There would be no polar ice cap. Since water expands when it freezes, it becomes less dense than liquid water and floats (unlike other liquids). 

Water can form different shaped ice crystals when freezing

Water vapor in the atmosphere only comprises 0.001 percent of total water. Without water in the atmosphere, there wouldn’t be the formation of clouds or precipitation. Ninety percent of atmospheric water comes from evaporation of surface water and the other ten percent comes from transpiration by plants. 

Water is an integral part of earth: from the plants and animals it sustains to the land it erodes through water and ice. Earth would be a desolate place without water. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald February 16, 2012.