Water Consumption

• Importance of Freshwater

  • Human rely on _______ for crop irrigation, industry, and drinking water

  • Freshwater makes up _____ of the water in the Earth System - most of it is ______

  • Humans can obtain freshwater from

    • Fresh surface water, like rivers, lakes, and constructed reservoirs

    • Fresh groundwater

  • There are methods to generate _____ from saltwater, but they are energy intensive processes

freshwater; 2.5%; frozen; freshwater

• What We Use Water For

  • ______ _______ withdrawals estimate the amount of water extracted for use of industrial or commercial use (not supplied from a public supply system)

  • ________ withdrawals estimate the amount of water used for fish farming and fish hatcheries

  • ______ withdrawals estimated the amount of water used to extract natural resources, like petroleum and minerals

  • ______ ______ withdrawals estimate use in rural areas. This is typically through homeowner-owned groundwater wells

  • _____ _______: much electricity is created by boiling water, which turns to steam and spins a turbine. The rotation of the turbine generates electricity. This is how fossil fuel, nuclear, and geothermal power plants generate electricity

  • Public Supply

    • Public water supply or _____ ______ is the water that comes out of your tap in Atlanta. It's supplied by a public utility, and it's what we use for our basic lives: drinking, cleaning, washing, and cooking

    • If you go to a rural location that has its own well, that would be considered "______ ________" water

  
  

Self-Supplied Industrial; Aquiculture; Mining; Self-Supplied Domestic; Thermoelectric Power; municipal water; self-supplied domestic

• Ogallala Aquifer aka the ____ _____ _____

  • The _______ aquifer in the US; underlies ______ states

  • Estimated to contain _____ trillion gallons of water (enough to cover the state of Texas with 1 ft of water)

  • An estimated _____ billion gallons are withdrawn annually

  • 95% of pumped water from the Ogallala is used for _______

  • The bulk of the water infiltrated at the end of the last ice age, when glacial meltwater flowed off the _____ ______

  • It's currently recharged by ________, but not enough to balance the rate of pumping for ________

  • USGS estimates that there are _______ years of water left in the Ogallala Aquifer

High Plains Aquifer; largest; eight; 3; 32; irrigation; Rocky Mountains; precipitation; irrigation; 50-100

• Water Scarcity occurs when the demand for water ________ the supply

  • ______ of the global population (4.0 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year

  • Climate change and population growth _______ water scarcity

  • For many women and girls, water scarcity means _______ laborious, time-consuming water collection, putting them at risk of attack and often precluding them from education or work

exceeding; Two-thirds; exacerbate; more

• Droughts

  • A ______ occurs when there is a deficiency in precipitation over an extended period of time (usually a season or more), resulting in a water shortage

  • By 2050, three out of four people worldwide could face drought impacts. Current drought costs already exceed $_____b/year

  • Drought impacts can be organized into three main types:

    1. _______ Impacts:

       1. _____ of crop income if water is not available for irrigation

       2. _____ agricultural costs if farmers have to buy water

       3. ________ of crops or timber due to wildfire

       4. ________ electricity costs for areas reliant on thermoelectric or hydroelectric power

    2. Environmental Impacts

       1. _______ of habitat as surface- and ground-water levels decline

       2. ______ of soils

       3. _____ of wildlife

       4. Wildfires

    3. Social Impacts

       1. _______ issues due to dust

       2. ______ recreational activities

       3. _____ of income, property, or life due to wildfires

drought; 307; Economic; Loss; Increased; Loss; Increased; Destruction; Erosion; Migration; Respiratory; Fewer; Loss

• Footprints

  • Various footprint calculators are available online. These tell you about your _______ and offer ideas to reduce your consumption (and shrink your footprint)

consumption

• Direct Daily Water Consumption

  • ____ _____ _____ is the amount of actual water that you use in a day for your regular activities, like drinking, showering, flushing your toilet, etc.

Direct water usage

• How Much Water You Actually

  • Direct water usage is typically ______ compared to your indirect water usage

  • Indirect water usage or _____ _____ considers the water used to produce the other items you use in your daily life, like

    • Electricity

    • Clothing

    • Food

  • Your total water consumption is referred to as your _____ _____

  • _____ _____ _____: to prepare the pasta, you place it in a pot of boiling water. This pot of boiling water, and the water you use to rinse it, is the product's direct water usage

  • Indirect water usage or _____ ______:

    • Pasta is made form the plant wheat, which requires water to grow

    • Water is consumed to generate electricity: electricity to wash and process the wheat into flour and pasta

    • Water is used to refine crude oil into products like gasoline and diesel fuel: tractors that maintain the crops and harvest the wheat and trucks to transport the products consume petroleum

small; virtual water; water footprint; Direct water usage; virtual water

• Indirect/Virtual Water and International Trade

  • _____ is used in the production of many goods. That water is not literally in the end product, but was used to create the product

    • Thus, global trade moves virtual water across the globe. This is called the ____ _____ _____

Water; virtual water trade