Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Global distribution of the world's water

(I just think the colors in this chart are pretty.)
(Click to enlarge.)

3 comments:

  1. That graphic makes me shake my head! What a fragile existence we have. Does the source give distribution of fresh water by country?

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  2. No, but that's an interesting question. It's a more complicated question than it might seem, because you'd have to ask if you want all fresh water by country, or just accessible fresh water by country (excluding glaciers and perma frost and such).

    You'd also want to take into account some economic issues, like how many places in Africa have plenty of ground water but they can't access it because they don't have the money to dig wells.

    I keep thinking about how Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers (the size of small cities) produce way more fresh water than they need just as a byproduct of using seawater in the cooling process. It seems like there should be potential in building nuclear power plants in drought-ridden countries that suck in seawater from the ocean and spit out both fresh water and cheap electricity.

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  3. That graph is not completely accurate - I keep a gallon jug in the garage that is "off grid".

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