The component of the natural
environment I want to measure is water. Water has three states. They are solid,
liquid and gas. If one checks the water cycle, one should note how water passes
through the three states (my last post). There are two kinds of water. They are
freshwater and saltwater. Chemically water is made up of two atoms of hydrogen
and one atom of oxygen (H₂O). These two reactive elements and other elements,
as basic substances, constitute the natural environment, and atoms are the
basic building blocks of elements. One of the properties of water that makes it
a sine quo non in life is that it is solvent. Water forms more than one half of
the human body. One cannot overlook the need for water in our everyday lives.
Indeed water sustains life of living things. In religion water has a very
important place; in Christianity for example, being dipped in water symbolizes
washing away of sins, and rebirth.
97% of water on planet Earth is
saltwater and about 3% is freshwater.
SALTWATER
The water bodies in the natural
environment that are salty are mainly oceans (volume- 321,000,000 cubic miles
or 1,338,000,000 cubic kilometers). Water is said to be salty or saline when it
has a certain amount of salt dissolved in it. The standard for ascertaining saltwater
is done by measuring salt concentration in parts per million (ppm). For water
to be saline it must have a concentration of more than 1000 ppm of dissolved salt.
The salt content of ocean water is 35,000 ppm. The entirety of water on Earth
in terms of volume is 332,500,000 cubic miles or 1,386,000,000 cubic
kilometers. A cubic mile is the volume of a cube measuring one mile on each
side. The World ocean holds almost all the saline water or saltwater in the
hydrosphere. An ocean is a body of salt water, all the oceans together form the
World Ocean. There are five oceans in the natural environment. They are the Pacific
Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean and Artic Ocean. Saltwater
as a whole covers 72% of the Earth’s surface, and the world ocean alone covers
71% of the Earth’s surface.
FRESHWATER
Freshwater constitutes about 3%
per cent of the Earth’s hydrosphere. They could be found as ground water,
icecaps and glaciers, and as surface water, rivers, lakes and swamps.
1) Ground water- 30.1%
2) Icecaps and Glaciers- 68.7%
3) Surface water- 0.3%:
Rivers- 2%
Swamps- 11%
Lakes- 87%
4) Others- 0.9%
WATER
POLLUTION
Water is a great and massive
resource put at the disposal of man. The question is how well is man managing
this resource, a resource without which they cannot survive? Population
explosion appears to be a threat to water resources. Industry, agriculture and
others are putting pressure on the Earth’s water resources. As if that is not
enough man is depositing all manner of waste into the water bodies. An example
is plastic waste that is dumped into the oceans. In some parts of the world
human excreta is deposited into the ocean. In Ghana for example, through galamsey,
illegal artisanal mining, mercury is being released into water bodies. Industrial
wastes are deposited into water bodies. A few days ago it was said that a third
of the coral reef in Australian waters has been bleached-the coral reef has
lost its natural color. This was attributed to global warming.
PARTING SHOT
If for nothing at all we must
know that we are composed of water. A source of that water is fresh water, and
even saline water which has undergone desalination. I suppose man the smartest
of all creatures, placed here on Earth to manage water resources among other resources,
ought to acknowledge that they are the cause of the depreciation of the said
resources. If we fail to pool our resources together in unity of purpose to
clean our life-sustaining water resources to give them the balance they require
we should be engineering the demise of our civilization.
Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean
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