Recognizing that there was so little freshwater on the Earth's surface, we decided to actually see if there were little pockets of freshwater for people to use as their drinking source. After turning to Google Maps, we kind of came up short. We sat in a scientist circle trying to make sense of our use of Google Maps as we looked for freshwater near various cities across the United States. Here's what we figured out:
1. Some places in the US have literally NO freshwater nearby...like for miles and miles. They may be close to salt water, but we have figured out that cleaning salt water through boiling it is lengthy, expensive and doesn't produce a lot.
2. Some places do have freshwater nearby, but the size of those bodies of water are small. They can't possibly supply enough water for each person in the population (the average person in the US uses 90 gallons of water daily).
3. Some of the freshwater sources near people are rivers. We're concerned that towns/cities would get their drinking water from the same place that treated water ends up.
SO WHAT DO PEOPLE DO!?!?!?! Where do they get their freshwater from if they don't have ANY nearby?!?!?!
1. Some places in the US have literally NO freshwater nearby...like for miles and miles. They may be close to salt water, but we have figured out that cleaning salt water through boiling it is lengthy, expensive and doesn't produce a lot.
2. Some places do have freshwater nearby, but the size of those bodies of water are small. They can't possibly supply enough water for each person in the population (the average person in the US uses 90 gallons of water daily).
3. Some of the freshwater sources near people are rivers. We're concerned that towns/cities would get their drinking water from the same place that treated water ends up.
SO WHAT DO PEOPLE DO!?!?!?! Where do they get their freshwater from if they don't have ANY nearby?!?!?!