Water - The Foundation of Life - An Essay about the Absolute Importance of Water

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1 Introduction

This spring term we were given an opportunity to learn more about water. Since I am always drawn to moral values I chose to write about water as a necessity for mankind and also about the pollution of it and how that affects us. Immediately questions like “Can the pollution problem be solved in time? How serious is the situation when it comes to the pollution of freshwater? Are we digging our own grave or can we still do something about it? ” popped up in my head. Of course this is a large subject so therefore have I drawn a line that it’s only going to be about the pollution and lack of freshwater. So last of all I just want to say:
Enjoy!

1.1 Purpose

The purpose of this work is first of all to do an essay after a scientific method and see how it is to prepare myself for my special project but also to learn more about water and make my surrounding and myself more aware about what we can do. Therefore I chose a subject that allows a lot of discussion and has a lot of aspects to look from to make it easier for me to finish it in a discussion and for people to create thoughts concerning freshwater.

1.2 Questions

1 How much freshwater is there on the earth and where can you find it?
2 What is water?
3 How is it polluted?
4 Why is water so important to us or how does the lack of it affect us?
5 How serious is the situation in the world today?
6 Is there a solution to the lack and pollution of water?

1.3 Method

This is an essay that is not to answer all the questions above but mealy touch the topic, represent facts and my own opinions to be able to make way for an oral discussion and analysis. As a summery it is both a serious essay, made after a scientific method, and an oral presentation in which I will tell the listeners what conclusions I have made during and after my work. Mostly I plan to use the Internet but since I know that especially the UN has a lot of facts concerning pollution of water I think that I also will use a lot of literature. I’m also a person who likes to discuss with other people and exchange knowledge and opinions so I’m going to do that too and combine it with what I, myself, already know.

1.4 Criticism of Sources

During my work I have used mostly information from encyclopaedias on the web and from oral discussions with Sara Anderson, who studies in Uppsala to become an engineer with concentration on water. The information that I have got from her is of course slanted and so is also the one from the UN-books which function as a source to make people more aware about their environment. For me this hasn’t been something negative since that is how I wanted to make my work and it hasn’t made me reflect over the reliability of the sources. Combined with the information from the encyclopaedias it has constituted a stabile ground for me the stand upon and write my essay.


2 Background

In every religion, in every man’s life, in every scrape of this earth’s long history there is one thing that never has lost its importance to our existence and all the other creatures of this world. That thing is Water. The Christians usually call it “Holy Water”, the Hindus “Water of Life”, the Muslims “Drops of Faith” , the Nature religions “Mother”. The ancient Greece even went as far as to say that it is one of the elements of the earth, one of the things that everything is made of. In all our lives, no matter where or when we live, no matter who or what we are, we all depend on its existence knowing that without it we would be nothing and the worst of all, we would never have been here at all. It doesn’t just own a symbolic value; it owns a sense of realisation that is so powerful that no one can deny that we are desperate for it.

2.1 A Brief History

In the middle of the night a shadow of a man mowed slowly down the road that led towards the great Nile. His features could only be revealed to those with a very keen eye but still, there he was. A nightly breeze quietly touched him but even though this, his hair didn’t stir a bit as he continued walking. A long time had there been since he, with the might and power that was only owned by a true pharaoh, reined the earth but as the wise men said:
“Some things never die.”
The shadow mowed past the houses that filled spaces around the square and everywhere he went a light seemed to shine from him. It was said that it symbolised his divine greatness and that everything he touched of old would shine with the glamour it once had owned in ancient days.
The powerful manly shadow past another hill and suddenly there it was, flowing like silver in the blue cold shimmer of the moonlight. Once it had been the heart of one of the most powerful civilisations the world had ever endured, the Nile. It floated beneath him like an everlasting pulse with a smooth gesture and the great shape of the pharaoh bowed his head against the ground as a greeting to the mother of all mothers. In the time that had belonged to him, nearly 4000 years ago, they had praised her for what she truly was; she who gave life. Now few remained to hail her as she deserved but still there she was as undying as the fundaments of the world itself.

Those who claimed to have stood near enough saw the shadow slowly rise with a smile on his lips and started to wade out in the water that engulfed him as smooth as a silk robe. Immediately a soft light sprang to life around him and the womb of Egypt once more became the scene of tranquillisation that it had taken on every time he touched it, those long, long years ago. The shadow moved on until it faded away in the dim light of the dawn but at special occasions it would slowly walk the same path it once had, then surrounded by a massive crowd that hailed him for what he was, a God, son of the Nile…

***

When the earth was made millions of millions of millions of years ago all religions (except the Hindus, they have many myths about our origin, the most popular is about the sacrifice of Purusha that resulted in the earths inhabitants ) agree together with the scientists that the water played a large role and had a vital importance for our existence. (That is about the only thing they agree about so it has to mean something).
After the big beasts had roamed the earth and the first human being rose herself to her feet, the first civilisations started to appear around the world’s biggest rivers and you can probably say that for all we know that is no coincidence. First were Mesopotamia, then upper and lower Egypt, then the civilisations around Indus and the Huang He. If we take a look at our own history we can find that the places our ancestors first habited was the places around the biggest lakes, Vänern, Vättern and Mälaren. Not only is it essential to our survival but also to our well-being and social standard. Sweden is indeed blessed with our many lakes and clean subsoil water and there are not many more countries that can boost with that in the world. Thanks to this we have got ourselves a social standard above many of the other countries and we all owe it to the water.

There are some other aspects about the importance that are worth taking up and one of them is war. “What has that got to do with water?” you might say to yourselves, but the fact is that the weather has ended a lot of wars in favour or in disaster to either nation. The famous Napoleon might have won his battle in Waterloo 1815 if the weather had been better with a clearer sight, Sweden might have been Danish if not a thick fog had hidden the Swedish troops in the battle of Gestrilien 1210 and one thing that is for certain is that USA would have won the war in Vietnam if it hadn’t been for the heavy rain that fell and turned the landing strip to a sea of mud. If that hadn’t been the case the planes had been able to take off and drop the bombs onto the population of Vietnam and Cambodia and not only won an important psychological battle but maybe also the entire war. One of the most well known events in the history of wars though, is the German march into Russia in the middle of the summer that would seal the destiny for the third Reich. In that autumn the rain fell as it never had before which made the advance of the German troops very slow. It also made it almost impossible for them to transport their heavy arms and weapons and for their highly developed tanks to stand ground against the Russian army. In the winter the blizzards froze the ground and laid heavy layers of snow on the now starving army. Then, as a final trick of death, the extreme cold tore the German army apart and made as many as a million freeze to death . After that the power of Hitler’s dream started its way towards the wreck of the axis powers and the final victory of the allies. For us these are events of major importance in which the weather has played a large role if not the vastest importance of all because for all we know, Germany might have won the battle of Russia if the winter had been milder and then where would we have been? How many more would have died? Would Germany have been defeated at all? Would we be living in the third Reich, within Hitler’s dream by now? When everything comes around, life, the way we live it, always will depend on the small changes, it will always be settled upon smaller incidents.

In all cases the water plays a large role in both the economical, political and social life of all living creatures that inhabits this blue planet. That is a fact we cannot deny. Its magical touch can make us become a sea of tranquillisation or make us roar with despair as it wipes away our lives. It has the power to change the history and recreate it without a thought of whom it benefits. No matter what, it is always there… as undying as the fundaments of the earth.


3 Results

When the NASA in Huston a couple of weeks ago broke the news that they had found water on Mars all known newspapers declared that they had found “Life on Mars!” To these stunning news it’s obvious that we are aware of the waters importance for all forms of known life and that we would be nothing without it. It also tells us how we are going to be if the water disappears, how the green woods and glittering water will be gone and all that will be left is a red soil, a desert landscape where nothing can live.

3.1 Basic facts – What is water?

The earth consists of about seventy percent water but it is only two percent of those that matters for our survival and even less that we can use to drink. In fact only 0.004 percent of all the water in the world is to be found in rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, inland seas and as rain, snow and ice. The other two percent is bound in the large areas with permafrost and in the great glaciers on the poles of the earth.

As a substance the water consists of a chemical compound between hydrogen and oxygen and this forms H2O, which is the chemical term . It is a covalent bond in which two electrons are shared by two atoms and is called a Lewis structure. According to the Lewis structure, the water molecule has this form because hydrogen only can form one covalent bond together with the oxygen. This because the only lone pair it has is used to form the bond. That means shortly that water cannot bind itself together with another molecule. The formation illustrates the “octet rule” which says that any atom (other than hydrogen and helium) tends to form bonds until it is surrounded by eight valence electrons . If its structure weren’t like this it would be devastating for all life on earth because then if would be able to bond with many other kinds of molecules and the result of that maybe wouldn’t have been life bringing.

In the industries today the water is indispensable because of its ability to dissolve almost anything. Substances that can be dissolved in water are said to be hydrophilic and substances that can’t are hydrophobic. The process when one substance is being dissolved in one other is called hydration. This capacity is irreplaceable and besides that the water possesses a lot of special qualities that are unique for the substance. That it at normal atmospheric pressure begins to boil at one hundred °C and freezes at zero °C depends on the hydrological bonds between the molecules. If they hadn’t existed the boiling point would have been at eighty °C and the melting point at one hundred °C.
The water molecules reaches it highest density at four °C which plays a large role in the nature because it makes the blending in the lakes between hot and cold water in the spring and the autumn possible, a process that is indispensable for the marine life. When the temperature climbs lower than four °C the molecules begin to move very slowly until they at zero °C don’t move at all. Then the molecules form a special pattern and the density is very low. This means that frozen water is lighter than melted. With a rising temperature the molecules expand like any normal liquid fluid and begin to move faster and faster. At one hundred °C the molecules moves so fast that they begin to boil. At this point it can be used to heathen food and it’s what we mostly use it for but because of its rare talent to store heat we also use it to warm our homes when it is cold. The special qualities of water makes its value for us even more significant and the fact that we can not live without it becomes more and more clear the more we know about it.

3.2 The natural cycle of water

The transport of water is a part of a global rotation where the water is found like most substances as liquid-, solid- or gas form. The process when water goes from solid to liquid and finally to gas is called the hydrological cycle and depends on the solar energy combined with the force of gravity .

From all kinds of surface on land, which also includes transpiration from different kinds of organisms, evaporation settles because of the heat from the sun. This evaporation turns into condensation when the temperature is low enough and becomes clouds which really are a cluster of many, many drops of water. When the pressure of the atmosphere becomes higher and the temperature lower, like when the clouds have to rise because of mountains, the cloud no longer can carry as much condense. To be able to rise it has to be lighter and because of this the water begins to come down as snow of rain. (In other areas where mountains aren’t around the water falls down because of that the cloud can’t carry it anymore, it has become too heavy or because of a sudden change of temperature). The snow or rain falls down on the earth where some parts evaporate again, other are filling up the ground-water discharge or add their volume to the seas and lakes of the world. Some parts are also stored in ice and snow.

The amounts of water that is in movement are enormous but it is always bigger than the amount that comes down to the earth again in form of snow or rain. The leftovers are with the help of the winds carried to the continents where it falls down and helps to form rivers, creeks, lakes and subsoil water that we use in our daily life. As everything that has to do with water, the cycle of it is essential for our survival and if one thing in this hydration changes the life on earth also will drastically change for better or for worse.

3.3 A Presentation of Different Problems

One of the biggest challenges of the mankind is to make it possible for each and everyone of us to live a life of perfect satisfaction. In that struggle the environmental questions must be given a top priority where the essential need for water must be faced and know ledged. The fact that the need for water increased by one hundred percent during the nineties and that the groundwater level keep sinking makes it a fact that, in fifty years, two and a half billion people will have a lack of freshwater. This is a situation that the world can not face willingly. Such an era would be too devastating for all of us, especially when we know that today; eighteen percent (1.1 billion) of the world’s total population already are starving to death because of the lack of water . According to the UN two and a half billions are also struggling with bad sanitary conditions, foremost in Africa and Asia but the numbers who have gained entrance to clean water have increased by nine-hundred millions in ten years. That means that eighty-two percent can drink clean water by now, something to be very happy about. Even though, there are still too many that are malnourished in the world so the fight must go one but with a thought of the environment in the background for the sake of all of us and for the sake of our children.

3.3.1 The Price of Water

For her survival, a human being in a temperate climate has to drink at least two to three litres of water a day. In a tropical climate you’ll need at least the double, sometimes more. Here in Sweden where our bodies don’t secrete the same amount as in warmer countries, you only have to drink one to two litres but even here the fact is clear to us. If you don’t get water or some other liquid fluid you’ll die. In countries where the requirement of water is big, this is a problem with an enormous matter of importance. WHO recommends a minimum of eighty litres /person a day for cleaning, washing, cooking, personal hygiene etc. etc. but for most of the population in the world this is impossible to maintain. According to a statistic, women in Ethiopia spend 6 hours a day to carry home water and there are places where the draught is much worse. Even though it has to be done but the cost is high. In Sweden, thousand litres, delivered directly to the home, costs about seven SKR, compared to if you are buying the same amount of mineral water, you’ll have to pay twenty-five thousand (!) SKR. . As you probably can understand the water cost will enlarge even more in the countries where the lack of water is big and this leads to different kinds of problems like infection diseases and also various problems with irrigation.

In some countries with extreme requirement of water a form of what the scientists use to name “water stress” reins. This means that the population uses more water than comes down again and therefore will make things worse in the future. Of course there are different ways to prevent this from happening but there is no such money available and the ones who will pay the price for that is the next generation.

3.3.2 Infection Diseases in Water

In the industrial county of Kenya the children play games by jumping across dump drenches. As a child I remember how we used to play the same way but the drenches we jumped over then weren’t made of shit, urine, vomits from AIDS-ill people and food leftovers. The drenches that my brother and I competed to jump across weren’t clean but there the frogs thrived. In the slum of Kenya even a patient creature like that wouldn’t be able to survive for long, nor would a human being. For the people that live there diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A and other kinds of diseases are a part of the normal life. In Africa and South America the hygienic standard sometimes is equal to the one Europe had hundreds of years ago but even though not all places are as bad as that, the hygiene is never anywhere near good.

The drinking water in wells is easily infected by waste water and when the water is picked up it can also be infected by unwashed hands or bowls. In those way diseases like Cholera, Dysentery and Hepatitis A can flourish and spread from human to human. Bilharzias (shell-fever) and guinea worms represent an other kind of waterborne diseases where water-living parasites penetrate through the skin but also Malaria , the yellow fever and other similar diseases are direct causes of lack of water. For us these are infections that seldom are life threatening if you get the right treatment but for the inhabitants of the underdeveloped countries that are already weakened by dehydration, lack of food and other kinds of complaints the threat of the diseases is very real. We have to go back one hundred years to find the same situation in Sweden, before the industrialisation. Then the most feared disease was cholera that under the ninetieth century killed tens of thousands. Because of the infection risk they all had to be buried in certain cemeteries that very often were lying deep in a forest and even today you can see a sign that says “Cholera cemetery”. In countries that lacks water-purifying plants the cholera epidemics are spread very fast but luckily they don’t appear often, although all forms that bring similar symptoms aren’t cholera, 4 billions every year are stricken of diarrhoea. Of those two millions die, as many that would pass away if twenty jumbo jets would crash every day for a whole year.

In underdeveloped countries infections diseases that are connected to lack of water a huge problem that exterminate up to of people every year. Worst is it in Africa where estimably millions pass away every year in direct causes of infection diseases. This is a problem that because of its immense properties, seldom is overlooked with a positive eye. Even though a lot of water projects are established across the world it is not near enough to help the whole lot of them. Just a brief overlook at some of the countries positions in the world makes anyone shake its head and say “It’s impossible to solve”. In some ways it is right to say so but we must never forget that just because it can’t be solved completely we shouldn’t try to make it better.

3.3.3 Poverty-The Everlasting Struggles

According to a recent statistic made by the UN every dollar that the industrialised countries give away as aid and assistance is taken back by 9 dollars. When you hear that you are first of all stunned but then you begin to think what this really means. For the already poor countries that are struggling under the despotic domination of the World Bank the aid we give them means a lot but when that aid is turned into something else their struggle becomes more and more desperate. As we all know by our own knowledge the first thing that the state begin cut when we need to save money is the things that concerns the social life like hospitals, schools and day-care. At a first glance it is not so strange because these are the things that costs the most but when one starts to look at the results of it, it is clear that the consequences are grave. You can then start to imagine what the same thing means for the population of an underdeveloped country where one barley can survive. The “aid” they are given from us means the world and the things that it first goes to by request are the inhabitants. I don’t feel like I have to say anything more because you can all see that if the help vanishes the situation will degenerate into something that is completely out of hand.

One of the biggest environmental problems is said to be the mounting gap between the rich and the poor. By now a fifth of the world’s population live a life where nothing is missing, some might say a life in prosperity. This fifth’s private consumption makes out ninety percent of the total use. As a comparison it means that 3 billions has to survive on only 1-2 dollars a day. According to the UN this is a thing that makes more damage on the water and our surroundings than anything else. The misuse of the water that comes from ignorance and from lack of money is what causes the biggest threats against nature and the gap between rich and poor that keep on growing increases the damage. That is a fact we can do something about.

3.3.4 The Shadow from the Future

There are two-hundred and sixty-one international rivers and of those there is only one third that floats in more than one country. Africa and the Middle East get more than half of their supply from such sources and that is also the case in south South-America. That water must be shared between individuals in a way that is non-polluting but although the problems can be solved more or less there is still one other that stands out from the rest and keeps threatening the future. That thing is the population growth. By 2050 the world will be inhabited by nine billions who will need food and water to survive the day. If we believe the worst, approximately seven billions will suffer lack of water and at best “only” two billions in forty-eight countries. The ones that already have enough water will use it to make money and make it able for their industries to be to meet the increasing demand for a better social standard. All this together will make the water amounts perish more and more which makes it indispensable for us not to start to think about what we should do. We must begin to share our water and help the countries that cannot provide for themselves but all this must be done with an environmental aspect as a guiding light Otherwise the shadow from the past will continue to grow until all lies in the shade. That is how serious it is.

3.3.5 Pollution

When the water is being polluted it affects everything, from the smallest creature to the biggest. No one is saved or left alone. Although much is being done to stop the pollution of the worlds freshwater the crisis will raise.

One of the biggest problems in the northern regions is acid rain (rain with a high pH-level) that seems to know no limits. The acid rain is caused by discharge of mostly sulphur and nitrogen-oxides that hasn’t been completely burnt. When you burn litter the incineration sometimes leaves after material that disappears into the clouds and comes down again to the earth in form of rain. When the rainwater reaches the ground water or falls into a lake it gives the plants and the trees acid rain and sooner or later it will kill the surroundings and animals that live there. Today 14 000 Swedish lakes are affected and although the discharge is decreasing the situation is getting worse in many places. To make this whole mess stop the acid rain must be less than the nature is able to break down again. Only then it can begin to repair itself and if that is possible the green house effect gas, Co2, also will decrease. It might cost a lot but at the same time it will give so much back.

In the south the biggest problem right now is the overfeeding of the agriculture where poison and bacteria’s are spread to the population. According to “Water for People, Water for Life”, a report from the UN, two million ton of garbage is dumped into lakes and other freshwater supplies. As a comparison you can say that one litre waste water can pollute eight litres of freshwater and according to some approximations there is about twelve-thousand km3 polluted water in the world. That is more than the total water supply in the world’s ten largest rivers. If the pollution of the water continues to increase as the population does the world will loose eighteen thousand km3 freshwater until 2050. That is more than nine times as much as the world uses to irrigate farms and yet irrigation uses 70 percent of the total freshwater aerial every year. The fact stands clear, the pollution must stop but the question is; can it be stopped?


4 Analyses

If the air would be the spirit of the earth, the dust the body, the fire the heart then the water would be the everlasting soul. Through this all is resembled and like a set of eyes it looks out on us, forever watching. As a mirror the water always will show the innermost of the heart, it will tell us when something is wrong, it will tell us when we have gone too far. All we need to do is watch and take our self a moment of peace to gather our feelings. So follow me now and we will do just that. Watch and feel. Feel and Watch.

4.1 Water pollution: An Overwhelming Threat against the Earth?

Seen from the space the blue planet on which we live and call our home is neither one of the biggest, nor the smallest but that it’s something different about it, anyone can see. Above the surface clouds circle around, letting down their rain but through the clouds you can see green Continents seemingly floating on the big blue. That big blue which we call the sea is the bridge between life and death. If it hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have been here. If it is destroyed, we will not be here. Our life is inescapably bound with the life of the water so therefore the conclusion must be that we have to take care of it. Or? If we take a look at the world today there seems to be few who remember our bound. For the countries that don’t have any money, pollution is such a big problem that no one can afford to pay for it and for the ones that have, the environment is never a priority. In direct cause of this millions die every year and the saddest thing is that they really don’t have to.

When the waste water is let out in the freshwater it is at once completely destroyed and can’t be drunk at all. In the underdeveloped countries this every year leaves the people dying and the lack of freshwater bigger and bigger. That must be stopped and the ones who are going to stop it are us, the ones who can afford. “Why?” You might think but that is a thing that should be clear to the most of us. We should pay because it will eventually affect us too if we don’t do something about it.
If I ask myself the questions, “What can be done? Can pollution be stopped or will it be the end for us?” I first of all feel a feeling of hopelessness but beyond that there is always something else that tells me that it will be alright, like all the other times, whatever will happen has to happen, we’ve just have to live it through and see the new dawn rise again. At the same time another voice says that we have got to work for that. We can’t leave it like this and do nothing. We got to assure ourselves that it is possible, that new science and technological advances can make us use less water in the agriculture, that new vaccines will come, that the dump of waste water eventually will disappear, that everything will get better and that the Earth as she always has, will continue to care for us no matter how many we are. It is my belief that if you want something bad enough you will always have it if you are ready to work for it and for our survival we have to. There is no escape from that; there is no escape from the future.

4.2 Lack of water: An overwhelming threat against Mankind?

As Ra –the Sun God – slowly rose and started his walk over the dawning heaven, Ramsey the second bowed his head to the ground in the temple and praised him for his defeat over the darkness and the night. This he had done ever since he himself took the role as a descended God and he would continue to do it until he drew his last breath. When the pray was finished Ramsey, pharaoh over the worlds greatest nation, started to make his way down to the water of the Nile – blessed by all creatures of the Upper and Lower Egypt. In the morning light you could see as far as to the great pyramids in the south, their eternal bodies shimmering white as the sun carelessly touched them. Although they were the symbol of Egypt’s strength they were nothing compared to the flood that gave birth to the might of Egypt and shared her water with her children. This morning the water lay tranquilized as a mirror and as the Great Pharaoh bowed his head to the ground as a sign of gratefulness to her, she who gave life, a shiver of sensual pleasure made way along his spine. The water was still cool after the long and enduring night but soon Ra would warm up the air and make the water to a blessed relaxation for drained bodies, tired from working on a kingdom of divine strength and power.

This morning, before the day began, was just his and his alone. Slowly, Ramsey waded into the tranquillity and felt how the water consumed him, smoothly touching his bare skin. The sensation of weightlessness made him dive a couple of times and fast, with his long limbs, he swam until his muscles ached. As he felt the pleasure of blood pounding in his veins Ramsey the second, rightful ruler over the world, felt the power of the water. He felt its eternal life, its great strength, its ability to make a man, yes even a God, more than satisfied. When he this morning left the womb of Egypt, a feeling of emptiness came over him. He looked back at water once more and saw it change from deep blue till dark red, more beautiful than any rubies and diamonds, in the morning light. The great pharaoh bowed his head and when his eyes again met the glittering surface something he had never felt came over him. Stunned he thought with a sudden realisation:
Now I know… now I know…
***
It will never be more water on the earth than it is now. Water is a threatened resource that is indispensable for all forms of life. How will the water be enough to cover all our needs? The answer is simple; we must share, but is it only that simple in the theory.

As the population keeps growing the water resources are decreasing. This forms a concurrence between different countries that might even lead to a war some experts claim but according to the UN it is not a big risk. Although, no matter whom one speaks to they all agree that a crisis is getting closer by every breath we take and that there is not much that we can do about it. Right now the problem seems not to be how to avoid it but how we can manage the crisis and how to share the water that we have without using it too much. But how is that to be done?
The first problem that has got to be solved is the one concerning water as a human right that is to be at hand for everyone, no matter where one lives. That means that water has got to be lead within many tubes from rivers or other kinds of freshwater in to the area where the lack is big. One other solution that sadly isn’t used much is drilling into the subsoil water reserves. Of these only a small share is used and with that there is no risk that we could use it too much because of the large amounts. Again the economical help must come from the industrialized countries where the top priority has to lie on drilling new wells so the population doesn’t have to go so far just to get water. If that is done the sanitary conditions also eventually will get better, one of the things that otherwise is set at a very low priority of the states that are affected. The problem that concerns the big gap between the rich and the poor will also be affected by that and the crack will diminish. That is an example on how everything is connected with water. If the need for water will reduce in size, so will many of the other problems as well. We have to be willing to pay a bit but if we all go together the money for a better world will be very, very small compared with how much it will change. On a list over the wealthiest in the world you will be one of the richest. We have ninety percent of the total consumption; it is time for us to share it.

4.3 What can you do?

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

- Martin Luther King JR

If you ask me if there is something that you could do I would tell you: Not much. “Huh!?” you might say but for th...