Water is the basis of life, but only a tiny share of all the water on earth is fresh and renewed by the water cycle. If you took all the water in world and put it into a gallon jug – less than 1 teaspoon would be available to us. We are overusing it; we’re over-tapping rivers and we’re over-pumping groundwater.
Over a billion people don’t have access to safe drinking water. We forget that we live in a hydrosphere and all our water resources are interconnected.
To support the average American lifestyle today takes twice the global average. The Great American lawn is great example of one of the myriad of ways we take water for granted. Seventy percent of all the water we extract from rivers, lakes and aquifers goes to irrigated agriculture. . .We are using some of tomorrow’s water to meet today’s food demands.
We are using and abusing our water resources in ways that are completely unsustainable, and unless we start taking action at an individual level, then we won’t be able to overcome so many of the issues that we’re going to face in the next 50 years.
From National Geographic video statement on water.