That was kind of my arm chair guestimate of how it worked, that it wasnt truly lost for good but transferred around
Comment on When Humans Use Water for Something, Is it Gone For Good or Does It Return To the Water Cycle?
Ib_dI@lemm.ee 11 months ago
You can’t destroy it and it doesn’t go anywhere. It just gets moved around and used for different things at different times.
Water lawn > Grass uses water to grow more grass > humans mow lawn > grass clippings dry out > water returns to atmosphere
Lonnie123@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Spazsquatch@lemmy.studio 11 months ago
The bigger issue is that while the water still exists, it may no longer exist in a useful location. It could be pulled from a reservoir in a drought stricken area, evaporate and drift to some other area where it causes a flood.
That’s an extreme example, but I hope it makes the point that the location of water is just as important as its existence.
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
If everyone on earth died at once and decomposed, how much water would be returned to the environment?
BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Very little, tiny fractions of a tiny fraction of a percent of the water on the planet.
silver@lemmy.brendan.ie 11 months ago
Maybe a few years, once the ISS crashes down to earth as that is one of our greatest of planet reserves
jetsetdorito@lemm.ee 11 months ago
What about something like electrolysis where it’s separated?
BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
If you keep them separate sure, but the moment you burn hydrogen it just turns back into water.
Instigate@aussie.zone 11 months ago
So then the truth of the matter is that we can create water from hydrogen and oxygen and we can also destroy water by reducing it to its elemental compounds. As such, water can be created and can be destroyed, meaning that the overall level of water available on earth can change over time, however our commonest uses for water have it not be destroyed and eventually return to the water cycle.
BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Technically, yes.
Realistically, any amount we split/convert is so small as to not matter to anything. The amount of water on the planet is absolutely ridiculous. 1233.91 quintillion liters to be more specific.