Water is the foundation the source and the mechanisms the government wife. But also govern the whole bio system and the climate of the blue planet. Our ground water is their trash air. Its a miracle. Somehow its a miracle. Thats been more than a 1000000. 00 every year on electricity to pump water. For that we have a larger impact on the planet than ever before to climb up the water the land biodiversity the ocean city hall. The cycle of water and being able to understand that this one of the most critical questions that we have to deal with today in a changing climate. Is dangerous hard to logical climate extremes that are going to be threatening a whole lot of different ecological and human values. And eventually we called our sole source base for all the warm water in the cokes before you realize its due to water so hops that its going to die. So we really have it in our hands down. To understand so that we can sustain the health of the human population. The. Water is the foundation of all life as we know it but its the most wasted Natural Resource reflecting mans attempts in short time on our. Water is life. We measure it in Drinking Water but its much more than that. Water must be present in all of the Planet Systems for it to be a balance. You can think of water as her blood supply. Flows through the landscape down supplies nutrients to nature and plants. And. Because. Water is also the source of human life and society. And. If we manage the water as we do now where we use that polluters and then try to dispose of it with very serious consequences that system is not sustainable and that current system. We have running out of water. We are losing more and more useful water the association between the imbalance of the water cycle and climate related problems is bigger than what most people are aware of. We are also not taking care of our most important substance. We just regard it as any liquid. Still water is the very foundation of life itself. Was to a large degree formed as the earth to shape. Its a chemical compound of 2 Hydrogen Atoms and one oxygen as him its a simple compound but with very distinct qualities. Water is one of the the universes most unique materials it has a completely unexpected unique properties. We have it as vapor we have it as liquid water running down the rivers and lakes and in the oceans we have it as snow and ice in its coldest days. 97 percent of the planets water sailin and found in the oceans the remaining 3 percent is fresh water of which more than half its contained in glaciers. Only about one percent is available to us nevertheless we act as if water is an endless resource. The water is something that we all take for granted until its not there we just take it for granted and the water you go were going to turn the tap in and a hotel room or another city that theres going to be water there. I saw study that the majority of the people in the state dont know where their water comes from they just know the water bill. Comes. We dont understand the value of water nor that the hydro sphere is crucial for the ecosystems that we depend upon and in the magic and that everything is created in the meeting between sun and water. The assyrian mesmo sword and the a solar energy cleanse a sea water and produces fresh water. Thats cant stop nature is constantly cleansing water in the water cycle its rain water is clean but unfortunately chemicals can be dissolved into it in the atmosphere because theres. No doubt im. The amount of fresh water on the planet depends effectively on evaporation and transpiration because sea as water evaporates it leaves me high and all the salts in the pollutants that maybe in the oceans away from and it just goes up as water by pure water. And so it regenerates fresh water. Temp. On the sea and a certain level in temperature water vapor condenses muesli into ice particles or snowflakes the form clouds. On the clouds get heavy enough to put it simply you get precipitation and the other bugs follow the book steve. Precipitation. Rain and snow that falls in large volumes to hardly at all. For water molecules to form drops its been discovered that aerosols are needed. Small ice and salt crystals which are the starting point for condensation. 1000000 of these cloud micro droplets need to be coalesced into a train drop for it to be heavy enough and large enough to fall out of the under gravity back to the left. And so this new creation of these water droplets is a king balancing process in make sure. In driving rain. But there are other aerosols that are important for creating raindrops. Bacteria. Through the about peroration of trees specific bacteria and up in the atmosphere where they bind water vapor and create drops. The bacteria return to earth with the rain that they themselves created. We have precipitation that comes down on to the surface of earth that either goes into the oceans or it goes onto the land if it goes on to the land then some of it percolates down into the ground some of it evaporates back into the atmosphere some of it goes into the plants some of it runs down the hill right away. If it falls a snow then the beauty of that is that it stays as a mountain reservoir of water and it doesnt move out of its system very quickly. So theres just this Constant Exchange of water moving across the surface under the surface into the atmosphere and then back down to the surface. When the rain falls down there becomes groundwater and it goes slowly to deeper than that it takes up minerals here in bravo we have ground water at about 18 mages deep and about 200 meters deep its coming from belgium and it travels with a speed of about 20 meters per year so its very slowly i took about 10000 years. From belgium to here. We use it for Drinking Water and to irrigate our crops. Its also known as fossil water depending on the bedrock page may vary but most ground Water Reservoirs are ancient and were created long before humanity appeared on earth. And its formed by rainfall that dissolves minerals and nutrients. Its the best and purest of all water and the most important water resource for us and the ecosystems. If you pump groundwater and in every year youre using that ground water without it being replenished then the groundwater is going to decrease so how far can they go if. You know how much water we pump here flew 2000000000 with a b. Gallons a year. I spend more than a 1000000. 00 every year on electricity to pump water its the land of the big acreage is from farmland grows animal feed such as corn and grain on 14000. 00 hectares. These cultivations are possible thanks to one of the Worlds Largest systems of fossil groundwater being available leaflet Ogallala Aquifer supplies 8 states and about 2 and a half 1000000 inhabitants with water. But the levels are dropping. Unfortunately weve pumped in this area at least 30 percent of the awkward for say dryer we feel we have lowered it and as we do that the well is more pressed to give up the water and theres a lot of wells that only half of what they did when they were 1st developed. The depth of the cache they get there might be enough water for 50 to 70 here. And then it will be gone groundwater is being overused all over the world into. Large scale operation and monoculture cost water. Its not only the farms in kansas that consume. About 70 percent of the planets freshwater goes to cultivation and food production. To the large scale model cultures drain the groundwater systems to dangerously low levels. Of the old go on for ever be drained it is being drained right now and for people use the word mind because of something mistaken out of this ground not put back as if we were mining gold or pumping oil some mining operation. Thousands of years were required to create these groundwater supply lines and so pumping those out of there. In order to get back to the same awkward for level that we had before we started pumping them. And its going to take a long time. And so this creates a numerous problems in the next couple decades because the agriculture that depends on that is designed to collapse. We extract more than what is replenished. Were draining the worlds most important Water Resources. But there is another very important water existing in environments that we hardly think of the soil water. The hidden resource found in the soil which is essential for life in the biosphere. The u. S. Soil which cover you know that 29 percent or 13000000008. 00 days of land surface. And depending on the quality of that sponge they can hold up to 50 percent of the volume in water a. Significant amount of water is actually stored. And as a ground water. Is more than the water that we just see there for free verse and lakes. In order for soil and cultivated land to function and supply water it must be healthy and alive. Microorganisms and organic matter preserve water for in a time when rainfall is unpredictable this is extremely important for. The critical thing is that what happens to every rain drop that falls on this for us does it in for trades and get retained in a form and location where its a valuable for plant growth or does it run off the road. Systems and then get lost into the ocean and the difference with it infiltrates old runs off depends on the soil cotton sponge whether that spawns can have the porosity in the permian believe the to absorb that water and then feed it into the deepest sort of rise and. In so reservoirs because its that water that governs life in the boche system. Industry will form a farming before the ability of soil to salt water. It just leaves you. And you have very complex soil on top of that which is there i lets say you have a heavy rain or any formal frisbee patients you just leaf on the surface because the soil become paper from the salt the soil spine which is leaving us groundwater and char is leaving us because of that so were just flushing the vital component of life away from ourselves. It comes down to impoverished soil that has lost its capacity to infiltrate and its ability to hold water. At the same time we drain. Divert the water from its natural cycle. We are been is the planet through Industrial Development and the soil horizon that was an important Water Reservoir is being sealed under concrete and infrastructure. If they havent i think said so who would your cities are growing and were asking the planet you know you were going to the tarmac the farmland we isolate farmland from the water cycle the other book to be cut off drainage diverts surface water into rivers and lakes. And its often quite polluted. Water from heavy rainfall has nowhere to go towards life form talk to her before it runs straight into the sea. That isnt pretty use. To me i mean it doesnt replenish the groundwater but feel its not a resource. Go on and to go. In a suit render want to decrease the word long we decrease the value diversity we decrease of the water situation soon we decrease the want to cycle. We consume groundwater and create hydrophobic soils. We isolate the soil under hardened lines and the precipitation is diverted. This means less water on the continents and the climate groundwater systems and the consequences of this are extensive. D. R. Duration is a long term process also less and less washoe reaching the ground water that makes that for instance trees and all our plants cant reach the groundwater anymore. And the impacts through these are surely quite horrific because at the one show we call ourself 1st base for all the warm water you know we mean if cokes before you realise is that the water is so hot that it is going to die. With every little bit of it we flushed away the less water is coming in and the sea is all the desert if you cation coming in slowly but you. Have different regions experiencing already significant a river cation losing 20 to 30 percent of their rainfall and risk turning more and more into days. When nature withers from thirst it gets warmer. More solar energy i mean their water more digitization can help the cooling of the soil. Our consumption and use of Water Resources have a direct impact on global temperature and our climate. Is water that in a sense gavins 95 percent of the heat dynamics of the blue planet. And for the last 4000000000 years it is water that is actually regulated the climate. Its the different water processes that govern those dynamics. The leader said the more forcefully our Research Shows that its not just a matter of Climate Change things we do at ground level have an impact intensified farming to increase the yield pits square meter or if the a creating creases all we use more was here we increase transpiration me and. Come on the transfer. Up to now weve been so focused exclusively. On the c o 2 concentrations in the atmosphere that has obviously gone up abnormally now we have seen the c. E. O. True rise because it is a green as gas its cause the planet to heat up and certainly that is a key contributing factor but a far far bigger effect has been the changes weve been making. Not only do we release previously reserved water that increases the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere but we also contribute to Global Warming by large scale model quarter vision and increasing urbanization. We create islands of heat that reports clouds and rainfall. If we have a brain vegetated landscape with transpiration cooling the soils under that landscape rarely get above 20 degrees centigrade even in tropical regions. Converse lee where we have been exposed soil subject to the incident solar radiation space shes sold it hasnt got water that soil or asphodel concrete or that surface can often heat up to 60 degrees centigrade old. Which means a profoundly moral infrared heat is restrained yet it is from hot surfaces compared to cold. Cultures and industry all. Farming to bring along these phenomena of heat islands because from one day to another a large area is harvested and from one day to another you just switched on and you snap off a finger and you klar power plant that is there anything upwards of d. C. Is all the i recall term and you can just sort of formal i think culture informs the weather. And the sad warm up on a sphere can contain more water than a cold one and we can safely assume that hurricanes and in suing severe rainfall will become more frequent. In order and they will intensify all me for. The cold not the intensity of the cold not where. We water the atmosphere with fresh water. And with rising temperatures the hydrological cycle is affected. Its difficult to observe but imbalance contributes to weather processes that affect every part of the planet. It is dangerous hydrological climate extremes theyre going to be impacting intensifying and really threatening whole lot of different ecological and human values these are the hurricane these the stones floods a very difficult droughts wildfires and it sees hydrological of strains that kill human beings. So promote that for backup with climatic effect on the water leads to disastrous floods and droughts over the long term effects can change the conditions for a large number of societies on earth and you know. It is the one who could these extremes be the norm in 50 years how are we going to handle them you know the. Extreme will become the norm. Dont we already see it today. That environments change for the worse for all living beings. What will our existence look like in the future. It seems uncertain with a changing world view. We can do ok when. We get droughts and we get wet periods and its and its minor but if it comes 456 years of intense drought or as in the Colorado River basin now were in 18 years of drought we have 40000000 people in the state of california that are very strongly dependent on that water resource. Where are they going to go if it goes to dry people dont survive those they have to. Civilizations dont survive the. Lack of fresh water is a reality many parts of the world but thats far away not here water is also consume through direct consumption and as a commodity in our trading systems. Its a virtual invisible water that hides primarily in products linked to cultivation and agriculture. Some of the stupid all seem pretty had a lot of goods are imported from regions where there is a shortage of water with. A lot of water flows from arid areas to areas where Water Resources are already plentiful then so should. So i have in the fast. Tend to think of was as a local call so the trading of goods means we have an impact on each other. In everything. From bottom feeder team. Everything contains water from textiles to cut flowers our lifestyles are costly and we exhaust water stressed nations access and right to safe clean water. Its not only about products half of the food we consume is imported. Those dancing through the 40 percent 30 to 40 percent of all food stuffs are never consumed the nuclear ruined by poor storage or poor handling or just thrown away. The equivalent to the u. S. Production of foodstuffs is just thrown away. And that means were also wasting water on the uva them among us that. We consume large volumes of water through overproduction and discarded food. Things that dont just Waste Resources but also generate pollution. You. Know what surely affects our behavior because sooner or later after a thing we do or use or. Half as up in the launch of. The Chemical Footprint that were finding in reverse and blake is definitely a reflection of the whole show and society interacts with interest when were taking a sample snail or a city its more dominated by the tojo and some of the cultural its moved on to by just 2 sides if you take it near a mining area bush doesnt mention this in the us so you contribute me see the human activities on driving the Chemical Footprint in the reserve bank. Of the agricultural use of water here in our state of kansas the majority would be for watering crops and one of the concerns as water filters through the soil and makes it all the way down to where they are for is Water Quality and the one big concern we have is that leeching of nitrogen fertilizer. In this country we have a lot of livestock so we have a good look at the problem with far too much when you are and we see that in on groundwater and also in the water in the kitchens and into kennels. So i think an arbitration in the brown water is also a problem for biodiversity sort. Of nitrogen leeches down into the awful for which contaminates are for drinking at it it isnt just Irrigation Water they can do that one of the big sources is the runoff from feedlots kansas is the largest meat packing state in the United States and there are areas around feedlots where the Drinking Water is too contaminated. Its not just the fertilizers from the Meat Industry that affect Water Resources negatively and pollute groundwater. The water that naturally gives us minerals and nutrition also gives us completely different substances. Rocksmith in them days but on the essence many of those it is an excellent solvent it absorbs pollution so that it becomes part of the cycle. They are law to you birds are all food they are all sorts of pollutants in different parts of the water system. Cleaning it up is energy and cost intensive. The question is how much of it can we claim is ours come. Youre seeing are used for the pollutions are a big problem. There are many unrecorded issues we dont carry out tests everywhere the city of it all. We dilute the chemicals in the belief that the consequences will be smaller. But despite our efforts to minimize risks the effects of our usage of chemicals are extensive and already noticeable. The drugs that are in the service what are painkillers but pressure medicines diabetes im tired the left calls all sorts of medicines we use daily antibiotics and they have also all different effects on the ecosystems in the water. Our naive relationship to chemicals and chemically manufactured products is unsustainable this makes large volumes of the available water on earth useless. And in addition we have plastic do things faster that its often at the fence there are plastics in tap water and there are plastics even more often in bottled water give us were drinking plastics provided each day per square metre indoors more than 300. 00 plastic micro particles collect to leave a glass of water on the table and youll be exposed to them for yes theyre in the air water and food and its experience in the impact on humans has yet to be studied in the city and were starting to understand the impact on animals and organisms but we dont yet know the full effects. Yet men to be hoarding in but awesome lots of water for effect then. Plastic is everywhere and in places where people often meet artificial turf small plastic fragments and granules make their way down the sewage systems. Theres also the possibility that micro particles attract and collect chemicals. What happened. The water cycle is everywhere cleaning filtering Drinking Water rainfall climate palettes. But it has been downgraded to a consumable and a transport system for pollution. The planets bloodstream a strain. And surely this reflects on a sassoons and our short intense time on earth. Over the last 200 years thats the period that humans have really come to have an enormous influence on the earth system and industrialization itself is not all bad its just how we capture what were doing and understand how are influencing ourselves influencing our ecosystem influencing our water supply. By their city its like a pyramid at the top of the feeder i mean this is a place for human beings and if by you do as he does this be a human being that has been through so its very important to put there by the diversity. And also there is a big connection was also clearly or decided to play a role in order good water depth true but also for the good water if you tradition by deplete moss. And this area where you source are important too to read you with good to go but warming so well and pretty area and this kind of what i said but to get your depth youre 10 times more suited to really was just done as a sword its very important to preserve this place to get you into redo the bar room. We have to take cabin out of the air was basically put there for mad day gradation developments and put that back into our soils to rebuild the sponge so we can rebuild the hydrology. 2 to 3 percent carbon added into the soil. Can create the structural regeneration of fakes. And voids. This is into that sort of matrix and really rebuild. Through photosynthesis carbon can be bound in the soil but in nature transform Carbon Dioxide into a rich soil with microorganisms that make the soil healthy and water retaining. This way the climate the water balance and our arable land will be positively affected. In the spring one defocus into his 3rd zone you will see a significant drop in terms of the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere which goes down as difficult and as progresses through the summer and then when we had before and everything is harvested again you will see a significant increase in terms of the concentration of Carbon Dioxide from the shoulder. Of infected before posting as is has on the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the opposite here. Souls are also fundamental because its the only point of agency the only point of influence we humans have on the air is climate hydrology and our future sea we cant change the oceans you cant reach change the ice caps we cant really change the atmosphere we can to some extent but the real point of agency is the sponge. There is clearly an over consumption of the Water Resources on the planet. Of consumption that affects the climate the ecosystems and everyone on earth. We have to end the idea that freshwater is infinite and we have to understand the value of the hydrological cycle as well as the solutions that nature has already developed for the climate. We are not using the systems that nature provides is the lesson that nature provides us and we still we are back to nature and we have lived the last century with delusions that we can fix things technologically good i think the reality is coming that they are limits there is an imperative for regeneration and hopefully we will have the wisdom to now say hey this is work with nature it is get out of the road and live a braise and live her hope to actually regenerate baseball is just. We should be more aware of the fact that our groundwater ways are trash and use it with. Respect as you treat a treasure to miracle. Somehow its a miracle that we arent so usually when we cant see the miracle in. The end some of the most what society has to do now is monitor how we use our Water Resources. Our source so that we avoid overuse and too much pollution which would ruin the basis of our existence then for would be again existence. So we really have it in our hands now. To understand how these Water Supplies are changing these water forces as well as the interaction with the climate are changing so that we can sustain. The standard of living and. And. And the health. Of. The human population. We are one. Of us the water and nature. We need to rethink to stop polluting and draining and instead retain the water on the continents. Because the Carbon Storage and think of cultivation methods that replenish the water in the soil in the ecosystems and in the ground water. We must think of photosynthesis and natures own climate control. But we must also understand that balance in the water cycle is a fundamental condition for our future. Clearly we have messed up the shadow we have degraded these lands as spongers are in so reza was a hydrology the cooling of the planet. Nature will always be here out there and nature can and will restore those by assistance the only question is will we hope or do that or less and do it by ourselves after we are gone. Consider walking from i mean low quite high and then crashed it struck. One place me there was one building which i regard as a model businessmen bankers and politicians. Tributed success. The scheme would never have worked if the banks hadnt played along theres no way. Big money big crime the story of a german cop. In 30 minutes long d. W. Beethoven is for me. Is for. Beethoven just for ham beethoven. And beethoven is for. Beethoven is for everyone. Beethoven 2022 and 50 then a 1st 3 years on d w. Has a virus spread. Why do we panic and when well all miss. Just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcasts you can also find us at dot com slash science. This is d w news coming to you live from berlin german chancellor Angela Merkel goes into home quarantine after being treated by a doctor who later tested positive for the corona virus announcement came moments after michael introduced tighter restrictions banning gatherings a blog or than to people nationwide also coming up as people desert the streets of new