Drought/ Amazon?

[chimay]

Should they be able to live in ignorance to the rest of the world? Or should they pull their weight too?

 

 

They are probably pulling their weight more than we are in relation to balancing the world/using it's resourses etc.

[chem1st]

After reading about the amazon running dry and the effect it will cause, is it all due to "Global Warming" , or is it simple economics. eg. in the uk we seem to hear more and more of droughts and limited water but could it not be due to the fact that if in years past we had x amount of rainfall and could manage with a population of say 50 million, how can it work, if today you get the same amount of rainfall with a population of say 60 million thats maybe at least an extra 10 million gallons of water to be found every day from the same amount of rainfall.

Likewise in the amazon area,does not more logging and the use of heavy industry plus more humans and livestock take and use more water than usual, a drip drip effect.

I personally think that the forest acts like a sponge and water constantly seeps into the amazon. Take away the trees and water runs off and away into the sea too quickly before the next rainfalls, hence dry river beds.

 

Was looking into my water bill as I'm metered. Anyhow average consumption about 150L per day per person. About 31 gallons!

 

So maybe 310 million gallons a day, rather than 10!

 

Near on 1/3 of a billion gallons of water!

[Berkana]

Was looking into my water bill as I'm metered. Anyhow average consumption about 150L per day per person. About 31 gallons!

 

So maybe 310 million gallons a day, rather than 10!

 

Near on 1/3 of a billion gallons of water!

 

And that only counts water directly consumed - actual water consumption per person is way above that when you factor in the huge amounts of water used in food production and anything else "consumed", including transporting products and materials etc. etc. The mind boggles

[spooky3]

They are probably pulling their weight more than we are in relation to balancing the world/using it's resourses etc.

 

How do you mean "pulling their weight"?

[Berkana]

Concerning the water cycle, it's virtually a closed system, nothing is added or taken away.

 

 

No it's not. Too tired to explain it myself so here you go:

 

Rainforests release water vapor by transpiration through leaves and evaporation (evapotranspiration, or water lost through the pores in leaves and evaporated by heat). The loss of water to the air by leaves is a critical part of the water cycle of the earth, as, by this means, the water vapor content of the air is continually replenished. More than 50% (even as much as 75% in dense rainforest) of the precipitation striking a rainforest is returned to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration and, consequently, relatively little will end up in rivers and other waters. Most of the water released by evapotranspiration to the atmosphere as water vapor will be returned to the forest as rain, so rainforests provide their own rainfall. Although forests account for only about 15%-20% of global water evaporation, approximately 65% of the rainfall over land is due to themLowered levels of atmospheric water vapor reduce cloud cover and rainfall, so if forest is removed, rainfall in that region will be substantially reduced. This will have dire consequences for even large rainforest reserves. If they are surrounded by deforested land, they will not be able to generate sufficient rain to support themselves, and they are doomed to perish. Evapotranspiration also has a cooling effect, as it takes energy to vaporize water from leaves, and keeps the temperature in the forest relatively constant.

ttp://www.rainforestconservation.org/rainforest-primer/rainforest-primer-table-of-contents/j-rainforest-role-in-the-water-cycle

[spooky3]

But in general the amount of water in the world is roughly constant, except when it's trapped / unlocked by ice (but even then it is actually still there).