• Question: Because there is 70%of the world is water is it possible that it could flood the land in the future? will we ever run out of water?

    Asked by becky1997 to Katy, Nathalie, Paula on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Hi again,

      I think we should be fine, especially in the Andes or inthe Himalayan mountains 🙂 More seriously, fresh water shortage is something we should worry about – a lot of countries are already experiencing shortages, and predictions are that more people will experience fresh water shortage in the future. Technologies to transform sea water into fresh water are developping, but they are generally costly – th problem is that shortages are expected in poor countries. Hope that answers your question 😉

    • Photo: Katy Mee

      Katy Mee answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Hi Becky

      Certainly parts of the land surface will get flooded but it would have to be an enormous influx of water, and therefore rise in sea level, to flood all of the land masses. This is because some of the land surface is very high in relation to sea level. As for whether water will ever run out, there’s no evidence to suggest that all the water in the world will run out butthere may well be a shortage (in some areas anyway) of drinking water. Even if we have lots of flooding, this can actually contaminate clean water sources.

    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Hi becky

      Water level could rise so that a lot of land would be flooded, specially if the ice in the North and South poles melt, sea level could rise considerably.

      We probably won’t run out of water, but we can run out of fresh water. Sea water can’t be used to drink or water plants and fields or given to animals. And fresh water is a limited resource so we need to be careful on how we use it!

      Hope this answers your questions! All great ones – thanks! 😉

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