Living beings need this elixir because they are made of it. Protoplasm, the living matter of all plants and animal cells, is mostly water. The average human being is roughly 60 per cent water by weight, nearly 40 litres of it carried in trillions of cells. Three-fifths of the water in our bodies is inside cells and two-fifths is outside cells, in blood plasma, cerebral spinal fluid, the intestinal tract and so on.

You are a blob of water with a bit of thickening.

Basically, each of us is a blob of water with enough macro-molecular thickening to give us some stiffness and to keep us from dribbling away. Each day, about three per cent of the water in our bodies is replenished with new molecules.

Our lives are made possible by the hydrologic cycle, the miraculous process whereby salty water is transformed into fresh water by evaporation and is redistributed around the planet. Energy from the sun causes water to evaporate from the ocean as water vapour, which rises into the atmosphere and then falls back onto the land as precipitation. Water that reaches Earth’s surface as rain seeps into the ground or runs into rivers and lakes and eventually returns to the oceans. Like air, water physically links us to the Earth and all other forms of life.

More than 97 per cent of water is salty, which is toxic for humans.

Human beings have an absolute need for fresh water – and that is the rarest form of water on Earth. More than 97 per cent of the planet’s water is salty, which is toxic for terrestrial organisms. Of the water that is sufficiently free of salt to drink, more than 90 per cent is locked away in glaciers and ice sheets or is deep underground. Only about 0.0001 per cent of fresh water is readily accessible.

When we look at the wonderful array of plants and animals on Earth, the overwhelming lesson is that life is opportunistic, taking advantage of niches through mutation and new combinations of genes. Plants and animals have evolved to exploit both marine and freshwater environments. The oceans are filled with plants.

The abundance of forms that co-operate to create coral reefs, the forests of mangroves lining ocean beaches, the gatherings of creatures in estuaries – all attest to the power of evolution to hone organisms for diverse habitats.

No species has evolved that can live without water.

On land, plants and animals have found strategies to flourish where water is abundant and where it is rare. Species are found in the ice of polar sheets and in the dry heart of deserts. Fish that return from the sea to the rivers where they were born in order to breed exploit both marine and freshwater environments. Numerous species inhabit both water and air or water and land at different stages of their lives.

But no species has evolved that can live without water, and no species has been as imaginative and as demanding in its use of water as human beings.

Canada was blessed by the last ice age.

Many water-rich countries, including Canada, use water as though it were limitless. We often meet our food, energy and material needs through the copious use of water. Much more water is used in rich countries than in poor countries. A person in an industrialized country uses 350 to 2,000 litres of water daily, whereas a person living in rural Kenya may use two to five litres of water a day. Canadians have 130,000 cubic metres of flowing river water a year per person, compared with 90 cubic metres a year per person in Egypt. This country was blessed by the last ice age, more than 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, when glaciers gouged out the land to create depressions into which water settled.

Whether we are 10 years old or 50, we have an obligation to ourselves, to the Earth, to the children of this Earth, to recognize this sanctity, do what we can to preserve this sacred liquid and influence everyone we can to do likewise. There may be no other time in history when our actions can make such a difference.

If we lack the knowledge to keep water pure, then it makes sense to control the factors we know that cause problems with water and protect nature, which has provided clean water since the
beginning of time. Water is integral to supporting and maintaining life on this planet, as it moderates the climate, creates growth and shapes the living substance of all of Earth’s creatures. It is the tide of life itself, the sacred source.

www.davidsuzuki.org

Where there is water… there is life. Rivers
and streams, the earth’s veins. The ocean’s
tide, its pulse.

Where there is  water...there is community. History. Vitality. Opportunity.

Where there is water… there are Waterkeepers. We are ordinary heroes. We are fishers, teachers, and business people who became experts in clean water law. Every day we mobilize to protect your water, your community.

With your help, Waterkeepers are winning back the fisheries of yesterday. We are protecting beaches for every person everywhere. We are fighting for drinking water that is plentiful, pure.

This is the fastest-growing grassroots environmental movement in the world. With good reason. Laws speak of society’s dreams. Waterkeepers bring them to life.

Get informed. Be empowered. Take action.

www.waterkeepers.ca/fiber.html