Imagine your Monday morning without morning coffee. Without showers, would your friends still get along with you and your stench? Try entertaining kids at home all summer without water-based outdoor activities, and maybe you’ll see where we’re going with this…
Can you even imagine a day without water?!
The world is a sad, cruel place to be without water; Sadly, over a million struggling people in the United States can attest to that firsthand. Today we joined many other Americans in celebrating and learning more about this precious resource and all it provides us with. Today, we “Imagine a Day Without Water.”
In case you missed the plethora of informative events on water infrastructure taking place in Minneapolis today, we have a consolation prize for you. To raise awareness for the third annual IADWW led by the Value of Water Campaign, we scoured the internet to compile a list of water fun-facts that you may have never even heard about.
So… ‘water’ we waiting for? Let’s talk about our favorite subject:
- 40 billion hours are spent collecting water in Africa alone.
- In a year, the average American residence goes through over 100,000 gallons of water.
- A running toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water each day.
- It takes 39,090 gallons of water to manufacture a new car.
- By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.
- 75% of the human brain is water and 75% of a living tree is water.
- At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight.
- Hot water freezes faster than cold water. (Look up the Mpemba effect for more on this one!)
- The biggest known cloud of water vapour was discovered by Nasa scientists around a black hole 12 billion light years from Earth. There is 140 trillion times as much water in that cloud as there is water in the world’s oceans combined.
- Everywhere there is liquid water on Earth, there is life. Even if that water is nearly boiling, or the area is skin-burningly acidic.
We encourage you to make your own top 10 tonight. Between rinsing vegetables for dinner, loading laundry and feeding the fish, we hope you will take a few minutes to think about the amazing things water does to make your life worth living.
You can find out more about Imagine a Day Without Water by visiting: www.imagineadaywithoutwater.org
Need help with your list? Check out these articles for more amazing facts that didn’t make our top 10!:
www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/fascinating-and-strange-facts-about-water?utm_term=.suwvJv4G6#.tvvoLoVpA
www.treehugger.com/clean-water/36-eye-opening-facts-about-water.html
www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/waterfactsoflife.html
www.allaboutwater.org/water-facts.html