Show me the water!

On-screen captions read, 'Water Falls - She Me The Water.'

(Water rushes)

Animation of waves.

RYAN FITZGIBBONS:

As humans, we're well aware we need water to live. Fortunately for us, we live on a water planet. But that doesn't mean we have an entire globe of H2O to use as we please.

Animation of snow falling on a mountain peak.

RYAN FITZGIBBONS:

So just how does the usable water break down for us?

A picture chart.

RYAN FITZGIBBONS:

A giant 97% of Earth's water is in the ocean, so we can't use that. 3% is freshwater, but even in that small sliver, about 2% is locked in glaciers, ice caps and groundwater. That leaves about 1% of the freshwater on Earth that is accessible and usable by humans. Let's imagine all of that accessible freshwater fits into this tiny pool. Now we'll get to some small numbers when we look at global freshwater.

Water flows out from a small paddle pool.

Water fills a plastic can.

On-screen caption reads, 'Lakes -0.26%.'

Water fills a glass.

On-screen caption reads, 'Atmosphere - 0.04%.'

Water pours into a cup.

On-screen caption reads, 'Wetlands - 0.03%.'

Water fills three spoons.

On-screen captions read, 'Rivers - 0.006%.'

RYAN FITZGIBBONS:

There really is a small fraction of usable and accessible freshwater on this water planet, so how do we use that tiny pool? In the United States, about 49% is used in thermoelectric power production, while agricultural irrigation makes up about 31%. 11% goes to public use in our cities and towns, 4% goes into industry and manufacturing, and 1% is domestic use. The water coming out of our faucets largely comes from precipitation. Measuring how much or how little precipitation falls can impact how we live our daily lives. Elsewhere around the globe, in developing countries, agricultural irrigation accounts for about 70% of freshwater use, while industrial use is 20%, and 10% for public consumption.