When asked the question, “ What is the water cycle?” it’s easy to say, “it’s all around me!” The Water Cycle is such a beautiful thing once one begins to look into the beauty we have all around us. The Water Cycle describes the existence within the movement of water on and above earth. Earth’s water is constantly changing states like from ice to liquid, from liquid to vapor and back to ice in the process, the water cycle has been working for a billion of years. The water cycle is what helps and gives every living thing life, it’s the driving force in the world. The Water Cycle is also known as the Hydrologic Cycle. They share the same definition when it comes to the movement of water in it’s stages; but the stages we don’t get to see the miracle working like it usually does.
The make up of the water cycle includes the stages that help the water travel throughout the earth. The make up of the water cycle is, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, run off, and subsurface flow. The stages process occur as water travel through phases ( liquid, solid and gas). The water cycle also involves heat energy which intensifies temperature change, which begins the process of Evaporation, the Process of cooling and releasing and cooling the environment. With the condensation it releases the energy into the environment while warming them. When the water is moving it is being purified and replaced with fresh water and minerals to fill around earth. When one thinks about water cycle they have to factor in that water is one of the essential living elements on earth. According to kidshealth.org “Without water, your body would stop working properly. Water makes up more than half of your body weight, and a person can’t survive for more than a few days without it.” This statement makes it known that it is very essential that a humans body needs water just as much as the earth. Water is the most nutrient thing for humans and the earth and both need it in order to keep living things alive, well and healthy.
The water cycle has no particular order, but one phase that we can study is evaporation.
Within the phase of evaporation, water changes from liquid to gas. Water begins to evaporate because of the heat energy that breaks the bonds that holds water molecules together. In this phase we get something called Latent Heat, and within it the phase of latent heat, heat is being absorbed. Transpiration is another form of evaporation that comes from more so plants than anything else. evapotranspiration the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces and by transpiration from plants.
The next phase that follows ( liquid to gas) is gas to liquid, which is the condensation phase of the water cycle. In this phase we find latent heat being absorbed because of condensation. Clouds begin to form when vapor in the atmosphere becomes liquid, and the clouds are forming to hold the water. A similarity we can match is with fog. Fog is water droplets hanging below in the atmosphere near ground level; fog is clouds closer to the ground. Contrails are man-made clouds like when a a vehicle or airplane leaves vapor in the cold atmosphere. They can be used for weather forecasting. Depending on how long they will stay ends up telling us if we will have good weather or not. The last phase within the water cycle is precipitation, which is when water is released from clouds in the form of, snow, sleet, or hail. The water in the clouds build up so much that it gets too heavy and drops back down to the Earth. Once the water comes down to the ground, it soaks into the ground becoming groundwater providing nutrients to plants and many other things. Precipitation replenishes the ocean as the water falls into lakes ,rivers and making it’s way to the ocean as a feeder system.
As we currently established the water cycle and its many phases, now we have to assess how human interactions affect the water cycle and if we hurt the environment more or less. Humans play a very strong part in how the way natural things on earth become depleted. People will not see how they affect the environment but it’s something that we are coming close to noticing especially with global warming being a thing. From dictionary.com they state the definition of global warming is “a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.”
Global warming also goes hand in hand with how people pollute the earth and it affects the water cycle. How the way we humans affect the cycle is very direct and indirect manner. Indirect in the climate change, agriculture and acid rain. The humans affect the cycle through the phases as they become more easy to manipulate it. From the way we litter to the way we use our streams and rivers as dumps for oils and other products we are killing these resources by polluting. We have an affect on the fresh water, useable water, it affects the greenhouse gases, global warming, and more. According to teachengineering.com “Many people do not consider the impact that their personal water use has on a large scale. In cities, where drinking water is pumped in and wastewater flushed away, residents do not worry about obtaining and disposing of their water, so they are not aware of these “invisible” services.” In modern day we can go take a look at what is happening with Flint Michigan and their water. According wikipedia.org “ The Flint water crisis began in 2014 when the drinking water source for the city of Flint, Michigan was changed to the Flint River. Due to insufficient water treatment, over 100,000 residents were potentially exposed to high levels of lead in the drinking water.” This crisis as stated was due to the insufficient water treatment ( man made). To date the water in flint is not drinkable. The water does not have the brown color anymore but now it’s filled with other pollutants. To some extent, we all share responsibility for ensuring the availability of a clean and healthy water supply. We can try to reduce contamination by keeping the water, the ground, and the air free of pollutants as much as possible. We can use just the amount of water that we need.
Industries can recycle their process water or pre treat their wastewater so that it is easier to purify for drinking water and other purposes. Communities can educate residents about local water resources and work together to implement land use strategies that will protect and sustain water supplies into the future. They can develop plans to handle water shortages without waiting for a water emergency and can help residents dis pose of harmful products properly by offering hazardous waste collection days. By behaving responsibly in our use of water, we can be sure that there will be enough clean water when we need it.
It is only recently that environmental issues and our interrelationship with the natural world have been integrated into school curricula. In this sense, teachers and students have become our environmental educators, getting the word out to families and friends that we all share the responsibility for protecting and maintaining our earth for current and future generations. This resource book is designed to help students recognize their own ability to make a difference in conserving and protecting our water resources.