water 



the wellspring of life 



A Special Report on the World's Freshwater 



BLUE PLANET BLUES 



Demand for freshwater threatens to outstrip supply. 

 How can we meet the needs of all of Earth's species? 



By Eleanor J. Sterling 



Water: evolving life-forms crawled out of it hundreds of millions of years ago, yet 

 it still envelops us in our fetal state, suffuses every tissue of our body, and 

 surrounds our drifting continents. From ancient origin myths and ritual baths, 

 to Handel's Water Music and the play of ornate fountains, to water parks and 

 water slides, we celebrate it. Water molecules move through the years and 

 across the globe, from rivulets to rivers to oceans, rising into the atmosphere 

 and falling back to land, connecting each of us to the rest of the world. In this global cycle, 

 each of us is always downstream from someone else. 



Despite all the water in the world, only a small fraction is available to us and other spe- 

 cies that depend on freshwater. Salty seas account for more than 97 percent of the water on 

 Earth. Of the remaining 3 percent or so, at least two-thirds is tied up in glaciers, ice caps, 



November 2007 nai UK. M HISTORY 29 



