How Climate Change Affects Water: Clean H20 with the Everpure H-300 Cartridge

Water is essential, invaluable, and precious. It is the one element we rely on every single day. Water is a basic human need for survival and an “ingredient” in almost everything we do, including food production, manufacturing, and power generation. Because water is so vital, it should be as clean and pure as possible, which is why filtration (e.g. using the Everpure H-300 cartridge) is important.

When you think of a typical day, water has a hand in much of it:

• Your morning shower
• A cup of coffee
• Fresh produce at the store
• The habitat of the ocean
• Better production
• Increased exports

Why Water Matters

It Provides Life:

To stay alive, every organism uses a membrane that separates it from its environment. The organism takes in important materials for making energy, while expelling toxic substances, such as waste products. In this respect, water is essential simply because it's provides life-giving liquid. Because it flows, water provides an efficient way to transfer substances (such as phosphates or calcium ions) into or out of a cell.

It Creates Habitats and Microclimates:

Water has three phases: it can act as a solid, liquid, and gas within the range of temperatures that occur on Earth. The fact that water can be in all three phases in a relatively tight range of pressures creates many opportunities for life to flourish. These three phases of water allow for the variety of habitats and microclimates that are on the planet. For example, ice can be found in glaciers in the mountains, while water vapour helps warm the atmosphere.

It Improves Quality of Life:

Clean water, (like that filtered by the Everpure H-300 cartridge) can be the key to some communities breaking out of poverty. Clean water is essential for humans to stay healthy. Without your health, you can’t go to work or school, you can’t build a home, you can’t grow food, and you can’t provide for your family. In Africa alone, over 40 billion hours were lost walking to gather water. Sustainable access to clean water enables people to grow food, learn trades, and generate incomes. It allows children to go to school because they no longer have to fetch water. It keeps people healthy and safe from parasites such as cryptosporidium. Once the cycle of having clean water is implemented, the quality of life in a community’s quality of life significantly improves.

It’s Essential for Agriculture:

Water is the key to food security. Crops and livestock both need water to grow and thrive. Agriculture requires large quantities of water for irrigation (as do a wide variety of food production processes). Access to adequate food in the rural areas of many developing countries depends heavily on the ability to reach natural resources (including water) that are necessary to produce food. On July 28, 2010, The U.N. General Assembly declared access to clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right.

It Sustains Ecosystems:

Without water, ecosystems could not exist -- birds, fish, and plants wouldn’t be able to survive. Water links and maintains all ecosystems on the planet. It propels plant growth and provides a permanent home for species that live within it. It also provides a temporary home or breeding ground for multiple amphibians, insects and other water-based organisms. It provides the nutrients and minerals necessary to sustain physical life.

Effects of Climate Change

The Water Cycle:

About 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water, with 96.5 percent held by the ocean. Water also exists in lakes, rivers, polar ice caps, glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture, and even in you (or your pet)! Climate change is reshaping the planet in a major way. Rising temperatures, harsher storms, melting ice, and surging seas are just a few of the obvious effects that we're already observing. Changes in the planet will change the various stages of the water cycle. Water evaporates from the land and sea, which eventually returns to Earth as rain and snow. Climate change intensifies this cycle because as air temperatures increase, more water evaporates into the air. Warmer air can hold more water vapour, which can lead to more intense rainstorms and hurricanes, causing major problems like extreme flooding in coastal communities around the world.

Water continually cycles around the planet in 10 distinctive steps:

1. Evaporation - when liquid water changes to a gaseous state (as vapour)
2. Transpiration - evaporation of water from plant and tree roots into the atmosphere
3. Sublimation - snow and ice change to water vapour without becoming liquid
4. Condensation - water vapour becomes water droplets via cloud formation
5. Transportation - how water moves through the atmosphere in its solid, liquid or gaseous form
6. Precipitation - water that falls to the Earth as rain, snow, sleet, drizzle, or hail
7. Deposition - how water vapour changes to a solid state without becoming liquid, (like frost)
8. Infiltration - how water seeps into the ground and then percolates into the water table
9. Surface flow - the means by which rivers, lakes, and stream flow to the ocean (along with underground aquifers)
10. Plant uptake - plants only use one percent of the water pulled in by their roots, while the rest goes back into the atmosphere

Hotter Temperatures:

The planet is getting warmer. Data from NASA indicates that 2014 was the warmest year in recorded history, with Europe recording its warmest year on record. Higher temperatures have big implications for the amount of water people use. Hot weather causes dehydration, meaning people tend to use more water than they would in milder conditions. People also often use more water in hot weather to irrigate their plants or crops. As temperatures continue to climb, there could be an increased demand for fresh water, as supplies begin to dwindle.

Rising Sea Level:

Discussions of rising sea levels tends to evoke visions of flooding and erosion. While these are some of the major consequences, other, subtle effects are taking place. One major concern about the rising seas is they will start to intrude on coastal aquifers (the underground pockets of fresh water that many coastal communities rely on for their drinking water supply). Once the saltwater creeps in and contaminates the aquifers, the water either cannot be used or must be desalinated, a costly and energy-consuming process. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that sea level could rise by a meter or more by the end of the century.

Water Quality and Availability:

Increases in the demand for water in regions of scarcity can force the use of poor or unsuitable water -- with drastic repercussions for human health, and the associated health care costs. Some of the established influences on water quality include population growth, urbanization, and land use changes. If climate change leads to decreases in rainfall, water quantity and quality will worsen as populations increase.

Climate change is a global challenge that requires a global solution. Greenhouse gas emissions have the same impact on the atmosphere whether they originate in Canada, the United States, or England. All countries will need to work together to find effective strategies and combat threats to the entire planet.

At Efilters, we care about the quality of your water. We have a number of water filtration products, such as the Everpure H-300 cartridge, to provide you with clean, pure water. We strive to continually improve your customer service experience. Place your order for fresh water in Canada before 2:30 pm EST and we will ship it the same day. If you find a better advertised price, we will match it or better it.