Our planet is a blue planet.
71 percent of the earths surface is water.
But around 97.5 percent of that water is salt water.
Only 2.5 percent is fresh.
That’s not a whole lot considering how many walks of life need fresh water in order to
survive.
What if, in some way shape or form, all the salt water on earth became freshwater?
That’s the question we’re asking right now on life’s biggest questions.
Hello and welcome back to life’s biggest questions, the channel that asks the fundamental
questions of life.
I’m charlotte dobre.
If this is your first time here, hey, how are ya.
Would love it if you subbed and turned on the bell so you never miss one of our videos,
and be sure to stick around until the end of the video where we feature some of your
comments.
So, What if all the oceans became freshwater?
An estimated 790 million people, which is around 11 percent of the total population
of our planet, does not have access to clean drinking water.
And that’s crazy to say because there is so much water on planet earth, its just not
consumable as salt water.
If we found a cost effective way to convert some of our oceans into fresh water, Sure,
there would be plenty of drinking water to go around, But all the salt water on earth
being converted into fresh water is another story.
It definitely wouldn’t be all sunshine and rainbows.
In fact its likely that most life on our planet would die off.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
I’ll get to that in a couple of minutes.
Here’s a fun fact, did you know that all the oceans on earth used to be fresh water?
Well it did, dear subscribers, it did.
Yay facts.
Around 3.8 billion years ago, the earths surface had finally cooled down, from the rotating
liquid magma ball it once was, and water vapour was able to turn from a gas into liquid water.
But it didn’t stay as freshwater for long.
Shortly after the planet cooled, climatic cycles began.
When it rained, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolved into the rain, making the rain acidic.
The rocks then started to erode, slowly but surely.
Rainwater then crept its way into rivers and streams, loosening the salt and minerals,
and the runoff eventually made it to the oceans.
Of course this didn’t happen overnight.
It took billions of years and countless rain storms for our salty oceans to become as vast
as they are today.
Most of the freshwater that’s consumed by humans is done so through agriculture.
20% is consumed by industries and 10 percent is for domestic use.
Humans and other animals need water to survive.
The average human lives 80 years, and in their lifetime, they will drink 87600 litres.
But even though humans are consuming a lot of water, we also need to consume food too.
There are so many types of seafood that humans eat that we would no longer be able to if
all our oceans became freshwater.
I mean listen, I could live without oysters, but I definitely wouldn’t want to.
And shrimp, crab and lobster?
Fughgettabout it.
There are around 230 thousand marine species that live in the ocean, and scientists think
that there could be as many as 2 million species that haven’t been discovered yet.
But if you take that salt water out of the ocean, all those organisms would die.
The organisms that are affected the most are plankton and phytoplankton, they are at the
bottom of the food chain, and when you take them out of the equation, the rest of the
food chain is affected.
Think about the fact that marine microrganisms like algae account for almost half the photosynthesis
on earth.
Algae pulls carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and create a huge chunk of the oxygen that
we as humans breathe…things start to get real complicated real fast.
If all the oceans became freshwater, its likely most plants and animals, including humans,
would die off.
REeeel quick.
If starvation and suffocation doesn’t kill you, then everyone and everything that’s
left would not be living on a recognizable earth.
With no microorganisms in the ocean creating oxygen for us to breathe, there would be an
abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The greenhouse effect would go into overdrive, making many parts of the earth unspeakably
hot, like at the equator and others incredibly cold, especially close to the poles.
Hurricanes would be a regular occurrence, and they would be much more severe and much
more deadly.
The global population is growing at an insane rate.
By 2050, its estimated that there will be 9.7 billion people on earth.
The more people on earth, the more fresh water we will need to drink, and the more food that
will need to be produced.
We’re definitely going to need to find a cost effective way to convert salt water into
fresh water, but turning all the salt water into fresh water?
Yeah that’s pretty much a death wish.
Well there you have it, you have just heard what would happen if all the oceans became
freshwater.
Tell us your thoughts down in the comments, for now I’m going to wrap up this video
by responding to some comments from my video What if we drained the Mariana trench part
2.
Sam aimson – what if bohemian rhapsody had never been written.
Waynes world wouldn’t be as iconic that’s for sure.
Concavenator Producgtions – we shouldn’t drain the m ariana trench because Godzilla
is resting at the bottom.
Because logic right?
Who needs logic.
You’re watching lifes biggest questions remember?
Mems god – I love your voice.
Athanguverymuuuch my fran.