Dick Jacobsen

“Every drop of water you drink has already gone through someone or something elses intestines.” That was the first thing my Water Resources Management professor said on the first day of class, 1965. It got my attention. He went on to tell us that ‘we live in a closed universe’ and ‘matter is neither created not destroyed’. He also postulated that there would be competition for water by 2020 to 2025.

What we had when Earth was created, a little over four and a half billion years ago, is pretty much what we have today. The shapes may have changed and the chemical make-ups may have changed, ions moving around and such, but the matter is still intact, minus some space probes and other junk that we have shot out there and have no intention of recovering. I have always found that fascinating. The Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago (bya) spewed the gasses from which our solar system was formed. Our sun’s gasses spun around getting denser and denser, grabbing in its gravitational field the intrepid planets and moons that whiz around their orbits, including our 4.6 billion year old Earth.

The first life forms didn’t show up until 3.5 bya. The first vertebrates 500 million years ago (mya), the first organisms on land 475 mya, the first reptiles 350 mya, first dinosaurs 250 mya, first apes 20 mya, homo erectus 1.9 mya and finally homo sapiens 200 thousand years ago (tya). I assume that the first vertebrates started drinking the water 500 mya but we’ve only been drinking for 200,000 years.

In a mere blip on the of the Universes continuum we have managed to drink all the water, probably more than once. Thankfully, water is not so short lived. It keeps coming back in the cool clear form of which we are in so much need. 2020 to 2025 is just around the corner though. I think it is time we begin to take water conservation more seriously and do what we can to keep the taps flowing. I live in Northern California which is currently experiencing a major drought, last night was the first rain of our winter season.