Raindrops Fall around the Globe Plip Plop Plitter Plosh What happens to the rain Where does the water go Raindrops fall from the clouds onto rooftops and umbrellas cars and gardens Follow me I’ll show you SPLASH Onto a roof down to the pavement across the road SWIRL Other drops join in and we flow along collecting dirt oil maybe an insect or two 4 SWOOSH We stream faster and wider down the hill into brooks and rivers onwards towards the sea
Raindrops fall around the world onto cities and forests and fields They sink into soil and plop into puddles Eventually in a day or a month or over many years the water will find its way to the ocean Earth’s ocean covers most of the planet’s surface The oceans are so vast that when astronauts look down from space Earth looks mostly blue But Earth’s water doesn’t just sit there It’s in motion even within the ocean I travel all around the ocean from the Come on let’s explore the world of water Arctic to Antarctica and back 5
Our Watery World not water 29 water 71 We usually think of Earth as well earth meaning dirt or dry ground But Earth is mostly water How much water Enough to cover 71 of the globe Scientists estimate that all the water on Earth adds up to about 326 million trillion gallons 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons That’s this much 1,234,000,000,000,000,000,000 L What activities use the most water Could you reduce how much you use On average you use this much water for washing hands 1 gallon 3 8 L brushing teeth with water running 1 5 gallons 3 8 18 9 L a shower 2 5 gallons per minute 9 5 L fl ushing toilet 3 gallons 11 4 L a bath 36 gallons 136 3 L 6
All of Earth’s water is important But only a small part of it is drinkable The ocean is too salty our bodies can’t handle it Of all Earth's water 97% is in the ocean whose wide waters stretch from waves breaking on beaches to the vast open seas from mysterious deep dark depths to sparkling blue coral-filled lagoons Our WATERY World Less than 1 of the water on Earth is good for drinking 2% is frozen as ice including at the North Pole on Antarctica and in glaciers 1% is fresh water including lakes rivers and streams Some people call this sweet water It doesn’t contain the dissolved salts that the ocean does Most of the world’s fresh water isn’t on the surface though You’ll find it here under the ground groundwater in the dirt soil moisture in the air water vapor 7
