Aqueous Solutions Summary and Analysis

The premise of the chapter on water is that we live on the water planet, and to let water flow in its natural patterns as closely as possible allows it to fulfill its role as a habitat for and contributor to life. Our systems for using water have been designed around the assumption that it is an infinite resource, and so our cleanest drinking water can be used for things like toilets, showers and car-washing as freely as we use it for survival. It has not taken us long, however, to see that we could not go on using it at the rate we had been, particularly in agriculture. Irrigation has become hugely more efficient in agriculture, as have alternatives like drip-irrigation that delivers water just to the root of the plants that need it instead of leading to...