Water World

By Simone Malacrida

The book is in the vein of going to outline the characteristics of "planet water" while taking a different view of the whole. Instead of delving into only one particular aspect (the scientific-technological or the social, for example), it was preferred to consider all the links that water has to man and society, going on to outline a series of "journeys," each corresponding to each of the seven chapters that form the structure of the writing. Very briefly, these different and complementary points of view can be summarized in this outline: The indissoluble link between water and life, from the Universe to our Planet to the biosphere and our cells. The chemical and physical properties of water, what they depend on and what influences they have in defining the importance of this molecule. Water-related phenomena such as the water cycle, geology, types of water, and everything related to the morphology of planet Earth. What uses, how much consumption and treatments are related to water to understand the numbers, purposes and quality of water used. What are the social aspects related to water from historical, economic and political aspects to all forms of artistic expression and daily life. How we are attacking water through pollutions of various kinds, the problem of global warming, and waste related to today's society. The concept of water rights, the scarcity of water resources with related inequalities, the confrontation-clash between market vision and essential human rights. The beginning and the end of the book constitute the central themes around which all the arguments unfold. The link to life and the right to water are two sides of the same coin that will lead to very precise and detailed conclusions, such as the awareness of a new sustainable model of development, the necessary actions to combat global problems such as pollution, global warming and water scarcity, and the conviction that rights and life are more important and necessary than purely economic iss

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Apr 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9783755439097

Simone Malacrida

Simone Malacrida (1977) Ha lavorato nel settore della ricerca (ottica e nanotecnologie) e, in seguito, in quello industriale-impiantistico, in particolare nel Power, nell'Oil&Gas e nelle infrastrutture. E' interessato a problematiche finanziarie ed energetiche. Ha pubblicato un primo ciclo di 21 libri principali (10 divulgativi e didattici e 11 romanzi) + 91 manuali didattici derivati. Un secondo ciclo, sempre di 21 libri, è in corso di elaborazione e sviluppo.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Water World

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: WATER AND LIFE

CHAPTER 2: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER

CHAPTER 3: PHENOMENOLOGY OF WATER

CHAPTER 4: WATER BETWEEN USES, CONSUMPTION AND TREATMENTS

CHAPTER 5: THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF WATER

CHAPTER 6: THE AGGRESSION ON WATER

CHAPTER 7: WATER AS A RIGHT OR A COMMODITY?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Water World

Water World

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SIMONE MALACRIDA

Simone Malacrida (1977)

Engineer and writer, has worked on research, finance, energy policy and industrial plants.

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ANALYTICAL INDEX

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INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: WATER AND LIFE

CHAPTER 2: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER

CHAPTER 3: PHENOMENOLOGY OF WATER

CHAPTER 4: WATER BETWEEN USES, CONSUMPTION AND TREATMENTS

CHAPTER 5: THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF WATER

CHAPTER 6: THE AGGRESSION ON WATER

CHAPTER 7: WATER AS A RIGHT OR A COMMODITY?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

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Everything flows.

One cannot immerse oneself twice in the waters of the same river.

(Heraclitus)

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During the last decade, an enormous interest in all issues related to water has emerged worldwide both in terms of discussions of an economic and geopolitical nature and in terms of the publication of articles, books, conference abstracts and writings by various genre.

A renewed ferment that rests on a solid awareness. Water, its links with other social and economic aspects, its vital implications are key topics of this historical period, at least for a good twenty years, and involve, in various ways, all the populations of the planet and social groups.

The underlying reasons for this acknowledgment will be analyzed in detail as the chapters unfold; at the beginning it is only worth remembering that there is a general problem of supplying water resources with aspects of scarcity in many countries and with a growing need to feed human activities, but at the same time there is increasingly evident news of how we are damaging the waters, whether whether sweet or marine.

The consequence of this new centrality of the water problem is quite clear, just do a bibliographic search or visit the numerous Internet sites that have sprung up around these topics. In recent times, reasoning and discussions around water have increased dramatically, inflating the general panorama and creating, sometimes and fortunately in rare cases, only background noise made up of questionable and contradictory statements.

Therefore, to date, various writings can be found, each with its own peculiarities. Usually, there is a tendency to emphasize a particular aspect, whether it is a purely scientific and technological one (water treatments or chemical-physical properties) or aspects more linked to society and the economy (the role of water in history or the modification of human daily life or everything related to modern privatisations). These writings - the majority of which are conceived with criteria - constitute a real heritage to draw on and some of them are presented in the bibliography.

This book, however, is not characterized by a vision of this nature; one of the topics mentioned above will not be explored in extreme detail, but rather the exact opposite.

The text presented here has the express purpose of making the phenomenon of water understood in its entirety, without neglecting or making any possible and imaginable link prevail. The crucial node around which attention will revolve will therefore not be the search for detail, but rather the overall vision, the totality of issues connected to water.

This belief is based on some assumptions and some general observations. In the highly specialized panorama that characterizes every modern discipline, very often the unitary vision is lacking, the general gaze that collects, in a synthetic way and free from a priori interpretations, the essential and incontrovertible facts from which to draw equally well-founded conclusions. A broad view of a general nature precisely to reflect the vastness and complexity of some modern realities (in general resources such as water or energy or sciences or, in a broader sense, society current).

Sometimes we prefer not to face this perspective because it is uncomfortable, difficult to explain and accept, but in doing so we risk sinking into the search for detailed mannerisms, losing sight of the general situation and the frame of reference.

As already mentioned, this book instead takes charge of a general vision and, in order to complete this operation, a characteristic structure has been given to the writing which has made it possible to contain and define, in the specific differences of each aspect, a single and global joint bond.

Seven general topics related to water will be presented below, divided into as many seven chapters. Each chapter is conceived as a single structure, in which there are analyses, conclusions and proposals, but which connects to all the others in both a sequential and global link, suggesting that the order presented is a symptom of a forma mentis of the author, rather than a real logical consequence.

The seven chapters are therefore configured as seven journeys to discover a particular aspect of the water planet.

In a nutshell, we can outline the route of these journeys, leaving the definition of the destinations and starting points to the unfolding of the chapters.

The indissoluble bond between water and life, from the Universe to our Planet to the biosphere and our cells.

The chemical-physical properties of water, what they depend on and what influences they have in defining the importance of this molecule.

Phenomena related to water such as the water cycle, geology, type of water and everything connected to the morphology of planet Earth.

Which uses, how much consumption and which treatments are connected to water to understand the numbers, purposes and quality of the waters used.

What are the social aspects related to water from historical, economic and political ones to all forms of artistic expression and daily life.

How we are attacking water through various types of pollution, the problem of global warming and waste related to current society.

The concept of water law, the scarcity of water resources with the related inequalities, the confrontation-clash between market vision and essential human rights.

From this small summary it is possible to underline both the general vision and the peculiar differences of each chapter that characterize the individual journeys.

The beginning and the end of the book, in particular what is discussed in the first and seventh chapters, have not been taken at random, but constitute a closure of the circle represented by the topics covered in the text.

It is no coincidence that we begin with the links between water and life and end with the right to water, on the contrary these main themes will form the pillars of all the other chapters due to their capital importance and will appear as a general background against which define the individual specificities of each of the chosen topics.

Furthermore, a connection between beginning and end brings us back to a circular logic rather than a consequential one, more in line with the very nature of water which, changing into all forms and states and permeating the whole terrestrial biosphere, is present, almost eternally, in a continuous cycle without beginning and end, but of progressive and infinite becoming, as mentioned in the opening with the aphorism of Heraclitus which fits perfectly with the nature of water, dynamic and changeable.

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The real concept that underlies this book and that will return to every page of it is, however, very simple and, at the same time, an assumption such as to produce obvious consequences when we talk about the model in the last chapter. of development, economy, inequalities and rights.

Water is an indispensable good, a vital resource, an inalienable right for each of us.

There is no other explanation that justifies and is a foundation for the infinite variations that this molecule has in human life, from essential needs to philosophical-religious inspirations.

After all, water is itself life, an expression, a source, an origin and a consequence of the same and it should never be forgotten.

This basic concept will be the background to all the chemical, physical, morphological, scientific and social properties that will be explored in depth below, with the succession of paragraphs.

In closing this introduction, it seems almost superfluous to underline how the book itself is, in reality, a general journey to discover all the secrets of water, of this molecule so important and necessary as to be defined as blue gold and source of life.

Now, as one could say paraphrasing Goethe's Faust about the purpose of this journey , instead, it is necessary that we begin in the vast sea.

CHAPTER 1: WATER AND LIFE

CHAPTER 1

WATER AND LIFE

CHAPTER 2: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER

How it plays

the water

and sing

(undoubtedly

she's alive!)

(Water by Walt Whitman)

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As already mentioned in the introduction, all issues related to water, whether it is conceived in its chemical and physical meaning, or reference is made to what is linked to literature, art and the part of human thought that is not purely rational, necessarily refer to the topic of life.

This statement has a double truth in itself. Life as we know it on this planet originated in primordial water and, thanks to water, continues to thrive. We can therefore see in this molecule, the origin and source of life on planet Earth. Indeed, we can hardly imagine an extraterrestrial life without the presence of this element. Furthermore, with an exquisitely scientific analysis, the presence of water in its three states (solid, liquid and gaseous) is one of the reasons why life developed on this planet (and not on the others in the Solar System), together with the presence of an adequate atmosphere, a strong magnetic field and a stability of the earth's axis of rotation.

It should therefore come as no surprise that the journey undertaken to understand all the many facets of this molecule starts from the essential basis: the link between water and life.

In this first chapter, attention will first be focused on the presence of water outside this planet and then going to touch the numbers of water that instead characterize it and slowly descending to the individual individuals and food.

A journey from the universal to the particular which will make people understand the real dimensions of the inseparable link between water and life. A vision to always keep in mind when dealing with other topics and, for this reason, presented at the beginning, as a sort of constant background to refer to.

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Water outside the Earth

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Starting this journey through the Universe, it can be said that the water molecule cannot be present in any of its forms and states on stars, such as our Sun, due to the excessively high temperature (both on the surface and inside the stella) which does not allow the stability of the molecule and of the bonds contained in it. There are no traces of water even among the most disparate celestial objects, such as black holes, neutron stars, quasars and pulsars.

However, water is present in the interstellar clouds of galaxies, as has been observed in our Milky Way, and in nebulae deriving from previous stellar activity. The relative abundance of this molecule in these celestial formations is due to the fact that the elementary components (hydrogen and oxygen) are among the most profuse in the Universe; in particular hydrogen, being the simplest element, represents more than 90% of all existing elements, while oxygen is a by-product of the nuclear reactions that take place in the terminal phase of the life of the stars. Furthermore, another factor that plays in favor of the presence of water in nebulae is the generation of shock waves which characterize star formation and which allow the genesis of stable molecules.

That said, water is massively present on planets. On these secondary objects, derived either from the initial phase of creation of the stars or from the terminal phase of their explosion (someone, in a very poetic way, said that the planets, including ours, are nothing but stardust), the water shows a considerable presence.

Life therefore should not be sought on the stars, as sometimes erroneously noted in science fiction, but on the planets, where an element such as water can abound.

The stars, with their energy and heat, are the engine of life and every other activity, while the water present in the planets becomes the ideal habitat for the proliferation of living forms.

Our solar system is made up of a series of planets which are certainly the best known and most observed celestial objects since ancient times. We can essentially distinguish the planets of the solar system into two large families. The so-called terrestrial ones, positioned in the part closest to the Sun, are generally rocky, while the more external ones are instead formed by gaseous masses or frozen liquids. In the first family we can include, in order of distance from our star, Mercury, Venus, la Terraand Mars, while in the second family there are all the giants from Jupiter onwards up to the boundaries where the solar system ends.

On rocky planets, the presence of water is determined by a series of concomitant factors such as the proximity to the Sun (which in turn influences the average irradiation and the temperature on the ground) and the size of the planet. In particular, it is precisely the size that determines both the force of gravity and the escape velocity and therefore the presence and composition of any atmosphere, a fundamental requirement for life and for the presence of liquid water.

Precisely for these reasons, on Mercury there is no presence of water in any form or state, since its extreme proximity to the Sun and its very small size do not allow for the existence of an atmosphere or the presence of liquid or solid (too high ground temperature) and not even gaseous (the water vapor would not be retained by the planet). Therefore life on Mercury is not technically possible, nor probably ever was.

Venus has a dense atmosphere, but the presence of gaseous water is negligible compared to sulfur dioxide. The ground conditions of this planet are terrible and inhospitable due to the presence of life, with a temperature of about 450°C, solar radiation almost shielded from the atmosphere, rains of sulfuric acid; all elements that indicate that life today is completely impossible on this planet. The presence of liquid water on Venus is given as a hypothesis in the past, then a devastating greenhouse effect caused these inhospitable conditions and the disappearance of liquid water on the Venusian soil. There is no agreement (because there is still no scientific evidence) on the presence of ice or underground liquid water in the subsoil of this planet.

The case of Mars is different, which appears to be the planet most similar to ours, although the greater distance from the Sun causes an irradiation and a lower average temperature and smaller dimensions, a much more rarefied atmosphere compared to ours. Water on Mars is present in the form of ice in the polar caps and, to a much lesser extent, in gaseous form in the atmosphere. It must be said that the water stored in the polar caps of Mars is relatively little if compared with that present in the terrestrial equivalents and that the presence of liquid water on the surface is impossible due to the pressure and temperature conditions of the planet. Having said this, modern scientific explorations have focused on Mars for the search for liquid or solid water in the subsoil, but above all for the possible presence, in the past, of liquid water on the surface and the possibility of life on this planet, not only as a pure science fiction idea as in Ray Bradbury's well-known book The Martian Chronicles. The dispute that has arisen since the time of Schiapparelli about the famous Martian canals could therefore find a definitive scientific answer. Of all the planets in the solar system, Mars is practically the only one where a form of colonization by terrestrial life could be conceived.

An interesting current research aims to discover the possible existence of lunar ice. In fact, our satellite, having no atmosphere, does not possess any type of liquid or gaseous water, but in some of the craters formed by the numerous impacts of asteroids, there could be some ice that was present in these asteroids and which, positioned on the bottom of these craters, does not receive the sun's radiation and therefore remains in solid form, being the shaded areas of the Moon well below 0°C.

On gaseous planets, water is abundant in the atmosphere. Solidified water vapor is