Glaciers and Climate Change
These are massive blocks of ice and snow that have built up over thousands of years on mountains or near the Earth's poles.
What are glaciers?
This percentage of water on Earth is saltwater.
What is 97%?
This is the initial stage of the treatment process where raw sewage or wastewater from the community first enters the facility.
What is Intake (or Entry)?
This is an area of land where all falling water drains into a single location, such as a river, bay, or ocean.
What is a watershed?
These currents are created when cooler, denser water sinks and pushes warmer water upward.
What are convection currents?
These dome-shaped sheets of ice form at the North and South Poles because these regions receive less heat from the sun.
What are polar ice caps?
This term refers to a lack of freshwater resources relative to the demand for them.
What is water scarcity?
In this step, large items like garbage, branches, and plastics are removed using screens.
What is screening?
These hundreds or even thousands of smaller waterways flow from higher ground into larger rivers that eventually lead to a common point.
What are creeks and streams?
Because large bodies of water heat and cool slowly, they help create this type of climate in coastal regions.
What is a moderate climate?
This term describes long-term changes in average weather conditions, such as temperature and rainfall, on a global or regional scale.
What is climate change?
These are the four primary ways the water crisis impacts human life.
What are health, hunger, poverty, and education?
During this specific stage of treatment, air is pumped into the water to help bacteria break down organic waste.
What is secondary treatment?
These are the two primary routes water takes within a watershed.
What are soaking into the ground (groundwater) and running off surfaces (surface runoff)?
These are the four main sources that drive ocean currents.
What are wind, tides, changes in water density, and the rotation of Earth?
These three human activities are specifically noted for burning fuel and changing the natural greenhouse effect.
What are powering factories, cars and buses?
While most of Earth's water is salt or frozen, less than this percentage is available as fresh, liquid water.
What is 1%?
Sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) is added during this step to kill harmful bacteria like E. coli.
What is disinfection?
Large accumulations of underground water stored in soil or rock are known by this name.
What are aquifers?
Ocean currents are generally divided into these two categories.
What are surface currents and deep ocean currents?
This is considered the biggest concern if land-based ice melts due to global warming.
What is rising sea levels?
This region is a major focus for organizations like The Water Project due to widespread issues with sanitation and water access.
What is sub-Saharan Africa?
In 2021, this specific Ontario region spent over $15.4 million on maintaining and repairing its drinking water system.
What is the Durham Region?
Unlike sanitary sewers, these "fast lanes" transport rain and melted snow directly to nearby waterways.
What are storm drains (or storm sewers)?
This massive, never-ending loop that moves water around the planet is formed by combining deep-water and wind-driven currents.
What is the Global Conveyor Belt?