Underrated Things - Water
A new category! In line with the lil’ tattoo I have on the back of my chunky neck (learn, in Thai), I like learning. I don’t care what it is - a fact about bugs, a tidbit about history, an entire book on conspiracy theories - it’s all good. Often, right in the middle of learning about something new, I stop and think to myself, “This is awesome! How come no one else gets excited about this stuff?” Over the years, I’ve found that there’s a lot of things that I think are underrated, and this is an attempt to write about the little things that amaze me that usually don’t get the attention they deserve. The first one I’ll choose? Water. Simple, elegant, abundant water. For a substance that covers 75% of the Earth’s surface, makes up 70% of your body, and is vital to the very existence of the human race, we don’t give it enough respect.
Beyond the fact that we humans are polluting our precious water reserves at a sickening rate, most of the water we drink is flavoured. Soft drinks, juice, tea, coffee, soups, smoothies, etc, etc. We don’t need the flavour - the sugars and chemicals that make your Dr. Pepper so good are discarded by the body and then what? It just keeps the water. How often do we respect the beautiful simplicity of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom coming together and just remaining pure, without trying to make it taste like grapes or chocolate or Ethiopian beans? How often do we forget just how friggin’ cool it is that water can be snow (fun for kids!); ice (good for injuries); steam (trains, ships and turbines). What about it’s awesome geological power - cracking rocks when frozen, or gouging out great valleys as a slow moving but unstoppable glacier?
Water, my friends, is badass. Appreciate it. Savour it. Treasure the fact that you likely have access to as much water as you need, unlike a large number of the people on Earth who would be happy to drink the water in our toilets. Feel humbled by the fact that without it, you’d die in 3 days.
To finish, some facts on water:
- Pure water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic.
- Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it.
- Of all the water on the earth, humans can use only about 3/10 of 1% of this water. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.
- By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1% of its total water amount.
- At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease.
It also looks pretty damn cool in space.
That’s it. I’m off for a drink.
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i love water man….boggles my mind how delicious it is. reading this made me thirsty as hell….thank you for bringing this to our collective attention greg. u da man.