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[rain, thunder]

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[waves]
As humans, we're well

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aware we need water to live. Fortunately for us, we live on

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a water planet. But that doesn't mean we have an entire globe of H2O

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to use as we please.

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So just how does the usable water break down for us?

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A giant 97 percent of Earth's water is in the ocean, so we can't

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use that. Three percent is freshwater, but even in that small

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sliver, about two percent is locked in glaciers, ice caps, and groundwater.

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That leaves about one percent of the freshwater on

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Earth that is accessible and usable by humans. Let's imagine

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all of that accessible freshwater fits into this tiny pool. Now we'll get to

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some small numbers when we look at global freshwater.

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[music]

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There really is a small fraction of usable and accessible freshwater on this

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water planet, so how do we use that tiny pool? In the

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United States, about 49 percent is used in thermoelectric power production.

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While agricultural irrigation makes up about 31

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percent. Eleven percent goes to public use in our cities and towns.

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Four percent goes into industry and manufacturing,

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and one percent is domestic use. The water coming out of our faucets

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largely comes from precipitation. Measuring how much or

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how little precipitation falls can impact how we live our daily lives.

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Elsewhere around the globe, in developing countries, agricultural irrigation

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accounts for about 70 percent of freshwater use,

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while industrial use is 20 percent, and 10 percent for public consumption.

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In places where access to usable freshwater is greatly limited,

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knowing when and where precipitation may fall is critical to livelihoods.

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Precipitation replenishes these tiny reservoirs of

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freshwater, and data from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission will help

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farmers, ranchers, and policy makers in these regions plan for

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periods of drought, flooding and other extreme weather.