Water Resources for Dummies

Water cycle

Kids in American elementary schools these days study science a lot, partially because the country is falling behind the rest of the industrialized world in STEM (where S stands for science) and partially because there are a lot of science questions on those standardized tests. Nothing, unfortunately, makes them remember it. In the case of eHowian Heather Bliss (BA in music), we don't know that she learned any science to begin with... but her post "How is Water a Renewable Resource" (at Sciencing.com) sure suggests she didn't.

The answer, we wish Heather had realized, is pretty simple: water is not consumed when it's used, so the amount of water available remains (essentially) constant. In other words, all that verbiage Ms. Bliss barfed up for eHow.com? it's mostly page filler – and some of it's pretty bad page filler. Take these statements, for instance:

• "The rain cycle--powered by the energy of the sun--distributes water to the different areas of the planet..." – Does she mean the "water cycle"? Not to mention that "distributes water" is a pretty poor description of said cycle
• "Renewable resources come in many forms and are all basically powered by solar energy, a force that powers the heat, rain, wind, and weather cycles of the Earth." – Ummm, no, that's the water cycle; not renewable resources. Plus, we've never heard of a wind cycle or a heat cycle. You?
• "...the Energy Information Administration (EIA) defines a renewable resources as 'Fuels that can be easily made or "renewed".' [sic]" – Ummm, Heather? Water isn't a renewable fuel!
• "If a local drought takes hold of an area, often conservation efforts can help replenish the reservoirs and eventually eliminate the drought." – Sorry, Heather, drought is a climatological event. Conservation efforts may reduce the effects of a drought, but cannot eliminate it. Idiot.

At this point, for some reason, Bliss conflated water as a renewable resource with renewable energy sources and zeroed in on hydropower. Some of her more doofus claims include,

• "Hydropower can be powered by steam..." – Nope: she's confusing steam turbines driven by boiling water.
• "The most significant environmental impact of hydropower is the size needed to harness the flow of rivers and streams." – We can't even parse that one...
• "Hydropower can be harnessed without taking water out of the system through which it flows." – Duh.
• "A drawback to hydropower is that it depends on the continued performance of the rain cycle. If an area goes dry for an extended period, it will need to find a new source of water..." – Really? they build gigantic dams in areas where the stream flow is ephemeral?

This is a perfect example of what happens when you let someone who lacks a basic knowledge of a technological topic "freelance" about it, especially when you require that they write 300-500 words. It's classic Dumbass of the Day material; and a major contribution to the stupidification of the internet.

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