Shakespeare's King Lear
More than 70% of the Earth's surface is covered with water. How did all this water get here?
According to a recently published report, scientists assert that all this water was delivered to Earth from rocks arriving from outer space--ice-infused asteroids and/or meteorites from an asteroid called Vesta.* ""This bombardment of asteroids a few million years after the start of the solar system could have easily delivered enough ice--locked inside the rocks, safe from the sun's heat--to account for the Earth's oceans, computer simulations indicate."** These conclusions are based upon comparisons of the Deuterium/Hydrogen ratios of the Earth water with water found in the space rocks.
It is not clear how the asteroids that hit the earth or Vesta got their water in the first place. So perhaps the issue of original water source is pushed back to an earlier time period and more computer simulations.
Of course, there can be another explanation for water on Earth: God or so-called "intelligent design". Under the "Anthropic Principle", the Earth as well as the entire universe evidence having been designed for the purpose of sustaining life, including human life. Physicist Arno Penzias is quoted as having said "Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the right conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying, one might say 'supernatural', plan"*** Water, then, could be viewed as an ingredient placed on Earth for the specific purpose of enabling and sustaining life.
However, perhaps the more important question is not where water came from but where is water going. Earth's water controls climate and weather, molds the land, and enables life. In particular, clean water is essential for human life. How humanity respects water really has become the issue for now and the future.
Waste of water resources has the potential to upend the "delicate balance" Penzias referenced. Waste can take many forms, such as excessive usage, diversion to lesser or non-essential uses, overpopulation or over irrigation of areas with limited local water sources, and pollution of surface and ground water.
Perhaps it is best that we express our gratitude for water, regardless how it got here; because without it, we never would be here.
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*Crockett."Water, Water Everywhere",
Science News, May 16,2015, p.18
**Id. at p. 20
***Paper,"God and Science", Dr.Josh Moody
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