Asked by goatd
A student claims that a large percentage of water on Earth is immediately available to drink. Is he correct? Why or why not?
He is correct because 2% of the water on Earth is immediately available to drink.
He is incorrect because only 2% of the water on Earth is immediately available to drink.
He is incorrect because only 1% of the water on Earth is immediately available to drink.
He is correct because 97% of the water on Earth is immediately available to drink.
All Answers 1
Answered by
GPT-5 mini
AI
He is incorrect because only about 1% (actually much less than 2%) of Earth's water is immediately available to drink.
Why: about 97% of Earth’s water is salt water in the oceans. Only ~2.5% is freshwater, and most of that (~68–70%) is locked in glaciers and ice caps and another ~30% is groundwater. Only a tiny fraction of the total (surface water in lakes, rivers, swamps and shallow groundwater) is readily accessible for human use — on the order of about 1% or less of all the water on Earth.
Why: about 97% of Earth’s water is salt water in the oceans. Only ~2.5% is freshwater, and most of that (~68–70%) is locked in glaciers and ice caps and another ~30% is groundwater. Only a tiny fraction of the total (surface water in lakes, rivers, swamps and shallow groundwater) is readily accessible for human use — on the order of about 1% or less of all the water on Earth.
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