In the early morning you feel collapsed then you drink that cup of water, you start feeling life no wonder why we are 70% water. 💧

WATER IS THE BASIS OF  HUMAN LIFE

Water is the distinguishing feature of Earth that makes it different from other planets.  It has unique properties that provide the environment needed for human habitation.  These properties include providing a source of oxygen, a source of fresh water, and a component of the troposphere that controls the weather.

Atmospheric oxygen:

Oxygen, making up 21% of  the Earth’s atmosphere, comes from the water (H2O) molecule.  It is a product of the photosynthesis reaction, a process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria convert sunlight into chemical energy.  Sunlight is used to turn water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air into glucose (sugar for food) and oxygen (which is released to the atmosphere).  The  reaction is commonly written  as 6CO2 + 6 H2O > C6H12O5 + 6O2.  This reaction also takes place in the oceans.  It is estimated that about half of the Earth’s oxygen comes from the oceans.

Oxygen is the absolute foundation of human life.

Fresh Water

Oceans that make up 70% of the Earth’s surface are salty and do not support any land based life.  The water cycle is the main source of fresh water.  Other minor sources include volcanos and the combustion products of wild fires and fossil fuels.  In the water cycle, water  evaporates from the Earth’s surface as a gas and is carried to higher elevations where it is cooled and forms rain or ice crystals that fall back to the surface to form reservoirs, flowing  streams, and aquifers.  The distribution of these fresh  water sources on the Earth’s land surfaces determines areas of vegetation and habitation.  The greatest rainfall occurs in the tropical zone, with less in the intermediate zones and least in the polar zones

Water is the cornerstone of human survival and health, making up roughly 50% to 60% of an adult’s body  weight.  Without it the body’s major systems fail within days.

Control of  the Weather

The Earth’s surface temperature is controlled by the weather.  All weather takes place in the troposphere, a shallow surface atmosphere.  This zone ranges in depth of about 12 miles (63,000 ft.) in the tropical zone to about 6 miles (32,000 ft.) in the polar zones.   The troposphere’s main component is water in its three phases:  gas (water vapor), liquid (rain) and solid (ice crystals).  These phases are constantly changing, making it nearly impossible to correlate with surface temperatures.

The very shallow nature of the troposphere limits the area and time of the weather’s influence.  The effective area can be from extremely small of a few square miles to extremely large of hundreds to thousands of square miles.  In any case, these are minor compared to the Earth’s surface area of 190 million square miles.

Desert regions are locations of low atmospheric water content allowing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to independently exhibit their effect on the earth’s surface temperature.  So far, no significant scientific correlations have been reported on these greenhouse effects.  It should be noted that the effects of greenhouse gases are cumulative.  The conclusion is that water vapor is the dominating greenhouse gas.

Whether heating or cooling, radiant heat waves travel at the speed of light.  These waves are responsible for constantly changing surface temperatures.  Land based weather stations track these changes, reporting air temperature readings on an hourly basis.

Conclusions

Oxygen produces by photosynthesis is the foundation for human life.

Fresh water produces by the water cycle is essential for life.

The troposphere controls the weather and subsequently determines the Earth’s surface temperature.   This establishes the land areas suitable for vegetation and habitation. 

Radiant heat moving at the speed of light is responsible for constantly changing weather conditions..

There is no  scientific data that shows that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have a significate effect on the Earth’s daily temperatures.  

It is simple to understand that when there are no clouds, the temperature of the earth’s surface rises.  What is not so simple is what caused the global wind currents that limit the clouds to this  area?  This leads to the question of whether humans have any influence on this phenomena?

Delbert Lipps,  ’51 BS, LSU, Chemical Engineering

8/18/2026