Zoom by Bob Berman

Author:Bob Berman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science / Essays, Science / General, Science / Physics / General, Science / Physics / Geophysics, Science / Physics / Optics & Light
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2014-06-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12: Brooks and Breakers

Earth’s Greatest Assets Are Liquid

But ol’ man river,

He jes’ keeps rollin’ along.

—OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II, “OL’ MAN RIVER” (1927)

The headline was grim.

FIFTY-FOUR MIGRANTS DIE OF THIRST IN MEDITERRANEAN BOAT DRAMA.

Datelined Geneva, July 11, 2012, it recounted a horrific ordeal. Nearly five dozen migrants from Africa trying to reach Italy died of thirst when their inflatable boat ruptured in the Mediterranean, according to testimony from the sole survivor, Abbes Settou. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said that Settou, who drank seawater to survive, was spotted clinging to the remains of the stricken boat off the Tunisian coast by fishermen who alerted the coast guard. The man said there was no fresh water on board and people started to perish within days, including three members of his family.

It’s the cruelest irony to die of thirst while immersed in water.

It also highlights water’s critical importance. Of all the moving entities that surround and permeate our lives, the most vital are water and air—curiously, the only essentials that are transparent.

Our bodies are two-thirds water. Our brains are mostly made of it. No wonder these same brains enjoy watching it move as we dreamily stare at rivers and marvel at waterfalls. We bathe in water and jump into it at the slightest provocation; it’s the centerpiece around which vacations revolve. And, as with everything on this yin-yang planet, it sometimes turns on us, as my niece and Abbes Settou, sadly, learned.

Walls of water have always been terrifying. Yet aquatic fact and fiction competitively marched side by side for countless centuries. It took until passable science knowledge arrived in the nineteenth century before Noah’s flood went from literal truth to mere parable. This happened only when it became obvious that if every ounce of water vapor in the atmosphere precipitated as rain, it would raise the sea level by only a single inch. No need for an ark. Noah’s forty days of rain notwithstanding, floods, then as now, can never be more than regional events.

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