Oh, hey there! I was just looking up information on how to fix a faucet.
哦,嘿!我在查关于修水龙头的资料。
I turned off the kitchen faucet after washing my hands, and noticed that there was still some water dripping out of it.
我洗完手,关上厨房的水龙头,却发现水龙头还在滴水。
And I don't want to waste water!
我不想浪费水!
Oh, don't worry, Squeaks!
哦,吱吱,别担心!
Squeaks is worried that if we waste too much water, the world could completely run out.
吱吱担心如果我们浪费太多的水,地球上的水可能就会耗尽。
And I can see why you would think that.
我知道你为什么会这么想。
Sometimes, when we waste something, or use more than we need, we run out of it.
有时候,当我们浪费一些东西,或者所用比所需的要多,这个东西就会被用完。
Like, if you use way too much toilet paper in the bathroom, soon, you won't have any left.
比如,如果你在卫生间里用了太多的卫生纸,那么很快你的卫生纸就会用完。
But I'm happy to say that the Earth isn't going to completely run out of water.
但是,告诉你一个好消息,地球上的水是不会用完的。
Our planet has a lot of water! Look, Squeaks. This is what the Earth looks like from outer space.
我们的星球上有很多很多水!看,吱吱。这是从外太空看到的地球。
All of that blue we can see is ocean.
我们看到的所有蓝色的部分都是海洋。
You can see that most of the Earth is covered with ocean!
你可以看到地球的大部分都被海洋覆盖着!
And oceans are full of water.
而且海洋里面全是水。
In fact, they contain almost all of the water on Earth! We can show that on this chart.
其实,海洋几乎包含了地球上所有的水!我们可以看看这张图表。
If this circle showed all of Earth's water… this much of it would be in the oceans.
如果这个圆圈代表地球上所有的水,那么就有这么多水是在海洋里。
Oh, I see what you mean, Squeaks!
哦,我明白你的意思了,吱吱!
Squeaks mentioned that even though there's a lot of water in the oceans, it isn't water we can drink.
吱吱说,虽然海洋里有很多水,但都不是我们可以喝的水。
And he's right! That's because ocean water is saltwater.
他说得对,因为海水是咸水。
That means, well, it's got lots of salt in it!
这就意味着,嗯,里面有很多盐!
And that's just fine for the animals and plants that live in the ocean.
这对生活在海洋中的动物和植物来说很好。
Those animals can drink saltwater, and the plants can use it to grow!
那些动物可以喝盐水,植物可以利用盐水生长!
But many of the plants and animals that live on land can't use saltwater.
但是许多生活在陆地上的植物和动物不能使用盐水。
Like, if people drink ocean water, it'll make them sick!
比如,如果人类喝海水,就会生病!
Our pets and farm animals can't drink it, either.
我们的宠物和农场动物也不能喝。
And ocean water isn't good to use on the plants in our gardens.
而且,海水对我们花园里的植物也不好。
So we need to use what's called freshwater. Freshwater doesn't have a lot of salt in it.
所以我们要用淡水,淡水中含盐少。
But here's the thing: If we look at our chart again, we can see that only about this much of Earth's water is fresh. Which isn't a lot.
但问题是:如果再看一下我们的图表,我们会发现地球上只有这么多的水是淡水,并不是很多。
And we can't use a lot of Earth's freshwater, either!
我们地球上也没有多少淡水可以使用!
Good question, Squeaks. To see why… let's look at the Earth from space again.
问得好,吱吱。为了弄清楚,咱们再看一看太空里的地球。
Most of our planet's freshwater is frozen into ice. A lot of it is at the Earth's north and south poles.
地球上的大部分淡水都冻成了冰,其中大部分都在地球的南北两极。
To use this frozen water… we'd have to get to it, let it melt, and take it to where we need to use it.
要想使用这些冰冻水,我们就必须找到它,让它融化,然后把它带到需要的地方。
That's a lot of work, so this water is really hard to use.
这其中涉及到很多工作,所以想用到这些水很难。
Other freshwater is under the ground.
其他的淡水则在地下。
We can get to a little of it, but most of It is so deep that we can't access it.
我们能接触到其中的一小部分,而其它大部分由于太深而无法接触。
So if we take away the freshwater that's frozen… or is in a place where we can't use it … that leaves us with only this much for all of the people on Earth to use.
所以,如果我们拿走冰冻的淡水,或者我们无法使用到的淡水,那么地球上所有人就只能用这么多了。
And that's where not wasting water comes in.
这就是不能浪费水的原因。
The Earth isn't going to run out of fresh water.
地球上的淡水是不会用光的。
Even once you use freshwater to brush your teeth or wash your hands, it eventually gets cleaned up at special buildings and put back into the water supply for other people to use.
即使你用淡水刷牙或洗手,它最终也会在特殊的建筑中被清理干净,并重新进入供水系统供他人使用。
But that process still takes some time.
但这个过程仍需要一些时间。
So we need to do our part to make sure there's always enough clean, freshwater for everyone to use every day.
因此我们需要尽自己的一份力量,确保每个人每天都有足够的清洁淡水使用。
That's a great question! I'll work on fixing the faucet, but there are also some easy things you can do to help.
这个问题很好,我会修一下水龙头,不过你也可以帮助做一些简单的事情。
Probably the easiest thing to do is to make sure that you turn off the faucet all the way when you're done using it.
或许最简单的措施就是在你用完水龙头之后把它一直关着。
Even a little bit of dripping can add up to a lot of wasted water.
即使是一滴水也会造成大量的浪费。
Another easy thing — you can turn off the tap while you brush your teeth.
还有一件简单的事——你可以在刷牙的时候关掉水龙头。
Just by doing this, you can save about 30 liters of water a day! That's almost eight big jugs of milk!
这样做的话你每天可以节省大约30升水!差不多有八大桶牛奶的量了!
There are things you can do to save water when it's time to get clean, too.
在做清洁的时候也可以通过做一些事情来节约用水。
Like, taking a shorter shower can help.
比如,缩短洗澡的时间。
See if you can take one in less than five minutes — as long as you're still washing up!
看看自己能不能在五分钟内洗完一个澡——如果你是站着洗澡的话。
Or, if you like baths instead, you can use the bathtub stopper right when you turn on the faucet, instead of letting the water run down the drain until it gets hot.
或者,如果你喜欢泡澡,你可以在打开水龙头的时候用塞子塞住浴缸,而不是在水变热前一直让水顺着排水管流。
You can also help keep Earth's water clean by making sure you throw trash away in garbage cans when you're outside.
当你在外面的时候,你也可以把垃圾扔进垃圾桶里,帮助保持地球上的水的清洁。
And, of course, you can also help by learning more about Earth's water.
当然,你还可以通过了解更多关于地球上的水来给出帮助。
The more we all know, the better we can take steps to make sure that everyone has the clean, fresh water they need.
知道的越多,我们就能采取更好的措施,确保每个人都能使用到他们需要的干净、新鲜的水。
And on that note, I think I'm ready to try fixing the kitchen faucet!
说到这里,我想我已经准备好修理厨房的水龙头了!
Come on, Squeaks… let's go save some water!
来吧,吱吱,咱们去节约一些水!
Thanks for joining me here at The Fort. If you want to keep learning and having fun with Squeaks, me, Jessi, and all our other friends, be sure to hit the subscribe button, and we'll see you next time on SciShow Kids!
谢谢大家来到沃斯堡。如果你想继续学习,与吱吱、我、杰西和我们所有的朋友一起开心地玩,一定要点击订阅按钮,我们下一期儿童科学秀再见!