Cultural Retreat

Water (70,9% of Earth)    Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is freshwater, and 98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth's freshwater (0.003%) is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products.     On 22 July 2011, a report described the discovery of a gigantic cloud of water vapor, containing "140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined," around a quasar located 12 billion light years from Earth. "Discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the universe for nearly its entire existence."        - Atmosphere of Mercury: 3.4%        - Atmosphere of Venus: 0.002%        - Earth's atmosphere: 0.40% over full atmosphere, typically 1–4% at surface        - Atmosphere of Mars: 0.03%        - Encela...