This is a great point and something I don't think many people are aware of. I believe I've heard a stat that states that only 50% the impact of planes on climate change is due to burning fossil fuels, whilst the other 50% is due to cloud seeding. (Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210525-how-aviation-is-reducing-its-climate-emissions).
Angry_Badger
joined 1 year ago
I work in the water industry, not specifically in water resources but hey. The issue we have is the rate at which we're abstracting water from ground sources. In UK, the statistic I often hear is that it takes around 300 years for rain to soak down and join the water table.
300 years ago, the only below ground abstraction would have been people pulling buckets out of wells. Also it wasn't like everyone had a well but their house either. Now we abstract millions of litres from a single borehole everyday.
To answer your question about where it goes, most waste water is released into the oceans. So we're taking clean fresh water that on some cases has been moving down through the earth for thousands of years and discharging it into the oceans.