Please help: A water footprint is a way of measuring the total volume of fresh water used by a nation, to produce the goods and services consumed by that nation. The water footprint includes the water content of goods imported into the country minus goods exported. Once, countries largely grew their own food, but an increasing number no longer do because they are running out of freshwater.

Humans that live in countries where water is scarce can now import virtual water. Virtual water is the amount of water used to grow food crops, raise livestock, or make other products that are exported out of that country. In other words, water scarce countries can now import high water consuming products, like rice and cotton, while exporting low water consuming products, like citrus fruits. Major water exporters include The United States, Canada, Austria, Argentina, and Thailand. Major importers of virtual water include Japan, Sri Lanka, Italy, South Korea, and the Netherlands.

There are serious environmental consequences to exporting this much water. The virtual water trade is emptying the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, which both now fail to reach the ocean for much of the year. Exporting water is sucking dry what was once the country's largest underground water reserve, the Ogallala aquifer beneath the high plains of the Midwest. The Ogallala is being depleted faster than it can be replenished by rain. The water is being shipped away. This water is being exported in the form of crops or livestock. It will enter a water cycle in another part of the world, never to replenish the Ogallala again!

1. Describe the problem: Exporting water is sucking dry the ocean.

2. Which process in the water cycle (condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, evaporation, or transpiration) is being impacted? Explain how it is being impacted.

3. What can humans do to solve this problem?