>The world fresh water supply is renewable and renews at a rate several orders of magnitude greater than human consumption.
I'm gonna need source on that one, please.
I'm gonna need source on that one, please.
The Amazon river sends 209,000 cubic meters into the Atlantic every second[1]. That's 18,100,000,000 per day. A single human drinks about two liters (0.02 cubic meters) every day. There are 7 billion humans, so the global requirement is 140,000,000 cubic meters of water. The Amazon alone contains 130 times more than the global requirement for drinking water.
This is domestic consumption, which comprises 10% of water usage[2]. That means that 13 times more water flows through the Amazon than all of humanity uses. That's just one river.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River [2]: http://www.lenntech.com/water-food-agriculture.htm
Humans use more fresh water than just the quantity that they actually drink. You also have to include the quantity used for sanitation, personal hygiene, and recreation. Even discounting non-household use, a single person can easily clear 100 L (0.1 m^3) per day through their water meter, without even trying.
Go read your water bill some time. Divide your metered usage by 30.5 and restart your calculation on a new bar napkin or envelope. That gives you a multiple of about 26, if the whole planet consumes water like American households, and agricultural and recreational uses are completely ignored. Use that same 10% figure, and the whole Amazon could be completely consumed by only 18.2 billion people.
That's just one river, but it is the one with the most water in it.
Also, water needed by industries and water spoiled by pollution.