Why Study Water?

Some of you may wonder why studying water and its impact on the shape of the Earth and on people is important.

People think that one of the main conflicts of the 21st century will be over water. A professor of mine at University and my personal tutor (Dr Gwyn Rowley) was actually an advisor to the USA government over how the supply of water is one of the main causes of war in the area.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2249599.stm

A huge amount of the world's population has no access to clean water, leading to disease and death.
http://whyfiles.org/131fresh_water/2.html

Obviously we get too much rain from time to time (we may get more due to global warming) and that causes floods which often leads to death and damage.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/flood/?lang=_e

So in short, water determines whether we stay alive, how we grow food and how we clean ourselves. Too much water or a lack of it causes war, death and destruction for huge numbers of people every year. It is therefore an extremely important local and global issue for you to study.