There was recently a story in the UK news about a billionaire who was filling his pond using tap water delivered by tankers. The locals were not happy. We have a water shortage here in the UK at the moment and so you can’t use your garden hose to irrigate your garden. Not that you need to because it’s raining again and has actually been quite wet recently. The water companies say there is still not enough to go around so the hosepipe ban is going to carry on for a little while yet. Anyway, as I said, local people are very unhappy with the billionaire on the basis that if they can’t use their garden hoses why should he be allowed to fill his lake. Well you can see their side of it.

Water is like that! People take it seriously. Earlier this summer I was contacted by a member of the BBC World Service CrowdScience team. In response to a viewer’s question, the BBC team were doing a short feature on Earth’s water and where it came from . I explained that no one really knows. It’s something of a mystery. They quizzed me a bit about my less than emphatic response, which was fine. When it comes to science stuff there is an expectation that every problem has a correct answer. I agree. There is almost certainly an answer, we just don’t know what it is, yet. To be fair, the BBC CrowdScience people ran with these uncertainties and made a great program. Here is the link: Where did Earth’s water come from?

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