About 70 percent of the earth is water, but only 2.5 percent of that is freshwater. Of the freshwater, 68.9 percent is in the form of glaciers and snow cover, 30.8 percent is groundwater, and about 0.3 percent is in lakes and rivers.
Since 1850, some 1300 glaciers have lost 25 to 75 percent of their mass, and most of this decrease has occurred in the last 50 years. The eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains has shrunk to its lowest level in 10,000 years and what is left is becoming increasingly polluted.
