Refraction Makes Water a Daylight Transmitter!

Water's refraction properties can bend sunlight, concentrate it and deliver the concentrated sunlight to areas where sunlight cannot naturally reach.

Refraction

Source
- chemicalparadigms.wikispaces.com

Refraction is the change in direction of a light wave that occurs when materials with different refraction properties transmit the light wave.
The refraction - change in direction - occurs at the point where one material meets another.
Refraction occurs when the light hits the surface of a new medium at an angle other than at 90 degrees i.e. the light does not hit the surface of the medium perpendicularly.
By putting different mediums in the path of a light ray, the ray can be bent to arrive at a location that the original ray cannot reach.
Lighting up a room in Brazil

Source - doorknob.com

Shacks with corrugated metal roofing and no electric connection are usually very dark places.

Source - doorknob.com

A solar bottle installed in a hole in the roof can help.
This is a sealed bottle half full of water and installed so that the water surface in the bottle is in line with the roof's outside surface.

Source - doorknob.com

When sunlight shines on the bottle, water in the bottle captures and concentrates the light and, in effect, acts as an electricity bulb installed in the roof of the shack.
To keep the water clean, a few spoonfuls of chlorine is added to the water. This water-chlorine mixture can provide light for a number of years.

Water Vapor - The dominant Greenhouse Gas

The Earth's atmosphere is a blanket held in place by gravity and Earth's motion. The location of the Earth relative to the sun and the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere makes Earth a hospitable place for our kind of life
The Greenhouse Effect

Source - Wikipedia.org

The average temperature on the Earth's surface is warmed to 14 Degrees C, due to the Greenhouse effect.
The Greenhouse effect is caused by the gases that make up the atmosphere.
These gases increase the temp on the surface by reflecting back to the surface a portion of the radiation energy emitted by the surface. 
The emitted energy is a part of the solar energy received by the Earth's surface.
Contributions to the Greenhouse Effect

Source - eesc.columbia.edu

Different gases in the atmosphere influence the greenhouse effect in different amounts.
Under a clear sky:
 Water vapor:    ~60%
   (can range between 36% and 72%)
 Carbon Dioxide:~25%
   (can range between 9% and 26%)
 Ozone:            ~8%
   (can range between 3 and 8%)
 Trace gases      ~7%
   (methane between 4% to 9%
    Nitrous oxide between 3% and 9%)

Clouds add to the greenhouse effect.

2013 - International Year of Water Cooperation

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2013 as the Year of Water Cooperation

"The objective of this declaration is to raise awareness of:

a. The potential for increased co-operation, and

b. The challenges facing water management in light of the increase in demand for water access, allocation and services" - Irina Bokova, Director-General, UNESCO



To open chart in a new window, click on: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/water/mop_6_Rome/Background_docs/Timeline_A3_R3.pdf

Source - unwater.org