Water - A Flavor Enhancement Tool!

Whisky gets consumed most often after water has been added in either liquid or solid (i.e. ice) form. In fact, whiskey drinkers most always have a rigid preference of how water is added to their drink.

Water 'opens up' the Aroma

Source - toonvectors.com

For aroma to be present, particles (containing the aroma) have to dislodge from the whiskey surface and reach our nose.

Some particles are naturally released, but both too much aroma and too little aroma are undesirable. When aroma is naturally intense it can anaesthetise the nose and sear the tongue. This natural intensity grows with increase in alcohol concentration.

When aroma is insignificant, it inhibits our natural curiosity to figure out the aroma generally resulting in an unsatisfactory feeling.

Water inhibits or increases different flavors of aroma. Dilution releases additional aroma

Water promotes a Chemical Reaction

Ice and water added to Whiskey
Source - go-rio.co.uk

Addition of water dilutes the whiskey.

Addition of ice dilutes and cools the whiskey.

Esters and long-chained hydrocarbons exist dissolved in whiskey. When water is added, the solubility of these compounds decreases and increased aroma results.

Ice promotes a different chemical reaction

Ethanol molecules aggregate in large bunches (called micelles) and this bunching traps aroma particles.

As temperature drops, these micelles breakup and with the breakup aroma particles get released.

Thus, cooling enhances flavors that define each whiskey.

2013 - Year of New Sourcing through Imagination, Ingenuity and Invention? Why Not?

Source - un.int

On March 21st the world celebrated World Water Day 2013.
The day's theme reflected the theme already proclaimed at the beginning of 2013: Year of Water Cooperation.
World Water Day - Over the years
World Water Day has been observed since 1993.The themes for World Water Day have been:
2013: Year of Water Cooperation
2012: Water and Food Security: The World is Thirsty Because We are Hungry
2011: Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge
2010: Clean Water for a Healthy World
2009: Trans Waters
2008: Sanitation
2007: Coping With Water Scarcity
2006: Water and Culture
2005: Water for Life 2005–2015
2004: Water and Disasters
2003: Water for Future
2002: Water for Development
2001: Water for Health
2000: Water for the 21st century
1999: Everyone Lives Downstream
1998: Groundwater – The Invisible Resource
1997: The World's Water: Is there enough?
1996: Water for Thirsty Cities
1995: Women and Water
1994: Caring for our Water Resources is Everybody's Business

Source - epa.gov

World Water Day has never emphasized New Water Sources:

- How to find them

- How to tap them

- How to deliver water from them to where it is needed by humanity or by nature

This missing empasis is especially tough to accept when we know that

(a) water exists everywhere

(b) everything contains water

in either solid, liquid or vapor form

What History tells us

Source - blog author

* Over 10,000 years ago, humans dug a well to obtain freshwater from an under-ground aquifer.

* Over 7,000 years ago, humans invented irrigation to deliver freshwater to their crops.

* About 5000 years ago, humans built a 15-foot high barrier to stop a river and create a lake from which they could extract freshwater at will.

* Nearly 2,000 years ago, humans created waterwheels to raise freshwater to elevations higher than that of lakes and flowing rivers.

* Some 150 years ago, humans invented indoor piping which was soon followed by the in-home boiler to supply domestic hot freshwater.

These inventions, of course, comprise only the very top tip of the iceberg of human ingenuity applied to obtain, transport and use freshwater from known bodies of water.

None of the above actions were accidental or done without intention or taken to satisfy intellectual curiosity. All of these actions were taken in the face of adversity. The people, they are always individuals never organizations, who made these inventions had their backs to the wall of water scarcity. They had to eradicate the real possibility of everyone they knew dying from lack of fresh water.

Searching for Water is NOT a new Task

As the dates clearly indicate, our search for freshwater is not a search new for us. Throughout our history, we have repeatedly reached the uppermost limits of the amount of freshwater readily available from water sources we know, either because our numbers grew too large or drought arrived. We have on a regular basis covered the distance, literally speaking, to find new sources of adequate freshwater supplies. There is now a large body of evidence that supports the notion that freshwater scarcity was behind human migration out of Africa 135,000 years ago. Other major human migrations, like the one 9,500 years ago in Chile were also in search of freshwater.

When freshwater supplies diminish and we must find new sources of supply, the promise of human ingenuity is a historic proven success story.

2013 - The Year of Water Exploration?

March 21, 2013 - World Water Day

Source - UN.org

    "The fulfillment of basic human needs, our environment, socio-economic development and poverty reduction are all heavily dependent on water.

    Good management of water is especially challenging due to some of its unique characteristics: it is unevenly distributed in time and space, the hydrological cycle is highly complex and perturbations have multiple effects. Rapid urbanization, pollution and climate change threaten the resource while demands for water are increasing in order to satisfy the needs of a growing world population, now at over seven billion people, for food production, energy, industrial and domestic uses. Water is a shared resource and its management needs to take into account a wide variety of conflicting interests. This provides opportunities for cooperation among users.

    In designating 2013 as the UN International Year of Water Cooperation, the UNGA recognizes that cooperation is essential to strike a balance between the different needs and priorities and share this precious resource equitably, using water as an instrument of peace. Promoting water cooperation implies an interdisciplinary approach bringing in cultural, educational and scientific factors, as well as religious, ethical, social, political, legal, institutional and economic dimensions."

- http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/water-cooperation/en/

Lots and Lots of Water in the Atmosphere!

Total moisture in the atmosphere
In total there exists, at any one moment, 12,900 cubic kilometers of water in the atmosphere. 
Liquid water in air
98% of this moisture exists as vapor while 2% exists as liquid i.e. there are:
~ 258 cubic kilometers of water in liquid form in the atmosphere, and
~ 12,642 cubic kilometers of water in vapor form in the atmosphere
Using 1 cubic kilometer = 2.64172052 × 10¹¹ US gallons, there are:
~ 681.56 x 10¹¹ US gallons of water in liquid form in the atmosphere, and
~ 33,396.63 x 10¹¹ US gallons of water in vapor form in the atmosphere
Moisture in air replenishment rate
All the moisture in the atmosphere is, however, replaced every 9 days i.e. 12,900 cubic kilometers of water is delivered to the surface of the Earth from the atmosphere every 9 days i.e.
~ 681.56 x 10¹¹ US gallons of liquid water falls on Earth every 9 days, and
~ 33,396.63 x 10¹¹ US gallons of vapor water falls on Earth every 9 days
Water deposited on Earth from the atmosphere every day
~ 3,787 x 10¹¹ US gallons every day
For a 10 billion human population, this is ~ 37,870 US gallons/person/day
What's behind global water scarcity?
Recognizing that ~ 37,870 US gallons/person/day is just NEW water and does not include water from rivers, lakes, underground aquifers and other sources, the question arises:
Why do we have a water scarcity issue in most places around the globe, today?
Granted, we cannot capture every, or even most, drops for humanity's use, water scarcity remains a challenge for human ingenuity in two ways: How do we capture precipitation in locations that nature chooses and how do we transport the collected water to where we want or desperately needs to have it?