It is common to hear things like it takes one gallon of water to create a single almond, or watering a lawn can take X gallons per month/year, or it takes X gallons to make one pound of beef or yield X pounds of alfalfa.
My question is, is that water “gone forever”? Or does the water thats used return to the water table/cycle in some other form. When you water the lawn does a large amount of that seep into the ground, evaporate, and return to the atmosphere?
Or is the water used in these ways truly gone forever (in terms of humans being able to use it again)?
The problem is more that you can use all the water reserves in one area and that area will suffer, once you use too much water the reserves are not able to replenish naturally.
Some H2O will be used to grow crops, it’s consumed in photosynthesis, but the waste majority just turns into water vapor.