The 2025 J.U.C. Awards | Dedication theme: #WaterActionDecade | Submitted Category: WRITING | Submission Code: W6 #JUC2025 | Word count: 1203

“Water and the Life Cycle are one”.

[#JUCAwards2025] “We forget that the water and the life cycle are one”. These famous words were said by the well-known, James Cousteau. Cousteau was a French naval officer who provided us with a way to watch the beauties of the ocean from the comfort of our homes. He said this because he knew we often take the water cycle for granted. Today by reading this essay you will learn about the water cycle and its importance to life. Let’s dive in.

The water cycle is an amazing cycle that I can’t wait to tell you about. It involves water traveling to places where you will never be able to find water at all naturally with a water source. For example, Vatican City has water throughout the year but there are no rivers that are in the country. You may wonder ‘How’. Well, it is all thanks to the water cycle. The water cycle transfers water from a water source such as a river or an ocean, then transports it to a different place that is somewhat farther away from the water source. The water cycle involves 4 steps. Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, and Collection. Let me explain them in detail.

• Evaporation– Evaporation involves the process of water evaporating into its gaseous form, water vapor. This usually happens in warm places, such as near the equator. This is also why the desert usually lacks water and why the equator receives the most precipitation because all the water usually evaporates near the equator and cools down quickly.

• Condensation– Condensation involves the process of water condensing into water and creating clouds. The water forms into clouds when the air is unable to hold all the water in its gaseous state and starts to turn back/condense into its aqueous form. This water combines with the dust in the air to form clouds, stacking on top of each other like the layers of blocks stacked to create the fluffy clouds that we know today. These clouds absorb water from the atmosphere around it and start to get heavier and get darker in color creating the grey clouds that we know of today when it rains.

• Precipitation– The grey clouds that we discussed, are what causes rain. The grey clouds are the super-saturated clouds that are filled with water. When these clouds reach their breaking point/break the final straw, all the water gets released, which falls to earth as rain. This is what happens usually, but when it is cold, the water freezes mid-air and falls as snow, which is a soft but cold powder-like form of water. But when it is insanely cold, it forms hail, which is when water freezes into a hard ice rock called a hail stone. These hail stones can have a diameter that can range up to 5mm to 15cm. These hailstones cause damage to cars, solar panels, and many more in the place where I live, Peoria, Illinois. It does not hail that much compared to other parts of the world but when it does it deals a lot of damage. Hail usually occurs with a Thunderstorm. A thunderstorm is when lightning accompanies rain or hail. Lightning also occurs when raindroplets rub together causing static electricity which then shoots down to earth, hence creating lightning. The sound that occurs when lightning strikes the earth is called Thunder. Usually, there is a common belief that lightning was shot down to earth by Zeus, the god of the heavens when he was angry at the humans. He would send thunderstorms to scare humans, either when they did not send sacrifices to the gods or when one of them angered the gods by doing some unspeakable crime. Speaking of thunderstorms, have you ever wondered about where the water goes after it falls to the ground?

• Collection– If you wondered about how the water returns to the water source. Well, let me introduce you to the process of Collection. This is where water travels through land or the ground. There are 2 ways that this can happen. Through infiltration, or just normal land transport through streams on land. Infiltration is the process where water seeps through the ground which gets stored in the underwater reservoirs or seeps through the ground and goes to the nearby water source. In the other method, the water just travels by land to the water source. 

Now that we are done with the water cycle. Now let us talk about how the life cycle is dependent on the water cycle.

The life cycle is about the stages a living creature goes through, from birth to death. To live you need water. To grow, to protect organs, to moisten the skin, and many more. It is very essential for life as some animals need it to breathe. For example, sharks and fishes need water to breathe, but they are not the only animals that need water. For example, elephants use water to cool themselves down by spraying themselves with water. Crocodiles are marine and land-dwelling reptiles, does live in both water and land.  There are also some types of animals called amphibians which live both in water and land. For example, a frog starts its life as a tadpole living in the water, then it metamorphs into a frog that can breathe on land and in water. Without water, life cannot exist. Because plants do photosynthesis to survive. Which requires water to start the Light-Dependent reactions. Water is as important as sunlight and carbon dioxide to plants, as they can’t live without it. Also, 70% of the world’s oxygen is produced from the ocean’s deep sea floor with the help of some special rocks and photosynthetic algae. Speaking of Oxygen, 30% of the world’s oxygen comes from The Amazon rainforest, which needs a lot of water to survive. But we, need water for other products.For example, to make a delicious bowl of carrot soup, you need water. You also need water to make other commercial products. Even the device that you are using to read this essay also needs water to make. You also need water to supply the biggest industry, agriculture. Agriculture is often called the thirstiest industry and it consumes a lot of water. The fishing industry is also an industry that depends on water. It’s more like life and most industries are dependent on water as almost all oxygen needs water to be made and without oxygen, there is no carbon dioxide as there is no animal/creature that can create carbon dioxide without oxygen. It is time I conclude my essay.

Water is a precious resource given to us by god and it is one of the most important resources for life. No matter what you are in the world, if you are living you need water, We need water, not only as an essential resource to live, but also as a good source of income. It also gives us the oxygen needed to survive by helping photosynthetic organisms to live. I will conclude my essay by saying that the water cycle is the most important cycle for life as without it life would not exist.

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The 2025 J.U.C. Awards | Dedication theme: #WaterActionDecade | Submitted Category: WRITING | Submission Code: W6 #JUC2025 | Word count: 1203

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