Emily Kwong

Jimmy Keeley was the audio engineer.

I'm Emily Kwong.

Thanks for listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

Hey, short wavers, Emily Kwong here, continuing our water series, where we dive into all things H2O.

With me is producer and fellow mermaid, Burleigh McCoy.

Hi, Burleigh.

Oh, so it's not like a bathtub?

Right, watering crops.

So what does that mean for farmers like Hayes who rely on aquifers for their livelihood?

So he can't plan on a certain yield, which makes the business side of farming really hard.

Saturday on the show, the state of the world's groundwater and what it means for life on the surface.

Plus, how farmers like Hayes are rethinking how they use their water.

You're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

Okay, Burleigh, so aquifers are clearly very important to life on Earth.

Groundwater is responsible, you said, for half of the water people use globally.

Do we know how many aquifers there are in the world?

Are they drying up entirely?

Yeah.

If we don't recharge our aquifers, fill them back up with water, I imagine it can really alter the landscape.

So in the places where scientists saw water in decline in these aquifers, how much water are we talking?