0.04 percent of the water on Earth to cradle civilizations

"Even though I learned how little fresh water there is on Earth sometime in elementary school, graphics like the one on the right still amaze me. It shows the distribution of water from all sources on Earth. All those mighty rivers? They needed a mere 0.04 percent of the water on Earth to cradle civilizations.

The realization that fresh water is a finite resource has led some people to call it the "new oil". A few months ago, the New York Times Magazine ran an influential article about climate change's impact on the current water regime entitled, "The Future is Drying Up." In it, he argued that the West would basically have to decide between farms, cities, or drastic water usage changes."

from http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/awesome-infogra.html