Water Cycle (IMAGE) Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Caption The annual-mean water cycle for the global land monsoon (GLM) region.

Finally, a water cycle graphic for K-12 educators with humans in it. Here's why that matters.

That’s important, they say, because the human role in the water cycle drastically changes what we know about the water cycle and how it works.

The water cycle has been "extremely stable during … the past 11,700 years," but now "the damage runs deep, but it is still fixable," reported New Scientist.

Disruptions to the water cycle are "already causing suffering", said the broadcaster, with nearly three billion people facing water scarcity around the world.

Water flows past Copenhagen in Denmark. As Earth’s urban areas expand, so do population pressures on the freshwater supply and the water cycle. Image by Petro Kotzé.

Climate change is throwing the water cycle into chaos across the U.S. As the planet continues to warm, this cycle is expected to be increasingly stretched, warped and broken.

This visualization shows extremes of the water cycle — droughts and pluvials — over a twenty-year period (2002-2021) based on observations from the GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites.