“Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; to cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; to satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?”
So asks the author – in the voice of the Hebrew god Yahweh – of the Biblical story of Job.
Dr. Sarah Dry doesn’t have an answer as to exactly the “who” regarding the causes of all these things; however in her new book Waters of the World; The Story of the Scientists Who Unravelled the Mysteries of Our Oceans, Atmosphere, and Ice Sheets and Made the Planet Whole, she does provide considerable information about those who discovered the “how” of these various phenomena that play such critical roles in the Earth’s intricate, and essential for life, water cycle.
