There are many things in this world that are worth a lot of money; houses, cars, gas, and college all come to mind. But has anyone thought of water being expensive? That’s because it isn’t. At least not yet. Water is currently the highest valued resource in the world due to the fact that every human being needs water to survive.
Unfortunately although 70% of the world is covered in water, only 2.5% of it is drinkable. Then consider that only 0.2% of that water is readily availbale for drinking and you can see that there isn’t a huge supply. Add to these numbers the amount of people in the world; there are 7,063,300,008 and that number is rising by the minute. Men need 3 liters of water a day, and women need 2.2 liters. IF you multiply the numbers together, you will find that the deficit is quite large and scary to think about how many people will be going without water in the next hundred years.
That deficit is without the added problems that humans have caused the environment. Due to our polution the ozone layer is slowly degrading causing a phenomenon known as global warming. The rising temperatures are causing our precious water sources at the polar caps and in the mountains to melt. Once the water melts, it either becomes salty and therefor useless in terms of our health. Also, the added water in the oceans will result in the rising sea level. Coastal cities and water sources could become nonexistant in the next 50-60 years.
All of these problems are showing a bleak future, yet the world continues to brush the problem aside. 95% of cities dump their sewage into perfectly good drinking water and the amount of plastic water bottles thrown away each year are enormous. Even with recycling the cost of making a plastic bottle is far too high. “The typical water bottle holds 1 liter. It takes 3 times that plus a fourth liter of oil to make a plasitc bottle.” ~ An Vinh Tran, senior at Northern Arizona University.
An Vinh Tran advocated with the help of the Green Intiative Fund to place more [waterbottle] refilling stations all over campus. Her work was a success and resulted in a 17% drop in water bottle sales. The stations and goosenecks (the retro-fitted piece that spouts pours the water) dispense 60,000 gallons of filtered water per year, a savings of 475,000 bottles – or 13 tons of plastic. This sounds like a lot, but it is only about 4 elephants worth of plastic (elephants weigh aorund 4 tons). There are still whales worth of plastic being tossed away and taking 450-1000 years to biodegrade fully.
There are many things that we can do to change the future of freshwater. Many new technologies are being invented, and scientists and economists are raising more awareness to our problem. Hopefully the prediction that by 2050 2 billion people, in 48 countries, will be without water. FYI the United States is included in that count. Think about it which is more important, your car and gas prices? or water and your survival?
Websites:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/water-409477-stations-tran.html
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_supply/freshwater.html
Oh my goodness, Rachel!!!
Why didn’t you tell me all of this was going on?! I now have a new reason to lie awake at night. I know Republicans aren’t supposed to be hippies, but this is a serious issue. I’m going to keep my mind wide open & learn what I can to be able to converse intelligently with you about this.
I admit that I am a water bottle person. I’m going to see what I can do about this. If it helps the world, especially America, I’m for it.
You have a lot of great information in this post. I did not know that the future of freshwater was at risk and am really shocked by a lot of this. I know that waterbottles are used excessively, but I thought with recycling that it wasn’t that big of a problem. It also baffles me that so many cities dump sewage into water that could be used for drinking. That doesn’t make sense to me at all. As for the refilling stations, I know that I appreciate the ones that we have around campus. I love using my Bobble (water bottle with a filter), but trying to fill it up at a waterfountain is a hassle, so I always take note of where the refilling stations are. They are so convenient and way more effective money-wise. I guess my question would be what else could be done to fix this?