Thirsty Planet
Ali Pollock
 |
| This picture shows the many ways that water helps our body. Every one needs water to survive. Whether the water is equally distributed without the countries on earth is up to everyone to make it happen. |
Summary- The world needs water for so many different
things. Humans need water to drink on a daily basis, clean themselves, and clean
clothes and dishes. Land animals also need water to survive on. They drink and
bath in water too. Aquatic animals obviously need to survive on water also.
Without water, fish and other sea creatures would not be alive. Without sea
creatures alive, it also takes a big food resource away from humans. We know
that water is so important every living thing, but the thing is, we all have to
share the 1% of fresh water on earth. We all share drop by drop every drop of
water. The rest of the water on earth is not suitable for humans to drink. The
average American uses about 100 gallons of water a day. Over in Europe they use
half that amount. In some parts of Africa, the people have to liv on about 5
gallons per day. Everyday when you are brushing your teeth or flushing a
toilet, you are using about 9 gallons of water. It is up to us to share every
droplet of water so everyone around the world and animals too can survive on
the water we have.
Reflection- we learned about this is class today,
but reading about how good we have it compared to the rest of the world really
got to me. We are so fortunate for the water that is supplied to us. Some
people do not get it that easy. There are children that have to wake up earlier
than we have to for school to walk to the nearest water supply and get their
family their day’s worth of water. Although we have it so well here in America,
I think we take advantage of what we have. We do not need to be using 100
gallons of water a day. There are many ways to cut back on our water usage. If
20 people do this we will save 2,000 gallons of water each day. That is a huge improvement
and one step closer to distributing the water around the world more equally.
Questions:
11.) What
other ways do we use water?
22.) What
other ways can we conserve water?
33.) Do
you ever think we will equally distribute the water around the world?
44.) Do
you think it is right to equally distribute water around the world?
aarticle found: http://tinyurl.com/7rvj2vl
aarticle found: http://tinyurl.com/7rvj2vl
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteReflection/Opinion
ReplyDeleteI love how this relates to our fresh vs. salt water lesson yesterday! It really makes me think about how much water I use during the day, which is pretty embarrassing especially since I leave the shower running for a while before I even get in. I remember in 3rd grade, my teacher Mrs. Baronette taught my class to turn off the faucet while we brush our teeth to conserve water. If we all did little things like that, the small amount of fresh water we have to share wouldn't be so small. I agree with Ali, compared to other countries such as Africa where their people struggle to find clean water sources. If everyone was aware of how little fresh water we have on Earth, more people would strive to use less of it.
Extra questions!
1. Should families with large backyard swimming pools be allowed to fill them?
2.Should big recreational water users like water parks and golf courses be closed?
3. Where does all of the world's freshwater come from?
4. What is considered wasting water?
5. What activities inside and outside your house waste the most water? How can you cut down these wastes?
Opinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteAwesome article, Big Al! I think it’s really cool how there is so little fresh water in the world an such a big population, but we manage so well! When people die of thirst in other countries, it makes me feel bad for using so much! Maybe I should start to take shorter showers-I never think while I’m scrubbing shampoo in my hair that some kid in Africa needs this to LIVE. But we use water for so many things! I connect this to my Population Viability Analysis because I did mine on the koala, and koalas do not need liquid water to survive because they rely on the eucalyptus leaves for all of their nutrients. But what do eucalyptus leaves rely on? Water! So it’s cool to think that absolutely EVERY living thing on this planet needs water!
Question #4
I think it is right to equally distribute water around the world because when the water was put on this planet, it was expected that everybody had some! Just because our country is high in resources does not mean we have more of a right to life! The little girl in Africa who is thirsty did not do anything wrong to make this happen to her. I’m not quite sure how water could be equally distributed, but when someone finds a way, sign me up!
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteOnce again this article has made me relize how selfish and unaware Americans are. We take so much for granted, when we should be worshipping these things. We are so lucky to the amount of access of water that we do. But, I think just because you have access to something does not mean you should take advantage of it. Obviously we need water and were not going to cut it out of our lifestyle dramatically. But like the article said, just by brushing our teeth we are letting so much water just go down the drain. I mean come on, I do not think it would be that hard to just turn of the sink when you are brushing your teeth and only turn it on when you need to rince. I think conserving water is something all Americans (including me) need to work on.
"What are other ways we can conserve water?"
I think conserving water will actually be pretty simple but the thing is we just dont really think about. Some easy things we can do to save water is take shorter showers, wash dishes in a sink full of water instead of running water the whole time, and turn the water off when your brushing your teeth. When you read these things you can do they seem pretty simple and its shocking the amount of water we would save. The hardest part of doing this will be remembering to do it. We are so used to leaving the water on all the time that it has become a habit. Well if we try super hard and think about what we are doing, we can make a new habit of saving water!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOpinion/Relflection
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Ali, reading about something like this, and realizing the effects, has a much bigger impact on how I see this global water problem. This also ties in with the unit we just finished in Global Studies on Africa and how impoverished they are that they can't afford something so simple as water. It's really sad, and it terrifies me to think what life would be like if I had to walk miles and miles every day to get something so simple as water. I wish more people realized how serious this situation is and the government's of the world would actually get off their butts and do something about it. There are already many non-profit charities out there like Water.org that attempt to supply clean drinking water to impoverished countries, but they can't do it alone.
"Should families with large backyard swimming pools be allowed to fill them?"
Of course, people have the right to buy whatever they want for their house, as long as they pay for it. I have one condition, though: it has to be a saltwater pool. Some of my relatives in CA have one, and although it is more expensive, it's much better for your health(good for your skin, less chlorine), the environment(less chemicals used for purifying), and for the world, as there would be more freshwater available for practical use.