Are you listening?

I frequently find myself trying to talk about enviromental problems in casual conversation with my friends, parents, and whomever. I describe the problems and no matter how terrible the statistics are or how badly a situation is, no one seems to care. If I told someone that if a certain change must be made for the human race to survive another year otherwise we will all be dead, they would nod and just say "wow, that's bad;" yes it is bad. No seems to care. It is frustrating. How will the human race change in time, my guess is that the reality of the situation as a whole is that enviromental concern will only develope through generations of people because not everyone gets the enviromental education I am getting. By then will it be too late? I think so. So, what is the situation? Laws do not seem to do enough, people do not seem to do anything on their own, where do we go from here. I am tired of the world ignoring the problems. People of the world, our one and only house is catching fire and is about to burn down, go get some buckets of water and put it out! Are you listening?

Water and Haiti

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. As a developing country, especially one in the Caribean, water is an issue for the natives every day. In the Caribbean, since water is so scarce and valuable, there are actual water black markets in which water is sold from underground corrupt and sometimes perverted groups of mostly men who use water as a way to gain social power. Now, things and Haiti have changed and it is worse. Fiji has donated an incredible amount of water to the efforts in Haiti. Other organizations are also putting some of the money they recieve towards water, obviously among other needs that are necessary. Be sure to keep the people of Haiti in your mind when you are taking a shower, washing dishes, etc. Because there are people in the world right now who do not have access to a single drop.

Warning

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmKskQLGqLs

This video is scary.

Just an open ended statment from me:

Right now countries go to war with each other for crude oil, this is a widely known and accepted fact. Just think, within the next fifteen years, wars will break out over a human's most basic need: water.

Quotes:

"The war in Iraq will look like child's play"

"2/3rds of the world will have a water crisis"

The havoc that will break out over this chemical compound which most feel is incredibly abundant will be more intense than ever before. This is no joke - this will happen.

My Current Thoughts

I thought I would just give my thoughts on a few issues that have been jumping around in my head:

The Everglades
Health issues and the environment
The incredible interconnected environment on earth

The Everglades, a huge and nutrient rich plot of water, ruined. I do not think this destruction is reversable. Efforts are under way to ameliorate the situation, but the waterways have been so developed and ruined by human development, agriculture and other things that hope is lost for restoring the area to its original greatness. I thought about the whole situation and realized that the whole world will soon be just like the Everglades, that is if changes are not made. The thought is frightening. I canonly begin to imagine a world where there is no water to drink, to food to eat, and the population of humans declines rapidly within a matter of months. That is silverscreen status drama.

I went to a lecture at a local university a few weeks ago and I cannot believe i did not mention it! It was about health issues linked to the enviroment. Whenlayed out in front of me, it becamse so clear and obvious. It is only logical to conclude that if we poison out enviroment we are poisoning ourselves. The human race must see this and change. A lot of the issues discussed were political, but I can definately understand the struggle with politics to change because politicians only think about the present and not the future and rarely understand the enviroment. Personally, I feel like it is wrong and an injustice to poison the enviroment because it is indirectly killing someone - just how I think and see it.

Lastly, I just wanted to express my facination with the interconnectivity of the enviroment - it facinates me. I goes to show that no matter what part of the enviroment that is being discussed it relates somehow to water. It is a good and bad thing, but it is not like we have a choice.

I Found An Interesting Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

This video sums up a lot of what people need to know about the environment and how badly the human race is killing the planet because we truly are trashing out planet. I also think this video would be effective in getting some people's attention, some of the images and statistics used in the video really have stuck to my brain. I even noticed myself thinking twice about wrapping my food in my kitchen. She makes a good point about plastic wrap: plastic was made as a substance to last forever! Amazing! But we use it once and throw it away all the time. I really like this video, very informative and impacting on me.

New York Times Article: The Carnivore's Dilemma

Getting back to you on the Trophic Levels, I found an article in the New York Times called The Carnivore's Dilemma. The article was in the paper two Saturdays ago, Halloween! The article was very interesting and highlighted both the pros and cons for eating meat and its impact on the enviroment. The article took a look at a totally different impact on the enviroment that eatime meat has. The production of meat not only makes feeding the world less efficient, but also adds to climate change and global warming. Which in hand affects the water on earth!

(Don't you just love how everything seems to affect everything?)

When it comes to the enviroment, it seems that harvesting and eating meat is seldomly a pro. In the New York Times article, it gives figures and information about just how much our agricultural/livestock industry puts in to the air. It is incredible how much one industry could destroy the enviroment in my head. How could we let it get so out of hand? From growing the food and raising the animals so much pollution is put out into our planet. This is how water is truely directly affected by eating meat.

Another thing to mention, when we eat meat, the calories that we gain from eating that meat are miniscuel compared to how many calories could have been consumed if humans were fed the plants that the animal consumed was fed. In fact, the amount of calories that could have been fed to humans if the humans were fed the flora rather than the fauna is 10 times more at least.

Could not eating meat save the planet?

Could not eating meat end world hunger?

Theoretically, it would definately be beneficial. I am not telling te world to become vegetarian because there is no doubt that meat does have some benefits when it comes to health. But I am here to make you aware. The production of the meat on your plate adds to the emissions of CO2 into our enviroment and the production of meat makes feeding the earth less efficient.

Trophic Levels 1

Recently, in my class, we have been studying trophic levels and how the levels that humans eat at can affect the enviroment. I really never realized the effect that eating meat over vegetables had on the enviroment prior to learning about this subject. I am going to do research to see if this pertains to water because since enviromental science is so interconnect, I can bed it does! I will be researching this topic a little and blogging about it soon!