It's amazing that cities right here in the U.S. are struggling for water while other cities show disregard for the for the protection of their own water. People can't treat water as an endless resource any more.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/us/as-californias-drought-deepens-a-sense-of-dread-grows.html?hpw&rref=us
NORDEN, Calif. - 'Cattle ranchers have had to sell portions of their herd for lack of water. Sacramento and other municipalities have imposed severe water restrictions. Wildfires broke out this week in forests that are usually too wet to ignite. Ski resorts that normally open in December are still closed; at one here in the Sierra Nevada that is open, a bear wandered onto a slope full of skiers last week, apparently not hibernating because of the balmy weather.'
NEW DELHI, Sept. 28 The quest for water can drive a woman mad. Ask Ritu Prasher. Every day, Mrs. Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of this capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water. It is a rare morning when water trickles through the pipes.
This article talks about a lot of the same things as my Ice Berg. The increasing population causing an increase in demand is a large problem for many countries. This is not just in India; however, 780 million people do not have access to clean water. Many people right in the U.S. don't have access to clean water.
This recent event shows how people can easily pollute our own fresh water systems. The chemical company Freedom Industries showed disregard for the protection of water in Charlestown West Virginia. When the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol seeped out of a chemical container into the Elk River, over 300,000 people were left without usable water. This event shows how we are diminishing our fresh water sources through pollution and not just overuse.
This article outlines a lot of the problems we have globally with water scarcity. It lists important statistics that we need to keep in mind when we work on the issue of fresh water.
From the non-profit Food and Water Watch: "Get the latest updates on the farm bill on our blog. Our current food system is broken, and it didn't happen by accident. Decades of bad food policy designed to benefit agribusinesses and mega-farms, combined with unchecked corporate mergers, have wreaked havoc on family farmers, public health and rural communities."
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - Orange County's natural water supplies come from just three sources: limited rain, a single unreliable river and aquifers. But those are nowhere near enough to support the lawn-and-pool lifestyle that helped the home of Disneyland grow from 700,000 residents in 1960 to about 3.1 million today.
Loyola University of Chicago has developed a really cool process to help cut down on eutrophication and the use of water. It involves the use of fish, which supply nutrients to plants in the form of their waste. The plants clean the water for the fish while getting nutrients at the same time.
This article connects our last unit to our present one, showing another harmful effect of fossil fuels as an energy source. Hydraulic fracturing or "Fracking" is a proses where an energy company injects fluid into drilled holes, fracturing oil shale rocks. This process releases natural gas and methane, which the energy company uses for fuel. This gas can also; however, seep into the ground water and wells, polluting our very own tap water.
On the subject of food and water consumption, I stumbled across this video that could potentially save a LOT of water! Try it yourself and spread the word :)
"Biomass" is a term that floats through newspaper stories and earnest cocktail party conversations and indignant online debates. But how many of us have had the chance to see what it actually is and how it works?
The world's oceans are facing a bleak future, say marine scientists, unless we rebuild its abundance, variety and vitality. (CNN) -- As the human footprint has spread, the remaining wildernesses on our planet have retreated. However, dive just a few meters below the ocean surface and you will enter a world where humans very rarely venture.
Analysis of the bill by the American Farmland Trust. Their description of themselves: "For more than 30 years, American Farmland Trust has been working to save the land that sustains us by protecting America's farm and ranch land, promoting environmentally sound farming practices and ensuring an economically sustainable future for farmers and ranchers."