By Climate Control (Not really sure if this counts as the author)
http://news.opb.org/article/the_future_of_u.s._water_supplies_is_anything_but_certain/
Summary:
The author believes that the water availability in the United States is decreasing. This is due to factors such as global warming, pollution, a rising population, and natural droughts. While most people associate access problems to third-world countries, the US may also be getting problems. For the last ten years, the US Southwest has been suffering from droughts and high water demands. Because the Colorado River is being overused, water distribution arguments have sprung up. In the Southeast, water has been highly restricted due to resource overuse, population boom, and poor weather. This is all foreshadowing for future issues. As polar ice melts into the ocean due to global warming, the sea water will start to rise. This will mix it with the country's drinking water supplies. This is a problem because of how polluted sea water has become and how high the salinity level is.
Opinion/ Reflection:
I found the article shocking when it said that we may be having water problems in the US since when we think of water issues we think of Africa or India. The problems that are the cause of the water issue are all things we are/ will be learning about. We already discussed how human population growth may be a problem, but we didn't discuss how the water supply in America may be affected. We will be talking about global warming later. I found it interesting that the biggest problems were in the Southern part of the United States. This means that if global warming continues, we in the North may also be getting water shortages. With temperatures like last summer, water shortages may not be that far away.
Questions:
- Is there any way that we could prevent a United States water shortage?
- How concerned should we be with this issue?
- Is it too late to prevent an issue/ Were there any warning signs to hint to a possible water shortage?
- Do we have responsibility to supply the drought areas in the US with water?
Do you like green eggs and ham?
Opinion:
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I find it pseudo-scientific, subjective, and highly biased. However it does raise good points. If not watched correctly, the American south can easily be devastated by a water shortage. Unsaid, though, is weather the water shortage applies to basic needs or only to luxuries. The American egocentric tendency is to say that your life is horrible because you do not have the newest iPhone while ignoring the real problems of the world until someone else brings them up, then forgetting about them and doing nothing. I also noticed that Texas is the area with the most sever drought. If I am not mistaken, Texas has multiple rivers running through it. Rivers would be far easier to clean than having to desalinate the ocean water nearby, so this makes me think that part of the reason Texas is suffering from drought is that they were unintelligent and wasted their reserves in a gratuitously lavish fashion.
Response to a question:
2. I think we should be wary and cautious of this issue, but not concerned at the moment. The title of the article is "The Future Of U.S. Water Supplies Is Anything But Certain" which implies that even those who wrote this have no clue what is going to happen next. As far as predicting weather patterns goes, no one can do that accurately more than a week into the future. We aren't even totally sure what the causes of global warming are, so we can't accurately gauge how far the trend will continue into the future.
I can predict the future... one month from now you will choose the 5 of diamonds...
DeleteOpinion:
ReplyDeleteThis article kind of scared me. The reason is because it talks about how the availability of drinking water is going down and there are already problems in the southeast. This is scary because first it could end up being a problem here in PA. second if the problem is happening in a very advanced area like the US then how can third world countries be coping with this. Last, if this problem is starting then it shows that eventually the water we can drink will be gone. How can any land species live if we lose all the drinking water. Something should be done about how much we are consuming in America.
Response to a question:
2. We should be know about this issue and be careful about how much water we consume, but we don't have to worry to much about it yet. With problems like this, the problem usually escalates slowly. Our water levels won't drastically drop randomly so as long as we watch our consumption of water or our consumption in general we should be fine.
Response/Opinion
ReplyDeleteI am a little skeptic with this article, because it seems the areas it highlights as “severely dry” were already prone to little rainfall before this became a national problem (I highly doubt it will be). Honestly, compared to 3rd world countries that deal with, not only a population that exceeds their water supply, but also poor distribution of it, we are very successful in our water supply. The thing that worries me though is the fact the global warming is happening and the world’s fresh water supply isn’t going to last forever. What we need to do is stop worrying about a problem that isn’t that big of a deal, and start dealing with the world as a whole. Live together, die alone, Right?
Answer to Question:
2. I don’t think we need to be concerned at all about our particular water supply. Weather patterns are fluctuating due to increasing CO2 emissions, which could cause a normal season to become extreme (e.g. last winter and summer). To avoid any real problem we need to get to the root of it: in this case the increasing emissions. The US is one of the world’s most abundant emitters, second only to China. This would mean we are almost directly causing global warming. The solution to the problem is actually ourselves, and we should definitely be concerned with that.