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Water scarcity essay
Alarmingly high population growth rate has become a serious global problem today
Alarmingly high population growth rate has become a serious global problem today
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Human beings and ecological systems depend on water for survival (Kenneth). No human, animal or plant can survive for long without this essential commodity. For us humans, water is the driving engine of most of our economic and recreational activities. For instance, we depend on water for the production of energy in industries, transportation and outdoor recreation. Most of us equally depend on water for the provision of amenity and cultural values. Barlow and Clarke state that one cannot simply whisk away the crisis of fresh water we have in the world today (25). For us, fresh water is very essential for direct consumption. A huge majority of plants and animals also depend on fresh water for survival. Experts predict that if we do not take good care of our water resources, a huge water crisis is in the offing. Since life generally depends on water, it is imperative upon us to adopt solutions that will foster water conservation.
Fresh water is a fixed natural resource (Gleick 3). This implies that the supply of fresh water we have in our hydrological cycle cannot go up. According to Barlow and Clarke, almost everything that is being done in the industrialized world has the potential of worsening the already existing fresh water crisis (206). By failing to conserve the water we use, we stand the risk of exhausting all the fresh water we depend on. Studies have already shown that we are quickly running out of fresh water supply world over. This is as a result of dwindling water levels in rivers, lakes and underground aquifers. The consequences of lack of fresh water for consumption are far reaching. For instance, there would be increased cases of waterborne diseases, decreased economic output, reduced agricultural productivity ...
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Jackson, S. Ron. Conserve Water, Drink Wine: Recollections of a Vinous Voyage of Discovery. New York: Routledge, 1997. 34. Print.
Kenneth, Frederick. "America's Water Supply: Status and Prospects for the Future." U.S. Global Change Research Information Office. N.p., 11 Nov 2004. Web. 7 Apr 2015.
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In the World, the liquid medium that we know as water is the main component that keeps humans, animals and their respective ecosystems alive. Everything from trees down to the smallest leaf requires it, and it is required for any lifeform to continue to grow. Though as humanity expands and continues on an upward slope, humans as a lifeforce continue to need more. Water is a defining aspect of a community, and with the ever-rising population and human-crafted climate change coming to an all-time high, one of the most important water origins of the southeast region is coming to a very dangerous low.
Vickers, A. (2002). Conserving our finite water supplies in an era of chronic drought: Practical steps. Electronic Green Journal Issue 17.
Today, water usage is very high. One of the main reasons has been due to an increase in population. Human population is today on the rise. According to the CIA (2015), the birth rate of the human population stands at 1.86%. In the last 100 years, there has been tremendous growth in human population due to advances in medical technology as well as improvement in agriculture. This has led to an increase in water use over the years. In addition, the increase in industries over this period has also led to an increase in water use. Today, there are numerous industries that have come up, each requiring huge amounts of water to run smoothly. The increase in water usage today is partially responsible for the global water crisis. The huge demand for water means that there is less water available for each person and each industry.
In addition to these topics, people should understand where the water that is disappearing originates. The majority of states in the Southwest region rely on the Colorado River. It provides water to seven states and over 40 million people, but parts of the river have dried up to muddy trickles. “The most immediate cause is 14 years of drought unrivaled in 1,250 years” (Weaver). It is very apparent that climate change is a chief reason for the water shortages. Some other causes of this problem comes from low snowpack at the river’s origin, high summer temperatures due to climate change, depleted reservoirs, and over demand due to overpopulation. Other experts believe that pollution and illegal pumping add to the causes for depletion of the Colorado
Sheaffer, John R., and Leonard A. Stevens. Future Water. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1983.
Living in a world that is roughly 70% water, and all living creatures found on this planet depend on this resource whether directly or indirectly, making water quality an important topic and vital to sustain our world of cycles. “Determination of status of water quality of a river or any other water sources is highly indeterminate. It is necessary to have a competent model to predict the status of water quality and to advice for type of water treatment for meeting different demands.” (Bai V, 2009) With most of our water on this planet made of salt water and our constant damage towards the remaining water that can be consumed by humans is diminishing with improper distribution on a global scale. If our greed comes before companionship, and our quality of life is more important than pollution, then our future generations to come will be born into a world of chaos, and a scarce of a basic human necessity.
Introduction on Water It covers 70% of our planet, makes up 75% of our body, it is necessary for survival and it is declining at a rapid rate (http://www.sscwd.org). It is water. Unfortunately, clean water is rare, almost 1 billion people in developing countries do not have access to water everyday. “Yet, we take it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic bottles” (The Water Project). Use of earth’s natural resources should be seen as prosperity, although it is taken for granted, every aspect of daily life revolves around the environment, forcing water conservation to be necessary for future on this planet.
Postel, S.L., G.C. Daily and P.R. Ehrlich. 1996. Human appropriation of renewable fresh water. Science 271:785
Freshwater is quite scarce, but it is even scarcer than one might think: about seventy percent of all freshwater is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland and is unavailable to humans. Most of the remainder is present as soil moisture or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater. It is not economically feasible to extract this waster for use as drinking water. This leaves less than one percent of the world’s fresh water that is available to humans. It includes the water found in lakes, reservoirs, groundwater that is shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. These freshwater sources are the only sources that are frequently replenished by rain and snowfall, and therefore are renewable. At the current rates of consumption, however, this supply of fresh water will not last. Pollution and contamination of freshwater sources exacerbate the problem, further reducing the amount of freshwater available for human consumption. Something must be done if humans want to even survive in the near future: the lack of clean drinking water is already the number one cause of disease in the world today. The first step is worldwide awareness of the water crisis: governments and the citizens they govern worldwide need to know about this problem and be actively involved in solving this problem.
Hennigan, Robert D. "Water Pollution." Oxford University Press 19.11 (1969): 976-78. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
People don’t appreciated the many advantages that comes with having clean potable water to use, taking it for granted. A lot of clean useful water is wasted by humans all the time that people don’t care about saving water because they have easy access to it. Clean and safe drinkable water resources are getting scarce as the population grows. The world is facing many problems, but the most important needed to survive, is water. Water is getting low in many countries, therefore habitants are suffering the misfortune of not having the reliable source of clean water. Today many countries are having water shortages; meaning rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater are not enough to rely on for supplying water demands. For example, California is facing a drastic water shortage, the natural water resources are not enough to fulfill their water demands. Water shortage affects the agricultural sector, so as a consequence the price for production
The problem of water scarcity has increasingly spread throughout the world as of yet, The UN reports that within the next half- century up to 7 billion people in 60 countries which is more than the whole present population will face water scarcity (Sawin “Water Scarcity could Overwhelm the Next Generation”). As well the demand for freshwater has tripled over the past 50 years, and is continuing to rise as a result of population growth and economic development. 70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades.
Water is our main source of our life. We need it to live, drink, bathe,
Freshwater in the world makes up only a small portion of water on the planet. While the percentage of water in the world is nearly 70%, only 2.5% is consumable. Even further, only <1% is easily accessible to basic human needs. According to National Geographic, “by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.” With this current trend, water will become more immersed in environmental, economic, political, and social changes. Many of these in later years shall need to be addressed as tension rises:
Rogers, Peter. 2008. "Facing the Freshwater CRISIS. (Cover story)." Scientific American 299, no. 2: 46-53. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 4, 2010).