A nuclear holocaust would result in more deaths than water pollution. Robert Glennon highlights the absence of interest people have when it come to the water crisis in “Fouling Our Own Nests” as he opens the chapter with women walking around half naked and having no concern for the filth surrounding them, being in the United State’s largest city without a sewer system, Lake Havasu (Glennon 65). Glennon believes humans are contaminating their valuable water supply and are unaware of the seriousness of consuming tainted water. He argues that people are at fault for the water pollution and that something needs to be done to salvage our existing water supply. The evidence Glennon uses to support his claim, however, are biased, overblown, and improbable. …show more content…
Human beings are not omnipotent, thus not capable of stopping water pollution. Glennon tends to only bring out the bad in the systems used to treat water.
He discusses the overflows local wastewater systems experience because “cities combine sewage and stormwater in a single collection system”(66). The tone present is not supportive and shows the author’s bias against the collection system that has given plenty of citizens drinkable water. As he describes the incident in Milwaukee and the District of Columbia, Glennon makes it seem like the government purposefully “dumped” raw sewage to harm its citizens. Nowhere in his grounds does he include the benefits that come with having a collection system. He continues on to talk about a teenage boy who “became the sixth victim of Naegleria forvleri after being infected while swimming in Lake Havasu”(67). Glennon throws in opinionated words like “grisly” and “disgusting” to make more of an impact on the audience, and this displays his bias against water pollution. He describes the results of a couple of parasites, but does not specifically state where the parasites originate from, thus disqualifying that the death of the boy was a result of raw sewage being dumped in the lake the boy was swimming in, as the parasite could have appeared from other sources. Glennon proceeds with a qualifier... “almost 2,000 people in Idaho and Utah suffered from infection by cryptosporidium, believed to have been spread at “splash parks” where children play”(67). Using the word “believed”, undermines the true source of
cryptosporidium, therefore questioning how valid Glennon’s grounds are. Glennon cripples his argument when he includes information about MTBE, where he claims it to be “Another alarming contaminant”(70). He does not back his belief with any hard evidence and even states “The health consequences of exposure to MTBE are uncertain”(Glennon 70). Therefore, presenting the information about Sam, a teenage boy with respiratory and ear problems is irrelevant because it is merely speculation that MTBE is the cause of his unfortunate health (Glennon 70). Glennon fails, once again, to mention the benefits of MTBE and its use in reducing carbon monoxide in our atmosphere, revealing his inclination to berate inventions that have bettered our lives.
As the days went by and the number of deaths began to increase, the Board of Health in London began to improve people’s living conditions by creating the indoor restroom, This, however, caused more problems for the people of London, due to the lack of a proper sewage system, “London needed a citywide sewage system that could remove waste products from houses in a reliable and sanitary fashion,...,The problem was one of jurisdiction, not execution,”(Page 117). London didn’t have a place where the sewers could lead off to which keep the disease spreading when people used the restroom. After months of battling the type of disease London was faced with, Mr. Snow convinced the Board of Health to remove the water pump that was on Board Street. By getting rid of this pump, Mr. Snow helped stop major outbreaks from recurring, “The removal of the pump handle was a historical turning point, and not because it marked the end of London’s most explosive epidemic,..., It marks a turning point in the battle between urban man and Vibrio cholera, because for the first time a public institution had made an informed intervention into a cholera outbreak based on a scientifically sound theory of the disease.”(Page 162- 163). This marked the end of the London epidemic and how the world of science
Humans need water. In a world that is overpopulated, we use a lot of water and other natural resources. Currently, in our world, clean water is getting scarce. Recently, for example, Flint, Michigan, had a water crisis. In early 2016, the water was discovered to be tainted with lead and other toxins. Long before that, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Governor Rick Snyder along with his council, knew about the lead, but to save money for the city of Flint in early 2014 Snyder had changed the city’s water source to the Flint River which had corroded pipes, causing people of all ages to be sick from the high amounts of lead
In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd Lily has assumptions, biases, and prejudices about race that are changing over the course of the novel.
“Last Call at the Oasis” is a documentary about our world’s water crisis. The film discusses how many large cities in America are getting closer to use up their available water, how many areas across the globe do not have access to drinking water and are forced to drink contaminated water, how water shortages are causing acts of violence and are causing stress to agricultural communities, and a possible solution of using recycle water to stop us from wasting so much water. The film goes around the globe to talk to scientists who are studying contaminated water, people who have become very sick due to this water, and to the agricultural community in Australia where, unfortunately, some farmers have take their own lives due to water shortages.
middle of paper ... ... Barlow does well labeling who the major players are in the privatization and commodification of water systems, as well as identifying why exactly the public should not be okay with it. However, she falls flat in delivering a universally understandable argument and posing a solution to any of the problems. I would suggest the addition of a solution at the end of the article, some call-to-action that sparks a movement.
Although the 1980s are not generally thought of as a decade of innocence, there were, however, a few pockets of juvenile utopia. One such example was the rapidly expanding “online” community, with its assortment of up-and-coming networks that were, to many technically inclined users, a virtual “McDonald’s Play Place” with slides, ball pits and winding tubes to explore, all rapped in a security blanket of innocence. Not until a bully invaded, did another bastion of delayed-maturity, Cliff Stoll, find that “Big Bother” was not eager, or perhaps unable, to repel the invader on his behalf. This led Cliff to take responsibility and stand up to his assailant, causing a transformation throughout many facets of his life. The Cuckoo’s Egg is the story of Cliff Stoll’s maturation into an adult, mirrored by the loss of innocence and youthful-trusting-openness taking place in the network community at the time, catalyzed by a hacker halfway around the world, and necessitated by a nonchalant attitude among the governmental agencies supposed to be responsible for computer security.
Americans had knowledge of the events taking place during the war, but Carson shed a light on the ripple effects that the environment was experiencing. Silent Spring brings the focus to different threats that had arisen because of the war. In a way, Carson places the blame for the deterioration of the environment on mankind as a whole. In the past, wars had been fought without any use of nuclear weaponry. Carson’s writing really emphasizes the fault of mankind’s decision to hurt the environment. “Along with the possibility of extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man’s total environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm – substances that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape of the future depends.” (Carson, 181). The writing technique Carson uses in Silent Spring has a way of making the reader feel guilty, especially considering that at the time of publication there was so much environmental destruction occurring. Carson’s writing helped to educate the American population of the harm to the environment caused by the Cold War. Because the war’s dangerous strategies provided such a strong backbone for Carson’s argument, the American public was very receptive of the content and themes presented in Silent
Whether we want to believe it or not water pollution is one of the world’s l...
... water crisis will have a long term affect on those who are consuming this water on a daily basis. Lead attack the brain and can cause coma and possibly death. Children who survive lead poisoning are left with serious health issues such as metal defects and leave a child mentally unstable. Even at lower levels of exposure symptoms such as behavioural changes such as reduced attention span, reduced intelligence quotient (IQ). Children with smaller amount of lead exposure also showed increased anti social behaviour, it also reduces educational attainment. These side effect of high lead exposure can leave children scarred for life. The water crisis in Flint Michigan car scar children for life. This could all be resolved if they could come to an agreement and replace the water pipes, allowing for cleaner and healthier water to be accessible to citizens in Flint Michigan.
The Chesapeake Bay is polluted with agricultural waste. We see things like 1.5 billion pounds of chicken waste that no one wants to take responsibility for. Ignoring standards, a waterway was tested for E. coli; the standard is 125 FCU/100ml of water. Yet this waterway’s level was at 48392 FCU/100ml. An industry that will go to great lengths to make sure that Congress doesn’t impose sanction against them.
"Water Pollution." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014.
...cts us and everything around us, and what it takes to get clean drinking water. In addition I have also given examples of organizations that raise money to help people obtain clean water. We can’t take clean water for granted, because everything around us including us, needs clean water in order to survive and to work. I have talked about how if we are able to end the clean water crisis, we are able to focus on other global problems such as world hunger and economic problems. Once we are able to focus on other things we may be able to work on technology that will allow us to make more water in to clean drinking water to accumulate to our increasingly growing population. In conclusion clean drinking water and clean water in general is a very vital part of our lives and our world. We would not be here if it wasn’t for water, and we need to keep our water clean.
Hennigan, Robert D. "Water Pollution." Oxford University Press 19.11 (1969): 976-78. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Miller, Debra A. Will the World Run out of Fresh Water? Detroit: Greenhaven, 2007. Print.
Are you aware of the detrimental impacts that we have had on our environment? Every second, the Earth is being polluted by poisonous gases, waste products and due to human activities, the world’s climate is dramatically changing. In other words, these impacts do not only harm our environment but also our health. It has been scientifically proven that air pollution causes respiratory diseases and cancer, due to the inhalation of all the harmful chemicals. Water pollution can also lead to typhoid, diarrheal diseases and other waterborne disease, due to the intake of bacteria and parasites. Many people have died due to these health-related illnesses. So why are we still living in this awful condition? Air sustains us and water is a basic necessity, so we should do what we can to prevent pollution. In short, we should protect our environment to ensure a healthy life a...