The Great Water Epidemic: 30 Years Left

Although we happen to be the smartest self proclaimed mammals walking the planet we have very little time left if we do not address our current water crisis. 
Water is the source to all life. We are made up of mostly water and it is all around us in our environment. The sad truth though is that water is becoming more and more scarce every day. 
Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is freshwater, drinkable water(Postel,563). But it gets worse. Out of that 2.5% of fresh water on our planet 66% of that water is frozen contained in ice caps and glaciers in the Arctic. You can do the math. 
Rivers that were once great and gave life to the wildlife and people who resided nearby are drying up and humans have been responsible for this. Humans have been putting dams in that stop the natural flow of waters and kill off the life down stream. Today our ecosystem is threatened. It is estimated that 40% of our freshwater fish are in danger of becoming extinct now(Postel,00:10:15).

There has been some cases where ecologists have been able to convince areas to remove dams. When this happens life is restored back to the area and all of life flourishes again. Some efforts have been made to restore the natural waters and habitats. In San Francisco there was a joint federal-state initiative to restore the health of the delta in San Francisco Bay. Florida's Everglades have shrunk to half their size in the last century alone. Florida initiated a $8 Billion project with help from the federal government to repair the damage that has been done(Postel,567). 
The city of Boston had at one point reached the maximum capacity of what was available for water. They needed to look to other resources to find a supply. Boston was considering using the Connecticut river. Activists got involved and said they really didn't want to see Boston go to that extreme. Boston went back to the drawing table and had to get creative and try to figure out a way to supply the city with water and what they came up with was conservation. Instead of tapping into more resources, they got creative and started using fixtures that were efficient. The city began conserving the water. Boston was able to fix the issue and the water use in the city is back down to what it was 50 years ago because of conservation(Postel,00:14:45). 
I leave you all with this thought, please consider it tonight while you brush your teeth or take your shower. What can we do? What can we change or do without in our daily life? What can restore our water supplies back to what they were 50 or even 100 years ago? Scientists estimate we have 30 years left of fresh water supply. Water is essential to all life. How have we gotten so displaced from the one thing that we couldn't survive without? What do we need to do to fix the great water epidemic?





Works Cited

Postel, Sandra. “Troubled Waters .” Inquiry: Questioning, Reading, Writing, Pearson, 2004, pp. 562–571.

Postel, Sandra. “TEDxMidAtalntic.” YouTube, YouTube, 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufQggKQ5u1Q.