Contaminated Water

A large problem that many people face today is not necessarily getting water, but finding clean water. Over 1 billion people live without clean drinking water because of things like pollution from developing countries. Sometime in mid-January a large amount of cadmium was accidentally spilled into Longjiang River in China. Officials have stated the the amount of cadmium now in the water is at 5 times the legal limit. This poses a serious health issue because cadmium is a known carcinogen. The source of the spill has been traced to a mining company that refines zinc ore. Cadmium is one of the toxic byproducts of smelting zinc. Over 3.2 million people in south China are now using bottled water for their source of freshwater while the government attempts to clean the spill. Having limited access to fresh drinking water is a huge problem that is only magnified through pollution from industries. When people cannot find clean drinking water, they will resort to using contaminated water just to stay alive. The problem with this is the number of waterborne diseases that can be contracted through drinking bad water. According to the WHO waterborne illness is the world’s number one killer.

Read more about the cadmium spill here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/china-cadmium-spill-threatens-city-water-supplies-rare-earths-mining-suspected-cause/2012/01/30/gIQAmb2hbQ_story.html

The New River: The most polluted river in the United States

After doing a quick search for videos relating to water pollution, I found what I consider to be the most disgusting looking river I have ever seen. I was even more amazed that the river runs through part of the United States. The New River is widely considered the most polluted river within the United States. The river is so contaminated that when a technician draws water for testing, he or she wears two pairs of gloves. Most of the pollution comes from Mexican manufacturing plants and untreated sewage that is dumped into the river. The river is filled with dangerous toxins that can cause tuberculosis, typhus, encephalitis, and other potentially fatal diseases. What makes this even more disturbing is that many illegal immigrants use the river to get past the border patrol, because patrols will not enter the water. To make matters worse the exposed immigrants will often get jobs in the food industry. Combine this with the fact that many do not seek proper medical help when they are ill, and you have the recipe for disaster. This river is a breeding ground for terrible new strains of disease that could devastate the human population. It is startling that only in 2005 did the government intervene and begin building a water treatment plant to help clean the water.

Find more information at: http://www.calexiconewriver.com/history/

Anitbiotic Resistance

McKibben Haiku

Small local farming
Large Government Subsidies
Cannot co-exist

Google Alerts,Twitter, and Sustainability

           Never in a million years would I have pictured myself creating a twitter account. I used to laugh at all my friends that had them. However, after sucking it up and creating one, I can see how following certain groups could be very informing. Google Alerts is proving to be even more useful. I have always had a strong interest in pathology, and being able to simply log in and have all the latest news on the subject is great.  On twitter, I chose to follow NCSU Sustainability. They provide many ways we can help make our environment sustainable. A recent tweet provided the instructions on how to weatherize your dorm to save electricity.          
           After reading about sustainability I have learned a few things. What I believe to be one of the more important issues is the loss of biodiversity. Our current lifestyle is having a huge impact on the world’s ecosystems, 15 ecosystems are currently in rapid decline, while only 4 have improved. Another problem that I have read about is the rapid switch to industrialization, and how it destroys farmland. With technology becoming more and more prevalent we have a shrinking amount of available farmland. Most countries import 90% of the food they eat, and export little food themselves. This is a trend that has to stop if we wish to sustain ourselves on this earth.

Overpopulation and Food Sustainability

A growing source of concern for our current population is food availability. Most countries today rely heavily on importing foods, and very few countries export food. The growing number of importers and the shrinking number of those able to export threatens the sustainability of our lifestyle. Today, world hunger is at the highest level it has ever been. Over 1 billion people go hungry every day, and remain undernourished. A major cause of this is the rapid industrialization of a heavily populated country. As a population begins to industrialize more land that was once used for agriculture becomes allocated to creating buildings and roads. This means that the country must import an increasingly large amount of food to compensate.

If we were to live in “island civilizations” the area for industrialization would be much smaller, and so would the number of mouths to feed.  A smaller amount of people would be much less draining on the environment, making the population much more sustainable. Reduced industrialization also means fewer roads and buildings need to be built, and as a result the environment is not destroyed.

Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures

Summary and Respone to "Island Civilization" by Roderick Frazier Nash

In the essay Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth, Robert Frazier Nash proposes his plan for the distant fourth millennium. He begins his essay with powerful words on the destructive behavior of humans, stating that since the very beginning humans viewed the wilderness as something that must be controlled. To support his argument, Nash points out that in the Bible the “wilderness” was land cursed by God, and humans were banished there as punishment. He then continues to point out how mankind built fences and roads to contain the wild, and that it was only when the United States Census claimed that there was no longer a frontier left that humans discovered the damage they had caused. Following this revelation the human population sought to right their wrongs in different ways. The government provided relief through the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 and that of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Various authors that supported environmentalism wrote books on things like restricting one’s own freedom for the good of the environment.

After completing his description of how mankind destroyed the wilderness and their scramble to rectify the problem, Nash goes on to explain the 3 possible outcomes for mankind. The first outcome is referred to as the wasteland scenario. In this future the world has exhausted all of its resources and become a desolate wasteland that can support very little life. The garden scenario is the second possible outcome and under it humans will have created technology capable of controlling nature, at the cost of diversity. The final outcome is future primitive. This seems to be a variation of the future Nash would like to see. In this scenario humans would revert back to hunter gatherers and shun technology, allowing the Earth to gradually return to its previous state.

The final pages of Nash’s paper explain his idea for the future. His plan is to restrict the human population to 1.5 billion, and to make self-sustaining “islands” of civilization. These civilizations would be clusters of the population, and quite similar to cities. His plan also relies on advanced technology that would not harm the Earth and that the “islands” remain isolated from each other. All food production, manufacturing, sanitation, and other services would take place directly within the civilization.

I personally believe that Nash’s plan for an island utopia sounds wonderful, but is not even close to being realistic. My first major problem with his plan is the reduction of the population. He proposes cutting the current population to 1.5 billion. In order for something like this to happen only a fourth of the current population would be allowed to reproduce one time. Most people want a family, and a family includes children. If you start denying three fourths of the world the right to have a child, you’re going to have a major problem. Any attempt to limit the world wide population through regulations will undoubtedly end in violence and destruction. Thankfully regulation on such a large scale would be impossible.

Another problem I have with this utopia stems from the reduced population. One of the results of a population that has been limited over a short time is a smaller gene pool. People would begin to look very similar, and soon diversity would be almost nonexistent amongst humans. In addition to this reduction in diversity, a small gene pool also leaves the human population very vulnerable. Any sort of viral epidemic could wipeout the human race, simply because immunity would be unlikely. If you don’t believe an epidemic is capable of killing so many, just take a look at our history. Scientists estimate that smallpox killed around 1 billion people, and there is still no cure for the disease. The best scientists could do was create a vaccine. Another epidemic that you are probably familiar with is the black plague, which killed at least a third of the European population.

It is also suggested that a person would be able to live in the “island” of their choosing. This can only result in conflict over who would get to live where. You could base it on social status, but then you create class warfare. Those that were less fortunate might attack another more fortunate civilization. This would only lead to more destruction of the environment.

In short, Nash’s dream world sounds amazing. It is an island of peace and happiness. Who wouldn’t want to have all the resources you need within a 100 mile radius? Unfortunately it is nothing more than an unobtainable dream, and any attempt to make it a reality will result in more chaos.