The World 's Total Freshwater Essay

The author argues that The Great Lakes region is entering an era of unparalleled water tension. Agreeing with this argument, The Great Lakes are just another piece of Earth that us humans are ruining. Since The Great Lakes are one of the largest fresh water sources in the world we are forced to protect against losing it's surface area. 40 million Canadians and Americans live amongst their basin. The author, Peter Annin, brings up clean water scarcity, this is a huge problem around the world and right in our "back yard". The city of Flint's toxic, unusable water has become an embarrassment for all of Michigan.

On July 28th 2010, through Resolution 64/292, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. They acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights. The UN stated that water should be, “safe, sufficient, acceptable [taste, colour, odor], physically accessible, and affordable” (Knight and Hartl, 2003). Water is one of the most important elements to human life. In Canada we are host to about twenty percent of the world’s fresh water (Boyd, 2003). It has a square kilometer measurement large enough to cover both California and Nevada (Matsui, 2012, p. 1). While most Canadians who live in urban areas are free to enjoy safe drinking water, some First Nations communities living on reserves do not (White, Murphy, Spence, 2012). For instance, as of July 2010, 116 First Nation communities in Canada were under a drinking water advisory (Health Canada, 2010), with many of these communities living under advisories for prolonged periods of time. This issue is of vital importance to discuss and evaluate because clean, safe drinking water is a mandated human right. In Canada we have failed to ensure that water on reserves meets that standards set out by the UN.

Living Canada, it is hard to believe what it would be like to not have a virtually unlimited supply of freshwater. In places and areas where freshwater is not that easy to get, such as the drought in California that is so highly talked about, as well as places in Africa who wonder if they will have enough fresh water to last the rest of the week. Being a country of high strength in this resource we have to think if we are going to help some to these countries or not. This piece writing will explain what freshwater really is and whether Canada should export our water to the United States of America and why we should not.

Since more than 70% of the Earth is covered with water, one would assume that there is enough water for everyone. However, this statement would be incorrect. Only 3% of that water is considered usable and 2% of the usable water is locked in the polar ice caps. This leaves 1% of that water for the use of humans. Canada possesses a substantial amount of this water, while other countries are less fortunate. One of these countries is the United States of America, the biggest users of water in the world. They are looking for a new source of water and have been hoping Canada can be this new source. The Canadian government should accept the proposal to sell water in bulk to the United States due to the availability, the safety and the economic

“How can you buy or sell the sky-the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? We will decide in our time” (Chief Seattle: 1855). In the Documentary “Flow – for the love of water” it visualizes the global crisis we face on Mother’s Earth as it pertains to the diminishing of fresh water. The Documentary portrays along with the help of experts that this global crises is affecting each and every one of us in today’s society including animals. The film shows us that water is constantly being wasted, polluted, and privatized by big co operations. Prime examples of these greedy companies were mentioned in the film such as Nestle, Thames, Suez,

Water is just more than drinking water. Water is the most basic and vital resource that humans need to sustain themselves. Water is used for food production from irrigating crops to actually manufacturing them. Canada like the world, uses water for sanitation, cleaning, manufacturing and daily function. Demand and supply will soon be at a crossroad, as increasing population creates increases in pollution, waste-water and global warming (Baker, 2007). This paper will seek to examine the effects of global warming on Canada’s freshwater system, the effects of pollution and will evaluate how Canada manages its freshwater now and what Canada can do to form policies that will adapt to the future crisis in Canada’s freshwater.

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. - W.H. Auden. I am writing this letter behalf of all Canadians who wish to keep Canada’s precious water protected, healthy and be kept in it’s home country. Selling Canada’s water is a controversial topic and there have been several arguments and debates regarding this matter. “If you load a tanker full of oil or wheat and ship it away to a foreign country, it’s a sign of open trade and natural resource wealth. But if you load a tanker full of fresh water and ship it off to a foreign country, it can be perceived as environmentally irresponsible and culturally insensitive.”(Larson, 2015). Now it has come to a point where exporting Canada’s water has affected our economy negatively by

As a Canadian citizen who worries about the environment, and our everyday lives, I would say that we should not sell surplus water or Canadian fresh water to other countries. A water surplus is a place where there is more than enough water for the countries land and the countries people to survive. An example of a place that has surplus water is our country Canada. In fact, Canada has the most amount/the largest supply of fresh water in the world. Now as we all know, water is an essential element in our everyday lives.

The author, Maude Barlow, begins her article by stating that there is a problem concerning the world’s water and how it can affect the people’s way of living. She includes three possible outcomes that could result from how people are mistreating the water supply. Sources of freshwater are becoming scarcer as people keep polluting and depleting them. As the lack of clean freshwater decreases, the amount of children dying increases, more so than war and diseases altogether which occurs more frequently with those that are of low socioeconomic status. Those that belong to companies dealing with water exchange are taking advantage of the shortages by selling them to regular people at expensive rates; this could ultimately lead to the market’s dictating

Population, development and climatic changes have caused increasing pressure on water resources, as both quantity and quality have become threatened in many regions. Fortune magazine claimed in May 2000 that water would be as important socioeconomically and politically to the twenty first century as oil was to the twentieth century. This growth and pressure has lead to the rise of water as a profitable commodity. Canada, and the province of Ontario, are relatively rich in clean freshwater resources, although global warming will continue to decrease available quantities in areas such as the Great Lakes basin (Renzetti & Dupont, 1999). The abundance of water resources makes Ontario a prime location for water

Around the world, many people believe that there is a great deal of water that can be shared. However, the reality is that if we keep living our lives by this mentality, we will experience water shortages. In the future, wars will be fought over water, and since Canada is blessed with such a large amount of fresh water, we will have a major impact in these battles. In the Great Water Debate, Canada is in the opposition side of it. The Canadian government believes that our water is a Canadian resource and is not shared with all of North America’s. Canada does not want to transfer their water as it is a great resource for our Country and gives us more sustainability.

The 2008 documentary “Blue Gold: World Water Wars” introduced the world to one of the most significant environmental concerns of the modern era. Directed by Sam Bozzo, this film brings to life the compelling story told by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke in their 2002 international bestseller Blue Gold: The Battle against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water. It was first screened at the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival where it won the audience award for Best Environmental Film. This film’s main message is that water is no longer a fundamental human right, but a privilege awarded only to those with the means to access it. Through its cinematic elements, “Blue Gold: World Water Wars” succeeds in conveying its main argument, which is that if nothing is done about water scarcity now, the wars of the future will be fought not over oil, but water.

Why should we care about water consumption? From 1991 to 1999, residential water use in Canada increased by 21%. Today, Canadian rank as the world’s second highest per capita water use, with an average use of 329 litres of water per person per day. However, only … liters are really “needed” for proper living. Even scarier is that the water crisis is the #1 global risk based on impact to society (as a measure of devastation), as announced by the World Economic Forum in January 2015.

Many countries are also highly dependent on water that originates outside their borders; the water diversion provided by dams for countries that are downstream exacerbates an already serious problem. The diversion of river systems is an area of international concern, the nature and extent of such interdependency is already extensive: 145 countries share over 261 international river basin. As demand increases, and as indigenous sources of water become fully utilized or exhausted, the only alternatives are likely to be international (Dolatyar, 2006). Ironically, the very solution of one country's scarcity, plunges another into water shortage, this is the reason why water security is one of the most crucial foreign policy considerations of a globally connected economic and political atmosphere.

Freshwater is a vital necessity of life, but it constitutes of less than 1% of the Earth’s surface water (Johnson et al., 2001). Rivers comprise 0.00009 % of all the freshwater on the planet (Wetzel, 2001). They are an important source of freshwater and essential to the wellbeing of humankind and other organisms, and have been used as extensive water sources by most forms of life. However, due to their exploitation as freshwater sources, few rivers can be found in their natural conditions due to pollution (Ngoye and Machina, 2004).