Water Is The Most Precious, Limited Natural Resources

Water scarcity is an environmental problem that reaches around the globe. This lack of water is called the World Water Crisis. In the U.S, people are privileged enough to be able to use clean water for many things. However, the U.S is effected by water scarcity as well as countries who are underdeveloped and aren 't as privileged as we are. Only 2.5 percent of Earth 's water is fresh water, of which industrial uses account for 22 percent of available fresh water, domestic use requires only 8 percent, and the rest-over two-thirds of our demand-is used for agriculture. Water is said to be a right for all living things, however, many underdeveloped countries in the world, such as Ghana or Rajasthan, are victims of corporations who come

Water is probably the most important resource we as people have. Humans can survive without food for several weeks, but without water we would die in less than a week. On a slightly less dramatic note, millions of liters of water are needed every day worldwide for washing, irrigating crops, and cooling industrial processes, not to mention leisure industries such as swimming pools and water-sports centers. Despite our dependence on water, we use it as a dumping ground for all sorts of waste, and do very little to protect the water supplies we have.

On March 27, 2014, Wade Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle reported “The Water Revolution California needs.” California is having a severe drought. Wade Graham tells his readers that California is in a serious water crisis. The state of California needs to make strict changes to how water is being distributed amongst farmers and residents. Before all of California’s ecological system is destroyed. Wade Graham believes that water should be priced higher; that way people aren’t wasting water. Water is a limited resource that should never be wasted, and is probably California’s most valuable resource. Unfortunately, many people waste water; instead of conserve water especially when we live in the state of California where we are subject to

The article “Water Works”, published by Orion Magazine and written by environmental specialist Cynthia Barnett intends to inform the reader anyone can make water an important factor. Overlooking it has become common many people in the United States have adapted to through the changes that have occurred in society over time. At the beginning of her article, she describes an area that does not make water care a priority, whereas in another location they make it very evident water is important. The location she describes is gloomy, grey, and is a populated area that has old water systems that are damaging environmental factors. Barnett continuously emphasizes that people are the ones who can help restore nature. This is at a less cost than

The documentary, Blue Gold, World Water Wars, was a dramatic depiction of the prognosis of our ability to sustain life on the earth if we don’t take very seriously the natural resource of water. The movie by Sam Bozzo was released in 2008 and is based on the book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. The movie opens with a dramatic display of what happened to Pablo Valencia who in 1906 walked from Mexico to California in search of gold. He survived without water for 7 days and documented the experience. One of the most compelling statements from his experience was the statement, “who ever goes without water for a week, cries blood.” That statement was riveting and came to mind often during the course of viewing the movie. The filmmaker succeeded in galvanizing my attention with that opening frame. Bozzo highlights how extensively our ecosystem is being impacted by our seemingly lackluster regard for the water we have been given on earth. It seems as though some think water is an infinite resource. Contrarily the movie shows that our abuse of water is deteriorating water flows and threatening the sustainability of our ecosystem. The planet, human beings, plants, animals, fish, etc. all need water to survive.

Water is the most precious resource to mankind. With every living substance needing water from humans, animals, and plants it is the one thing no living creature can survive without. The thought of losing or having restricted access to water is a very frightening one. Water shortages not only pose an epic threat for the obvious reason, that water is needed, to drink, but also to the lives around us. With little or no water people would have to make hard decisions such as, letting an animal dehydrate so they can have enough water for their families to survive or who they should ration the water to and how much to ration to save as many people as possible. California has been experiencing a very severe drought that has cost California millions of dollars in agriculture and manufacturing due to low water. Though their drought is not apocalyptic yet, but it could worsen and become an apocalypse that we should fear. The changes that can come from such a disaster would change the lives of everyone in society. The ways water shortages could come about is multiple ways such as, drought, poor management of water, or political issues. Water corruption is a threat to society which needs to be dealt with efficiently and immediately.

Among all of the resources in the world, there is one that we do not often consider to be diminishing. The masses take this resource, water, for granted. When the average person takes a single look at a world map, they see multiple blue oceans covering the Earth. But, although we are surrounded by water, our clean water reserves dwindle rapidly. In her article, “Water Works”, Cynthia Barnett attempts to bring this issue to greater light and offers her own solutions. While I agree with many of Barnett’s points, she fails to look at the arguments of her detractors to the detriment of her already flawed case.

Water isn’t the only natural resource that isn’t looking great. In the last five years the world consumed 27 billion barrels of oil a year, but the oil industry only discovers three billion a year. Only one barrel is being replaced for every 9 barrels used.

The Cree Indian prophecy stated that, Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realise we cannot eat money. Water is something in such abundance that is available to us at the turning of a faucet, so much that we tend to take it for granted and forget its global impact. We need to stand together and protect clean potable water when our watershed is being threatened. Water is our most precious resource, without it, life itself would seem to exist.

Around 44% of American citizens rely solely on groundwater from aquifers for their drinking water, according to the National Ground Water Association (NGWA), a cooperative organization dedicated to improving groundwater knowledge (National Ground Water Association [NGWA], 2010). However, groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley has begun to have a more pronounced impact on the population and the environment located in this area. Groundwater depletion in this region developed partly because of a problem represented by the idea of the tragedy of the commons, which is expounded upon by Thomas Dietz, Elinor Ostrom, and Paul Stern in “The Struggle to Govern the Commons” (Dietz, Ostrom, & Stern, 2003). The concept of the tragedy of commons evolves from the belief that individuals will undoubtedly act in their own self-interest when a shared resource, such as water or air, is at stake as explained by Dietz, Ostrom, and Stern (2003). Garrett Hardin (1968), the father of this theory, wanted to explain that there has to be a change in the world’s approach and “ideas of morality” to prevent the exhaustion of limited resources.

Everybody needs water. But this resource is scarce (UN, 2014). However, there is a controversy about whether water should be treated as human right or not. In the human rights discussion, the term “public good” is important because resources of this kind must be made accessible to everyone in sufficient quantity and quality (basic supply). Moreover, it is essential to human life and health. But according to the economic definition, this scarce resource does not meet all of the economic criteria of a public good (in which no one could be excluded from its consumption) (Arce, C., & Maume, A. 2005). Traditionally, water has been considered a free good, and charges for its use have been related to the costs of treatment prior to use, distribution and pollution abatement. In reviewing the literature from the 1970 's and the 1980 's, the scholars identified two ideas of efficiency and externalities to support the argument that the value of water needs to be increased. Regarding efficiency, Environment Canada (1983) noted from the angle of economic principles that when a good is undervalued it tends to be overused. The best example of the implications of this for natural resource management was described by Hardin (1968) regarding the 'tragedy of the commons". Hardin noted that in Britain, a common pasture was overgrazed because each herdsman thought about his interest and gradually increased the number of grazing animals. As a result the common pasture was destroyed. Tate (1984)

Earth is filled with vast amounts of water, yet it’s like a cruel joke to people who cannot drink it due to its toxicity to us. Likewise, fresh water is our most precious resource that people depend on every day. Our society is based around the use of large amounts of water in our everyday lives. Charles Fisher, a three time winner of the Gerald Loeb award, a writer for the magazine Fast Company, and the author of The Walmart Effect and The Big Thirst, tells a different story. In the article Will the World Run out of Fresh Water, which explains that people take water for granted and never see its true value like people in the past, published at the Detroit Greenhaven Press in 2012. Because we use vast amounts of water and never see the process in which water is given to people, Fisherman proposes this idea that water is taken for granted until we run out, which is more than true.

“To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed” is a famous quote by President Theodore Roosevelt. The quote itself explains the importance of preserving the natural resources for the future generation. Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their fairly unchanged form. A nation's natural resources frequently regulates its wealth and status in the world economic system by defining its political influence. President Theodore Roosevelt, the only president with the goal of protecting natural

When referring to Arizona’s water Kris Mayes, chairwoman of the state’s utility regulatory panel once said, “How do you say just how valuable water is in an arid state like Arizona?” she said. “It’s like the credit-card commercial-it’s priceless” (McKinnon). She was right, because in a dry state like Arizona, water is pretty important. To say water is ‘pretty important’ for the world is an understatement. We use water to function. And when we think of water we think of saving it. Keep the faucets from dripping or turn off the water while brushing your teeth. There are numerous tips for water conservation, but people don’t often think of the damage that is already done. Damages like ‘dead zones’. Dead zones in the ocean have been around for

In today’s society, the idea of a limited resource is not a foreign concept. Most people understand that eventually humans will use up many of these resources, such as fossil fuels, and they will cease to exist. However, very rarely does a conversation about limited resources get started over the water. While water itself is not a limited resource, clean drinkable water is becoming scarcer as people continue to use excess water. The documentary “Last Call at the Oasis” highlights how precious water is to survival and just how much miss use of water occurs in the United States alone. Even though the United States has gone down the wrong path with its water consumption methods, it may not be too late to recover. With the proper systems and education in place, the chances of delaying a water crisis increase exponentially.