Cav's Place

Today is Blog Action Day and the issue is water. You know, the blood of the Earth, which should be clear but is in fact filled with most of humanity’s waste, spreading our poison far and wide just like any animal’s blood spreads a snake’s venom throughout its own body very quickly after it is bitten. We consider liquid water to be the key prerequisite of life, to the point that astronomers say that a world without it can’t sustain life but one with it almost certainly does, yet we use the water we have as if it were an unlimited supply and soil it as if it were a bottomless pit.
With 80% of the world’s population living in areas where the fresh water supply is not secure, I could write this from a humanitarian perspective. But I won’t, because the problem affects the world and, despite what the vast majority of people think, Earth is far greater and far more important than humanity. After all, even though those most affected by such environmental problems tend to be those least guilty of causing them, we are all guilty of perpetuating a state of affairs that brought us to this point. Each and every one of us most likely actively worsens, or at the very least allows others to worsen, overpopulation, pollution and overconsumption, which are the real causes of all these environmental problems. The other species we share this planet with, however, are not guilty of such crimes against it, yet they are hit by their effects far worse than we are, so they’re the ones I’m more worried about.

With people using more and more water and building systems to make as much of the Earth’s water as possible usable for their own ends, the other species have to make do with less and less. And it’s not just that pretty much all species need to drink, but also that a whole lot of species live in water, including dolphins, which are at least the second most intelligent species on Earth. In fact, speaking of dolphins, October 14th is the International Save Japan Dolphins Day, so I’d like to take the opportunity to draw attention to that problem as well.
Dolphins also show us how much filth we dump into our rivers and oceans, because they’re at the very top of the aquatic food chain and therefore the toxins ingested by pretty much all other aquatic species end up gathering inside their bodies. So we have turned a species that’s very nearly as intelligent as we are into a group of living toxic waste dumps, because we have turned the oceans which are their home into the planet’s waste dump. And that’s not just because of frequent spills and accidents, like the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the recent toxic sludge spill in Hungary, but also because of constant runoff that fills our planet’s waters with all sorts of toxins and waste products, such as fertilizers, heavy metals, medicines, plastics or bodily waste, spreading such substances far and wide and reducing the amount of usable water available at the same time as our requirements keep increasing. Judging by this, the dolphins no longer sound like only the second most intelligent species on Earth, because at least they don’t destroy the very thing their survival depends upon…

And then we have climate change, which is also mainly caused by humans and has massive effects on the global water cycle. Normally, a warmer climate would mean more evaporation but also more rainfall, since that water can’t stay up there forever, which would be a situation that would cause significant problems of its own, but things are even worse, as Earth seems to no longer be able to put up with the punishments we subject it to.
Our planet’s pulse is indeed quickening, but not uniformly. Most of this quickening is noticed over oceans, with dry land no longer keeping up and weather patterns changing significantly. As a result, dry areas get even drier and wet areas get even wetter, the living conditions in both deteriorating more and more for humans and other species alike. The only ones who don’t really mind what we’re doing to the world are probably microbes and moss… And maybe also cockroaches…

I wrote about water once before, though there wasn’t much to that post. If you want some real information and statistics, including a calculator to determine how much water you really use, according to your consumption and activities, you could check out waterfootprint.org, among many other sites that provide such information and advice.
Personally, I do try to reduce my water footprint when possible, but I’m still quite unhappy with the results because I can’t seem to manage to do some relatively simple things that could perhaps have a noticeable impact. Admittedly, I don’t have that much of a choice in what I eat or use, since I’m not the one making the purchases, and my footprint is likely relatively low as it is. I used the calculator on waterfootprint.org with some extremely rough estimates of my consumption, since I don’t have a clearer idea, and it gave me a result of 1130 cubic meters per year, which is nearly 10% under the worldwide average of 1243 and a full third under Romania’s average of 1734, not to mention only about 45% of the USA average of 2483. The real results may be a bit higher, around the worldwide average, but those averages have probably increased as well, as they only have full statistics available for the 1997-2001 period.
Either way, my potentially low water footprint is due to not eating much, not using much and in general not doing much of anything, not thanks to good choices regarding my consumption and activities, so that’s what I’d really want to work on… It would be a pretty good sign for the world if everyone would at least try to do the same, but unfortunately people will be people and the vast majority won’t do a good thing unless forced. Which only means we must find a way to force them…