10-17-1983 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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1/ Lssiie will be pollution of i with chemicals, sewage, mine 1 Eiwimnmental Quality acMillan X)S lan j. Phillips Wzer ritfs Titcomb arner ter Foundation rS ik Freshwater: the problems "The energy crisis will seem p,ile compared to what we are about to see in the area of freshwater. Contamination of our crwironment has reached epidemic proportions." Dr. Valentine O'Malley, Minnesota Medical Association A WATER CRISIS Water is life. Water is in trouble. Wafer, the one essential resource upon which all life depends, is in crisis. Because we must have water to live, each of us is directly and personally involved in the water crisis. Water problems are people problems: caused by people, affecting people, and only people can solve them. To better understand the gravity of the situation, we must first appreciate the two laws of “aquadynamics.” or rules that govern water. The first concerns q uantit y; the second, q ualit y. T f A ■>< ir wm- *. . QUANTITY: IS THERE ENOUGH WATER? Water covers 70% of the earth ’s surface. However. 97% of that water is salt water and 2% is trapped as ice in polar regions. Only 1% represents our potential fresh water supply. That small percentage of water represents essentially all the fresh water people will ever have available for use. The first law of aquadynamics states that water can be neither created nor destroyed. The amount of water available on earth has remained essentially the same over eons of time and will continue to be so. By means of the continuous global hydrologic or precipitation-transpiration-evaporation cycle, the “same ” water is constantly recycled and reused. While the amount of available water remains constant, the world’s population and water use continue to increase, resulting in less available water per person. Limited finite water quantity and the unequal distribution of it are serious concerns. ♦ ^ QUALITY: IS OUR WATER SAFE TO USE? The first law of aquadynamics suggests that the q uantit y of water may remain essentially the same, but the second law states that the q ualit y of water does not. Water is nature ’s sewer system. Everything ends up in water sooner or later. Nature should be able to effectively filter water for safe reuse. However, changing water use and today ’s advanced technology have both overloaded the system and introduced into it countless foreign materials that nature does not understand and cannot degrade properly. These foreign materials, many of them toxic, may remain in the water forever. The question of concern becomes: Even if there is enough water, is it usable? Unusable water is the same as no water at ail. THE NEED FOR CHANGE: TO KEEP OUR WATERS USABLE The same amount of water for more and more people means less and less per person. The ever-increasing use and misuse of water means an ever-decreasing quality. To avoid the “bottom line of such negative trends — not enough water, no usable water, no life — change must occur. The ways in which people use... and misuse... water must change. For change to occur, the Freshwater Foundation believes a major three-step process is essential: to generate information, to facilitate education, and to motivate action. ■: .;/• ■ - ■■ i IH •-5 ■■ -A «t- V- •... . . •i '.d I 4 if TO GENERATE If Before we can chanc what we know and w in generating necess, The second step is improve our water s> recycling systems, foi are most appropriate gathered from reseai may also raise many A broad, impartial be and expanded, is nec crisis, to choose intellij to keep pace with nev TO FACILITATE I Information alone v Change also depe information. For inf must be systematical about a change. The purpose of < publications is to get I in a factual and und< Most changes will noi situation and the nee educational programs progressing through t arriving at alternative: Effective education is information must be l / I mmmmm .r