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How the Flint River got so toxic. - Eli Barbee

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How the Flint River got so toxic. - Eli Barbee

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I chose to read about the sewage, chemicals, road salt, and groundwater pollution occurring in Flint.The concequences of all this pollution have been confirmed as, lead poisoning, skin rashes, and carcinogens in the water making it near undrinkable. The warm river and local ignorance for years led to the accumulation of bacteria, organic matter, and other contaminants that have infected the water causing all these harmful effects. The river had been steadily getting better with new industry regulations and cleanup efforts until recently. The river has been ruled out as a primary water source for the local population due to pollution.
I personally think this is a growing problem and it worries me. This could be a normal occurrence if more industrial companies are located closer to rivers and groundwater wells. We need to take action and try to clean the river as much as possible before its too late. We also need to take matters into our own hands to prevent this in local streams and rivers as well.

"How the Flint river got so toxic." The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/26/11117022/flint-michigan-water-crisis-lead-pollution-history Accessed 19 Apr. 2018

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Nicole Biancone

My article was about recent water issues that are occurring in Africa. It talks about how only about 16% of people living in Africa have access to drinking water through something that is connected to their household whether it's a sink or a tap in the yard. For the people who do not have access to clean water, they get their water from nearby streams and creeks which is not safe for drinking. It also tells about how there are wells and sanitation facilities where these people can get clean water but that also comes with some risks. Since these areas have limited financial resources, these wells and sanitation facilities are left improperly maintained. Most of the surface water sources in Africa are highly polluted which makes it even harder to provide those people with clean water.
I think that developed countries like the United States should help out the less developed countries like Africa because not having enough water is a big issue. We could inform them about what water sources are not safe to drink and ways to get cleaner water.

“Water In Crisis - Spotlight Africa: Rural and Urban Issues.” The Water Project, thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-rural-urban-africa.

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Cities around the world should prepare for running out of water, experts say

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Cities around the world should prepare for running out of water, experts say

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Haley Gill

My article was about the crisis in Cape Town, South Africa and how it is not specific to Cape Town. “Day Zero” could come any day in Cape Town. “Day Zero” comes when their dam falls below 13.5% capacity and the government is forced to shut down the pipes. Cape Town is not the only city who might be forced into this reality. As water becomes harder to get, it also becomes more valuable and therefore economic inequality will become a much more universal factor when it comes to getting water. The article also discussed water theft which becomes more popular as water grows more valuable. The United Nations declared water a human right but it seems to be a right you have to pay for and that some have to steal. Governments should do much more to try to persuade their people to conserve water and should give incentives to people doing so. Even with more governmental awareness, however, “Day Zero” becoming more and more inevitable, but it’s not sneaking up on us. When we finally wake up on “Day Zero” it will not be a surprise; we can see it coming now so something really needs to happen sooner rather than later. What do you guys think should be done? Do you think its the government’s responsibility? How do you feel about “Day Zero” coming sooner than you think?

Wong, Andrew. “Cities around the World Should Prepare for Running out of Water, Experts Say.” CNBC, CNBC, 12 Apr. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/cape-town-water-crisis-cities-should-prepare-for-water-scarcity.html.

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For centuries our many oceans have taken much abuse from pollution. Proponents of dumping used to say, "The solution to pollution is dilution." There are many forms of pollution, from the dumping of trash to oil spills to seismic blasting. For example, sound pollution such as seismic blasting or sonar, the sound waves created by these can carry way longer than if they were in the air. Solid pollutants are often consumed and and cause many, many fatalities.

Personally I think we need to invest money to gradually cleaning the ocean of it's pollutants. We could begin chipping away at eh giant flowing mass of garbage know as the Pacific Trash Vortex. I we began this tomorrow, we could have the ocean cleaned within our lifetimes.

"Marine Pollution." Nation Geographic, National Geographic Partners, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/oceans/critical-issues-marine-pollution/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018.

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Hunter Barbour
Summary - The article starts off with one persons situation and how she has to do different things to save water because they got to use only 13 gallons of water per day. It goes on to say what the government orders or makes rules about what to do. The city officials tell them or urge them to stock up on water as well. A thing they mention a lot is a composting toilet which saves a couple gallons a day.

Opinion - I agree a lot with the author and what he says. I think that to solve this problem, every person in America and anywhere in the world who has a couple dollars to spare should donate it to people in Africa and wherever there is a water crisis like this.

Citation - Baker, Aryn. “Cape Town: What It's Like to Live Through Water Crisis.” Time, Time, time.com/cape-town-south-africa-water-crisis/.

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Plastic Pollution Is Killing Coral Reefs, 4- Year  Study Finds        

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Plastic Pollution Is Killing Coral Reefs, 4- Year  Study Finds        

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Every year million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean. From grocery bags to water bottles to kids’ toys the trash remains there because it is indestructible. Through studies scientists have discovered that it is one of the major causes of coral reefs being destroyed. A four year study including dives in 159 reefs in the Pacific has showed that reefs in four countries (Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar) are heavily contaminated with plastic. The plastic clings to the coral and sickens or kills it. The study shows that “the likelihood of disease increases from 4 percent to 89 percent when corals are in contact with plastic.” Plastic can 🤬 coral in two ways: blocking sunlight, and/or abrading the coral and letting in pathogens that infect it. When the researched the Asia-Pacific region, home to half the world’s coral reefs, 11 billion plastic items where entangled. Plastic pollution is not the only threats to coral reefs but one of the leading.          The carelessness and greed of humans and our actions has for the most part negatively impacted the environment. Pollution alone by deforestation, oil spills, littering, and air pollution have been the main factors that we have contributed to the downfall of ecosystems. I think that change on a mass scale needs to occur. Without a plan to rehabilitate the planet we destroyed, wildlife and later on humans will go extinct. If you think about it everything we need or want comes down to natural resources. With the giant depletion of them we will soon run out. With the millions of tons of plastic in the ocean and in numerous other ecosystems it could have all been prevented if we where more careful and planned ahead for the future. With the deterioration of the coral reefs the rest of the food chain will follow causing a chain reaction. Animals will then either adapt or die and most of them will die off causing all other ecosystems to be thrown off as well.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/25/580227045/plastic-pollution-is-killing-coral-reefs-4-year-study-finds

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In this article the writer talks about water pollution and sustainable water on earth. The author describes the hardships some people have to go through just to get water they can use without getting any type of diseases. In the article the writer tells us about the 5,000 children dying each day due to preventable diarrheal diseases. Towards the end of the article the writer tells us what most of our water is used for and how we can help conserve it.

I agree with the author and their claim that every person should have the right to be able to afford 20-50 liters of water a day. One thing I think the author should’ve wrote more about was how we can help because all they really wrote about was the problems about not having enough water they didn’t go into detail about how we should help. I think we need to start finding ways fast to conserve our water and help the people around the world who don’t have any. 880 million people in the world don’t have access to a clean water source, I think that people need to start opening their eyes and realize that if people around the world are losing water sources then it could also happen to us.

“Sustainable Earth: Water.” National Geographic, 7 Jan. 2014, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/sustainable-earth/water/.

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64 Pounds of Trash Killed a Sperm Whale in Spain, Scientists Say

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64 Pounds of Trash Killed a Sperm Whale in Spain, Scientists Say

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Tyler Bentivegna

Summary: We all know the drastic effects of polluting the water, but no one really seems to care until an animal or a few wash up on a shore. This article was about a whale washing up on a beach that was severely undersized because its intestines were blocked by 64 pounds of trash, and it tugged at my heart strings. It reminded me of the lingering trash problem in the ocean, and we have to do something. Scientists think debris might eventually 🤬 more animals than climate change.

Response: Like I said, it makes me sad when animals are dying because of our trash problem. We need to seriously decrease water pollution because we're just exterminating these poor animals. I know that we always hear about sea turtles caught in plastic or something, but we don't hear about the tons of other animals also suffering. The bottom line is that something needs to be done fairly quickly to reduce the fatal effect we have on many species.

Haag, Matthew. "64 Pounds Of Trash Killed A Sperm Whale In Spain, Scientists Say". Nytimes.Com, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/science/sperm-whale-death-spain.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FWater%20Pollution&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection. Accessed 18 Apr 2018.

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Trillions of Plastic Bits, Swept Up by Current, Are Littering Arctic Waters

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Trillions of Plastic Bits, Swept Up by Current, Are Littering Arctic Waters

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Summary: It’s nothing we don’t already know about. Plastic is almost engulfing the oceans on Earth. In this article, they are focused on the effect plastics have had on Arctic Waters. A large ocean current is carrying small pieces of plastic that are mainly from the North Atlantic to the Greenland and Barents bodies of water, where they are then left. The plastic then is left in surface waters, sea ice, and potentially falls onto the ocean floor. Plastic has made its way into the food chain, and gets into the ocean at about 8 million tons per year. Though the surface water plastic in the Arctic ocean is only 3% of the total, the amount is only growing. Since most of the plastic was in bits, it’s assumed that it has already been in the ocean for a while. Overall, the amount of plastic in the ocean is alarmingly high, and the way it has made its way into the food chain is very concerning.

Response: I definitely think that plastic in the oceans in one of the most alarming problem in the world, and it’s scary to think that it has gotten this worse. I knew that the amount of plastic in the ocean was a lot, but I had no idea that it was up to 8 million tons per year. In my opinion, I think that as an entire planet we should work to make the ocean a better place for those inhabited in it, and in turn it will also make a safer, more healthy environment globally. Although the problem is mostly global, there is a lot of pollution that can be tied back to certain areas. We need to know where those areas are and what we can do to prevent the issue. “And the more we know about what happens in the Arctic, the better chance we have.”

Schlossberg, Tatiana. "Trillions of Plastic Bits, Swept Up by Current, Are Littering Arctic Waters." The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/climate/arctic-plastics-pollution.html.

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Nobody would disagree that the world has a serious water problem. More and more rumors and false assumptions are being spread that we will eventually run out of water. The people of earth don't even use that much water compared to what is on earth. They just need to calm down because there is a way to fix this problem we have on our hands. If we commit time and a whole lot of money we can fix this problem. Plus politics, they can help change some things to help.

I agree with this article completely, if the world's people stop acting like idiots, we could solve this problem. If most of the liberal politicians would grow some hair on their peaches we would not be having this problem.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2018-03-20/how-solve-global-water-crisis

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Summary: The ocean has six main gyres in which trash collects in, and cause multitudes of effects the the wildlife snd ecosystem. The organization Ocean Cleanup has raised 2.2 million dollars to clean the all collected trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in a span of ten years. Many people criticize the claim, saying that cleaning up that amount of trash in that amount of time isn't feasible. With the vastness of oceans and the gyres being where wind and water meet (causing lots of rough seas and storms), it isn't feasible to go to the middle of the oceans and hauling thousands of metric tons of trash. The focus should be on preventing trash from getting into the ocean in the first place, and with plastics being in everything from packaging to fibers in clothes, that can be seen as a more daunting task in itself.

I believe this article brought up some really important points. While there is an enormous amount of trash in the oceans, more is coming because of our actions. Focusing purely on removing the trash isn't economically plausible and doesn't stop the problem, only learning how to reduce the amount of plastic, and recycling will reduce the amount of trash going into the ocean. What do you think? Do you believe that trash retrieval is possible and beneficial, or a waste of recourses? How do you think we can reduce the size of trash patches form our own homes?
"A Sea Of Plastic." Popular Science, Bonnier , 26 Sept. 2016, www.popsci.com/sea-plastic.

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In field tests, device harvests water from desert air

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In field tests, device harvests water from desert air

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Andrew Collins

The article that I chose is about a new technology that can absorb the water from the atmosphere to create drinkable/useable water for extreme climates. Researchers at MIT have found a way to take the moisture from the air using metal-organic frameworks (MOF’s). These allow water to be extracted and collect from a relative humidity of as low as 10%. It has also been tested and proven to be able to extract water at subzero dew-points. To top it off, it is also solar powered making it one of the only water sources that could potentially be fully renewable. One of the main downfalls however, is that it hasn’t been scaled up yet so it can only produce mL of water as a proof of concept.

I believe that this is a revolutionary technology that could help our environment in many different ways. It promotes renewable resources in many ways which could lead towards a cleaner future. I think that this could also save lives in deserts where there is little to no water. It could also help to maintain agriculture in extreme droughts making sure that another dust bowl doesn’t happen. I truly believe that this could be the method of extracting water for the future. But what do you think? Could this live up to all the claims that it has set?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "In field tests, device harvests water from desert air: System could provide drinking water even in extremely arid locations." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 March 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180322103212.htm>.

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Water is needed by all living organisms on Earth. Because of all the factories and population on earth, water has become polluted. Humans will die within days without water. We can't stop drinking water altogether, or we will dehydrate and die. What are the effects of these pollutants in our water? What will happen if we consume too much contaminated water? If you were to drink untreated water, your body would immediately react to it. For example, when you drink water with too much lead in it, it can damage the central nervous system. If you have to much fluoride in water,  it can damage the spinal chord.
What is the better option? Do we drink untreated water and expose our bodies to the dangerous bacteria that could give us diseases? Or should we continue to drink treated water with the chemicals sometimes being too strong and allow our bodies to be open for the chemicals to ravage our bodily systems? Personally, I feel like this is a very difficult question to ask ourselves. It is fact that our bodies have become used to the treated water, and switching to untreated water (contaminated from pollution, human waste from our cities and much more) would be catastrophic. Thankfully there are personal water purifying devices, but this still poses an important question.

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“Lead found in hundreds of Chicago homes' tap water, report says” by Jacqueline Howard

Summary: Toxic lead has been being found in Chicago homes for the past couple of years. 3 in 10 Chicago homes have had traces of lead in the water. Lead can come from many different sources but they believe the main reason are the pipes the water is in. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, any amount of lead is unhealthy in any range of age. Lead effects every system in the body in a negative way that can be life threatening. Dr. Philip Landrigan states that "nobody should panic here. This is a problem that has to be dealt with, but it's not a cause for panic,” and "In the meantime, fortunately, children can be protected here simply by switching water sources.”

Response: I have realized that in past years, several cities have been found with traces of lead due to pipes. I personally find it a big issue due to the fact that it can hurt many young children and people in general. The companies should fix the pipes that carry the lead but it will be a huge cost. They would need to replace all of the underground piping but it would save people from dying.

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Places That Struggle to Meet Water Requirement Needs

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Places That Struggle to Meet Water Requirement Needs

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My article is about how water is not meeting requirements of many Americans. It is very passionate about the lower income families that don't have clean enough water to support themselves. There is many maps and images of water supply and how clean it is in the article. Also this article talks about is how we can make our water more clean although that can come with side effects. They state that we know we need clean water but there is no exact plan to do that yet.

There are too much failed water systems in our country that making people sick. 21 million every year are exposed to unsafe water the biggest states that occurs in is Oklahoma and Texas. That number has grown tremendously since the 1980's but that is also because of bigger population. We need to make a change in our country's water before more people die. In rural areas the water pollution has risen but thats because thye need more of it for agriculture to supply the US

Citation:
Plumer, Brad, and Nadja Popovich. “Here Are the Places That Struggle to Meet the Rules on Safe Drinking Water.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/climate/drinking-water-safety.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Water&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.

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Researchers create new low-cost, sustainable material for reducing air and water pollution

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Researchers create new low-cost, sustainable material for reducing air and water pollution

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A team of researchers have created a new alternative to the expensive carbon-based material that are often used to reduce air and water pollution. The new alternative mixes sodium alginate, a plentiful material that comes from algae and seaweed, with silicon metal. This mixture creates a material that is much more cost effective and efficient. The material can be applied as a coating, used for spraying or brushing, and used for 3D-printing. This means it could be used to cover external building surfaces to remove particular matter, as well as to design water filtration units.

The most important problem with air and water filtration is cost. Implementing this new material would make it easier to reduce air and water pollution. As the population increases, pollution will get worse and we need to figure out a cost effective method as soon as possible.

“Researchers Create New Low-Cost, Sustainable Material for Reducing Air and Water Pollution.” Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and Technology, phys.org/news/2018-03-low-cost-sustainable-material-air-pollution.html.

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The Oceans Are Drowning In Plastic — And No One’s Paying Attention

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The Oceans Are Drowning In Plastic — And No One’s Paying Attention

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My article was about the plastic waste in the ocean and how the plastics get into the ocean as well as its impacts of humans and wildlife. Plastics are the #1 kind of trash found in the ocean and on beaches (85%). As of 2015 about 19 billions pounds of plastic waste ended up in our oceans every year— this number is set to double by 2025. This is such a huge problem because plastics are non-biodegradable, which means they can not be broken down through natural processes. Even more concerning is the micro plastics that end up in the ocean. They are microscopic pieces of plastic that pose a serious threat to the health of organisms. The UN Environment Program estimates that 51 trillion micro plastic particles are in our ocean and 80% of all plastics in the ocean come from the land (mostly because 50% of waste in nearly all countries is disposed of incorrectly). Plastics can be toxic to humans and animals, causing reproductive issues, cancer, and liver damage most commonly I high amounts. This issue needs to be addresses, especially since the U.S. is in the top 5 developed waste-generating countries.

This article shocked me by just the sheer amount of plastic in the oceans, especially the micro plastics. I obviously knew that the oceans were being majorly polluted but I didn’t know how urgent the issue currently was. A solution needs to be found, especially in the developed countries like the U.S. that are contributing a lot to the problem. Even though most of the waste comes from India, China, and other Asian countries the U.S. should do what they can do decrease our personal waste going into the oceans. The oceans hold thousands of organisms and we all need to work together to protect them because the ocean are a major part of peoples’ lives all around the world.

"The Oceans Are Drowning In Plastic -- And No One's Paying Attention". Huffpost UK, 2018. Accessed 17 Apr 2018. <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/plastic-waste-oceans_us_58fed37be4b0c46f0781d426>

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Coast Guard bill would weaken water pollution rules, environmentalists say

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Coast Guard bill would weaken water pollution rules, environmentalists say

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In my article (posted at 9:55 AM on April 17th, 2018), you learn that the Senate could vote on a coast guard bill in the coming days. The bill would have a version of the VIDA (Vessel Incidental Discharge Act), which exempts ships from the Clean Water Act. It would make it so that the EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) authority would be given solely to the Coast Guard, and it would remove important water protections that the EPA works on all the time. However, giving these authorities to the coast guard would increase the risk of invasive species.

I think that this is a very interesting bill that the Senate might vote on. I don’t think it is a good idea in my opinion though. First of all, the coast guard already does a lot. This addition to their jobs takes away from what they are currently doing. Secondly, the coast guard goes a lot of places. We wouldn’t want species to get on their ships and have them spread out across the world. This is a big example of invasive species and it is not always good for us (even if it’s and accident, it can still do unchangeable harm).

Thehill.com. (2018). [online] Available at: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/383495-senates-coast-guard-bill-would-weaken-water-pollution-rules-greens [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].

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Could What Happened in Flint Happen Anywhere?     Brandon S.

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Could What Happened in Flint Happen Anywhere?     Brandon S.

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Flint, Michigan is still facing problems today with purifying their drinking water after they had switched sources to get their water but had failed to remove lead, a lethal brain toxin from their water supply lines. Millions of Flint, Michigan's population proceeds to drink this with no clue or warning at all from the city's council/government. Flint's officials have even tried to change Flint's water lead-level reports to hide the truth from their residents but were called out by Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech scientist. He had tested the lead-levels multiple times and they had all resulted in readings of high lead content.

Lead causes many neurological effects in children, including reduced IQ and aggressive behavior. It may also cause birth effects in women.

3.3 million utility service lines contain lead plus twice as many connecting pipes, and countless amounts of lead solder in the U.S. In addition, many homes have plumbing that contains the hazardous metal.

EPA standards limits lead-levels to 15 parts per billion. Last year, hospitals in Flint, Michigan, passed that limit, averaging from 6 to 32 percent of water samples.

10 years ago, Washington, D.C had the same issue. "About 640,000 District of Columbia residents were exposed to lead when changes in disinfection chemicals allowed lead to leach from pipelines."

You're probably thinking why cant they just take out all of the lead pipes and replace them with non-lead ones? Because It's very expensive, time consuming, and risky. It would cost roughly around $1.5 billion. This process would most likely at least take more than a year to complete and massive amounts of lead will be released when the pipes are disassembled.

Marc Edwards says the cheapest prevention is for utilities to follow the EPA rules and I one hundred percent agree with him. I don't even know why the U.S. installed lead piping in the first place.

Loftis, R. (2018). Could What Happened in Flint Happen Anywhere?. [online] News.nationalgeographic.com. Available at: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160125-flint-michigan-water-crisis-lead-poisoning/?_ga=2.210700380.858691190.1523979481-448413922.1520964383 [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018].

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Coral bleaching threatens the diversity of reef fish

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Coral bleaching threatens the diversity of reef fish

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The article I did talks about how global warming can also affect fish depends on corals. The Great Barrier Reef is revered for its kaleidoscope of color.  There is new international research that reveals that coral bleaching events not only whitewash corals  but it also can reduce the variety of fish occupying highly valued ecosystems.

My opinion on the article is that

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Underwater noise pollution stresses aquatic animals -Matthew O.

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Underwater noise pollution stresses aquatic animals -Matthew O.

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My article talks about how underwater noise pollution stresses and kills aquatic animals. Meaning the noise of motors, military sonar, and blasts from offshore development are confusing, distracting the aquatic animals.

For fish, whales and other aquatic animals, intense underwater animals from blasts can cause trauma and death for the animals.  More common quieter noise, such as shipping or construction noise, might not 🤬 the animals directly, but it still disrupts their ability to find food, and avoid predators. When a fish hears a noise, it reduces the ability to hear the sounds of others. Scientists have tested and revealed that fish that are trained with boat noise show no fright reactions when exposed to a threat or predator.

Voices, E. (2018). Underwater noise pollution stresses aquatic animals | EarthSky.org. [online] Earthsky.org. Available at: http://earthsky.org/earth/underwater-noise-pollution-whales-fish [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].
-Matthew O.