Close those Wallets and Turn on the Faucets!

The first picture shows what we Americans use every single day: the water bottle. The second image shows water we could be drinking from (the faucet!) to save cash and our environment. I personally love the faucet image because the water droplet is shaped as a globe, and shows that plastic water bottles ruins the world that we love so dearly.
I read the article Bottled Water News by Bill Marsh from the New York Times. Read this awesome article here: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/w/water/bottled_water/index.html
Summary: This article begins with stating that it will only cost Americans roughly 49 cents per year if we drink out of the tap. However, we'd rather "live large" (we are known to do so, aren't we?), and spend $1,400 per year on bottled water. Just out of common sense, which route seems smarter economically? Yes, the tap water! Not only does tap water allow us to save up on our money but it improves our environment too. Oil is used for shipping, the plastic itself and refrigerating the water bottles and by the end, everything just ends up in landfills. Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council is currently researching water bottles that can be made from plants. We should either improve the water bottle itself to help rescue our planet or drink tap water (because it is perfectly fine).
Reflection: I certainly agree with this article! Unfortunately, I know for a fact that my family purchases water bottles for us to use in school and for lunch. However, it would be so much smarter to reuse one water bottle and just refill it with tap water everyday! Or even buy a portable cup (for what, $5?) and drink tap water from it, instead of spending tons of money on pre-bottled water. I've realized from reading this article how terrible the plastic is for our environment and how drinking from the faucet can greatly improve our Earth. By connecting this to class, we did a lab on tap water and I discovered that the tap water from my house is certainly safe and completely drinkable! I believe Americans should save cash and our world by turning on those faucets!
Questions:
1) How can the plastic from water bottles harm our environment?
2) What can we do with the extra money saved from using tap water instead of bottled water? (stated in the article) How can this plan be useful?
3) Do you think Americans will listen and stop buying water bottles? Why or why not?
4) What is a good campaigning method to spread the news about drinking tap water instead of water bottles?
Thanks for reading and commenting! Excuse me, I now need to tap into some wonderful water! :)

Eutrophication

http://www.lakescientist.com/learn-about-lakes/water-quality/eutrophication.html
Summary

In this article it talks about how eutrophication works in lakes. Eutrophication is defined as an increase in the rate of supply of organic matter in an ecosystem. In the lakes the supply is given to the sediment. Then what happens is that the sediment starts to build up until the sediment has taken up all the space like in the picture below.  Not only that but the algal begins to turn the lake into an icky green color. The article also talks about how humans are speeding up this process. They are speeding up the eutrophication by letting more nutrients into the lakes. If the process is sped up then it could hurt the habitat of many fish. In the article they also talked about an experiment they did to a lake. On one side of the lake they did not phosphorus but added nitrogen, and carbon to the lake. On the other side they did the same except they added the phosphorus. The amazing thing is that the side they added the phosphorus had algal all over. They then concluded that if all three nutrients were added then the lake will definately grow algal. The lakes would have to go through this eventually but this rate of the eutrophication could be dangerous.

Reflection

This topic and the article were very interesting for I did not even know about eutrophication. I also found it interesting that lakes got smaller and turned a sickly green. I hope that we are able to have nice clean water and yet not cause lakes to disappear from our planet. I forgot to mention this but in the article the sickly green color is algal. It helps keep the nutrients away so that the lake can maintain itself. I found that to be funny for its seemed like the lakes are going through natural selection. For the lake only does that when too much nutrients are added and not at any other time. I really do hope though that the lakes turn out to be better.

Questions

1. What is algal? Also can it harm fish?

2. What is a watershed?

3. Can it be dangerouse to have algal in our water?

Safe Drinking Water Act

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/energy-environment/08water.html?pagewanted=all 

Article by: Charles Duhigg

December 7, 2009

This picture just shows plain ordinary water. Water that we drink every single day though, it's a necessity in our lives so why not take a stand for SAFE drinking water. 

Summary:

As said before, water is a necessity. We need it to stay healthy. But what happens when the water we drink has started to become contaminated by bacteria that causes many illnesses? Then we have a huge problem. Some of the bacteria that contaminates the water, can cause illnesses like cancer which can obviously be deadly. We need to take a stand for this, and that is exactly what law officials were starting to do. The part that really irritates most people though is the fact that we are being given bad water and the companies responsible for this have not been punished. Many complain about the Environmental Protection Agency, E.P.A., because they have the ultimate responsibility for enforcing standards. Which, in this case they need to do something about it, because these UNSAFE water conditions are highly unhealthy for us, especially for those in areas that are affected by it the most. This was how the Clean Water Act was enforced. It regulates pollution into the waterways. However, violations of the Clean Water Act still occurred putting thousands of people in danger yet again. There's been yet another increase in cancer every year due to the water and bacteria, viruses, etc in it. If something is never done to prevent this from happening, no one really knows where we will stand. 

Opinion:

I really liked this article because I found it as something that really hits close to home. I thought to myself as I read it, am I drinking contaminated water? How safe is the water I drink? It really made me think. This kind of thing really scares me personally because I drink water EVERY day, and to think that something that everyone thinks of as such a healthy thing to drink could actually make us sick really worries me.I hate how the companies responsible are not being fined as they should be. Action should be taken to make sure this stops happening, but it doesn't seem like much of a topic that people really care too much about unless it affects them or someone close to them. I would do anything to stop this, because I definitely don't want to see  someone close to me die from water. 

Questions:

1.) What other actions could be taken to stop this from happening?

2.) How would you know if you were drinking contaminated water?

3.) How could you stay on the safe side to make sure you are not affected?

4.) What is contaminating the water that makes it so bad in certain areas?

5.) How else could you warn people about the Safe Drinking Water Act?

Coral Reef Bleaching

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/warming-coral.html
Author: Sean Markey
May 16, 2006

Here is what bleaching is doing to our coral. UGLY!
 http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1525&bih=741&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=kIEkFzwDiRMAhM:&imgrefurl=http://www.thinkglobalgreen.org/coralreefs.html&docid=j2mcDigzFXsvLM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKXK85GWZJBXAIy5X6nsETIWN28LsUcx8bJnxiiCXc1wDEmtUN4CPGvhtnskP3A6cJI6dXu3kYySou5p_ZPClWlV-WqsBoNAJyV1ui53UmAf-7665-bgMBLU9INEt3Wz2ySF5rQZeOPKLP/s400/051025_bleach_hmed_11a_h2.jpg&w=400&h=274&ei=VXdqT7-wBqTa0QGlvuzNBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1219&vpy=81&dur=342&hovh=177&hovw=253&tx=240&ty=54&sig=107991398418601293496&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=205&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:0

Summary:This article shows how even since bleaching was the cause of one coral reef to die off, it is still an issue. Reefs are still unable to recover from it's harmful affects, despite scientist's efforts. Because of this, the diversity of the fish populations in these affected areas are decreasing. This is yet another issue that is coming from bleaching. This occurs when temperatures get too high, and the reefs their algae, causing the coral to turn a white color, rather than it's normal colorful self. It is still an issue, and 16% of our world's reefs were lost in one year alone. Also, in some oceans, like the Indian Ocean, they are loosing up to 90% of the colorful reefs to bleaching, and are left with ghostly colored ones that are affecting it's fish.  Some fish are even becoming locally extinct, which could affect the food chain, and eventually lead to decreasing numbers in other fish in a coral bleaching area. We need to reduce greenhouse grasses and take actions towards global warming to prevent these high temperatures and all together, bleaching. 
Opinion: The reason I chose this was because I always heard about bleaching, but I never really knew what it meant. Now that I saw these images and heard the descriptions, I am in shock. I love the look and vibrant colors of normal coral, and this honestly makes me sad. The fact that so many reefs were affected this way within one year makes me nervous to think of the future. After many years of this, I wonder how much longer coral will be around since they are not bouncing back so easily. Also, knowing from class the importance of certain species and biodiversity, it worries me because many other organisms rely on this species. Also, fish diversity is decreasing, so the whole sea is being impacted. This means a lot to me because water is 2/3 of our Earth, and I can't imagine what it would be like without beautiful colors and many types of fish!
Questions: 
1) What types of fish are experiencing decreasing populations? Are these reliant on coral reefs?/
2) How long does it take for reefs to go from colored to white?
3) What efforts are scientists making to prevent this from happening to other reefs?
4) After a reef turns white, how can it be revived?
5) Do you think we should put funding into protection of reefs near us?