Top U.S. Environmental Concern: Water Pollution

People around the world are constantly notified with a new environmental concern to focus on, which is usually bad news. But what exact aspect of the environment concerns most U.S. citizens? According to a recent survey conducted by Gallup, asked the exact question. The poll results came back and the top environmental concern among American's is water pollution. Though water pollution is occupied with many different aspects; drinking water pollution came in as the top ranking environmental concern. Given that the essential nature of water is to sustaining human and other life forms, it should not come as a surprise that the top ranked environmental concern is water pollution. When I think of water, I think of the many ways we use it everyday, water needs to be clean because it is our most precious resource. We use water in many forms such as; drinking, bathing, cleaning, cooking, and growing our food, along with many other uses. 

According to the Natural Resource Defense Council; "Clean and plentiful water provides the foundation for prosperous communities. We rely on clean water to survive; yet right now we are heading towards a water crisis. Changing climate patterns are threatening lakes and rivers, and key sources that we tap for drinking water are being overdrawn or tainted with pollution". Dirty/polluted water is the world’s biggest health risk, and continues to affect both the quality of life and public health in the U.S. "Many of our water resources also lack basic protections, making them vulnerable to pollution from factory farms, industrial plants, and activities like fracking. This can lead to drinking water contamination". Though the United States water pollution has made great advances in creating clean water from many organizational groups such as the EPA, it is nearly impossible to create 100% clean water due to the United State's many pollution concerns from the leading industrial resources dumping and creating toxic water. 

The U.S. has many organizations, initiatives, and acts with the goal to fight water pollution. We are fortunate to be a developed country with the resources to control clean water, and protect the citizens. Yet, from recent videos we have watched gave us a background of the water issue the U.S. has. Including the video titles; “New York’s toxic wasteland: America’s water crisis”. We learned that there are many toxic environments in large states like NY and Florida, which are grounds of major toxic dumping. Many bodies of water near urban areas are highly polluted. This is the result of both garbage dumped by individuals and dangerous chemicals legally or illegally dumped by industries. This makes me think of what kind of water we are using with every day life, this crisis is a real threat and could lead to water shortages. The two main problems that stick out to me that water pollution causes include; water pollution that kills life that inhabits water-based ecosystems, killing or infecting fish, birds etc. and second water pollution disrupts the natural food chain, pollutants such as lead are eaten by out marine life and later are consumed by humans. This process affects humans; people can get diseases such as hepatitis by eating seafood that unknowingly has been poisoned.

Now, when we think of water pollution and the many effects it has, we turn to the disease it can bring. Many weak states are very easy targets to fall to water pollution. We don’t think of the many effects that water pollution can have, because we don’t have scarcity like these third-tier weak countries. In places like Somalia, they are constantly contracting diseases by the use of polluted water, but this is what they deal with everyday. In this weeks reading we read a lot about diseases being spread from migration and environmental ways. I believe that because some of these weak states lack the resources to combat polluted water, other international communities need to step in to help. Once intervention is made, and then this could be a possible way to end some famine and disease from spreading.