Water Essay
12/6/13
Water
Simply put, water is the main component for life anywhere in the universe, without it any form of life would cease to exist. It’s such a simple resource, just two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. This simplistic supplier of life is so substantial in maintaining life and humans have come to take it for granted, well not for long. As Solomon puts it, water is inevitably going to become earth’s most valuable natural resource and that date is quickly approaching. Throughout history water has played a pivotal role in determining the fates of many civilizations. The Egyptians knew this to be true having built their entire civilization around the Nile and its effervescent waterway and vast floodplains, without which Egypt would have never has the capability of sustaining life in such poor climatic conditions. Same is true of water’s unique and impactful history all over the globe, whether it be the lack of water for irrigation purposes, unsanitary water leading to waterborne diseases, or even the use of waterways in military tactics. Water has always been one of the most impactful pieces of nature to redirect the future of human history as water can give life and similarly water can take life away. So that brings us to the present, scientists worldwide have spoken out about the lack of freshwater necessary to maintain life in even the richest of countries as we rip through our reservoirs at an alarming rate. Solomon states that the lack of true governance may be the ultimate culprit, but what is the answer to this riddle?
Throughout history mankind has viewed water as a powerful substance, but has lacked to view this importance of sustaining it on a global scale. Do humans really have the natural born right to water as many people around the world seem believe? To be honest, water has given mankind a ton of industrial and agricultural advancements, but we seem to have not given much back in return. Who is to blame? How can this vast of a resource ever conceivably be depleted? Purely from the amount of man-made dams across the globe we have intentionally or not altered the natural waterways forever, and there may be no going back. As Solomon states you don’t have to look far to see our negative impacts on water, just take a look at two of the largest volume rivers in the world are here in our backyard, and now the Mississippi Colorado are so dammed up that where they previously poured thousand a metric tons of water into the ocean it has become barely a trickle. Yes we may receive electric generation and water supply for millions from these dams, but what are the real consequences? True governance of water may be the answer we all may not want to hear, but it may be the answer to saving the most important natural resource of all.
We’ve used and abused water systems so rampantly throughout history that water itself is starting to fight back through mother nature’s own ways. Floods are more violent, droughts are more severe, underground water wells are drying up, weather patterns are more intense, and yet we still use water like there is no end in sight. Soon the population of the planet alone will press our water needs so far against the gradient that the next major war will not be fought over things such as oil and sovereignty, but the fight