Analysis Of Robert Glennon's 'Fouling Our Own Nests'

Failure of Our Water System: “Fouling Our Own Nests” Analysis
Robert Glennon’s “Fouling Our Own Nests” addresses the gravity of our nation’s current situation regarding water. Glennon’s work thoroughly examines “water pollution [as] an acute national problem” and supports this statement with two main sub-claims: water pollution as an origin of immense risk to human health and water pollution as the compromising source of future water supply. Although the two sub-claims are addressed in distinct places, the work is not structured around these claims. Glennon instead chooses to organize this chapter by addressing the different sources of water pollution, therefore organizing by grounds rather than sub-claim. Glennon supports his central claim very thoroughly by detailing sources of contamination. His grounds are structured in that each of these sections can be broken down into four main components. The first component provides general information as to how a specific problem or action leads to water contamination. For example, the first section relates the lack of sewer services to higher levels of nitrates and the presence of E. Coli in the water supply. Another main component to his argument involves presenting a specific example of that contamination. In the case of lacking sewer services he …show more content…
Throughout the majority of the chapter this can be inferred through the specific grounds Glennon uses; though he does not specifically refer to the future until the end of the chapter, statements such as “skyrocketing use of nitrogen fertilizer” and references to the “’dead zone’ …where fish, shrimp, and other marine organisms die from the lack of oxygen” create the sense that tomorrow’s water problems will be more severe than