Hostage crisis

A Method to the Madness: Understanding the Politics of Irrigation in the Andes. Paul Gelles, Water and Power in Highland Peru: The Cultural Politics of Irrigation and Development is an interesting take on the evolution and adaptation of the indigenous traditions surrounding irrigation water in the Colca valley of Peru. Gelles describes how traditional systems of irrigation coexist and compete along modern, government-sponsored models. The main focus is on how “competing structures of power and…

This article, Forget Shorter Showers by Derrick Jensen shows how humans are gullible on personal consumption. For instance, how saving water in order to not pollute the environment is extremely important. Or to even use not as much waterer, energy, and waste to keep the environment “simply”. Jensen continues to explain how individuals are being led into believing that their personal consumption is immensely damaging to the environment. On the contrary, Jensen believes that is completely wrong…

Renowned American author H. P. Lovecraft once wrote, “Blue, green, grey, white, or black; smooth, ruffled, or mountainous; that ocean is not silent”. Presently, the earth is estimated to be around 70% water, yet humanity has only explored less than 5% of the oceans. Imagine what we could learn from the unknowns of the most treacherous depths, and to what possibilities could we utilize all the information gathered? One anomaly quite intriguing is the diverse sea-life, which proceeds to prosper by…

Imagine being stuck in the Outback for almost three months with limited food and water in temperatures of over 100 degrees fahrenheit. With deadly and dangerous scenarios like that it would be nearly impossible to survive. Well, Ricky Megee went through exactly that when he was in Australia for a trip in 2006. He was 35 years old when he went through the hardest task in his life. Using intelligence and determination, Ricky Megee survived through one of the hardest things a person could go…

Water is constantly changing. According to Charles Fishman, the author of The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water, he states, “Water is unpredictable. Water is fickle. But that is water’s nature. The fickleness, the variability, is itself predictable” (319). Fishman is explaining to the audience that no person truly understands water to its full extent. Most people only get to view one side of water and therefore, do not appreciate it for what it truly is. Water is much…

For generations, Lake Taihu, China’s third largest freshwater lake in Wuni, Jiangsu Province, has provided a home and livelihood for over two million people. By way of contrast, in late May, 2007, a drinking water crisis took place following a massive bloom of the toxin producing cyanobacteria Microcystis spp. in Lake Taihu.2 Ultimately, due to unusual growth of algae, the lake digressed to completely green. Local reports say algae density is 38% higher than it was in 2016. Lake Taihu was known…

The reality that the world faces a water scarcity issue is acknowledged and accepted globally, despite only a small proportion of the population directly feeling the stress of declining water availability. Virtual Water, as discussed by J.A. Allan (2003), refers to the idea that when goods and services are exchanged, so is virtual water. When a country imports 1 kilogram of rice instead of producing it domestically, it is saving around 2,300 cubic metres of real, indigenous water. If this…

As most everyone knows, California is currently experiencing a severe drought; but, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, so is “over 36 percent of the continental U.S.” not to mention that “a fifth of the world’s [population], [that is,] more than 1.2 billion [people], live in areas of physical water scarcity.” Living in the United States, it can be easy to disregard a drought and the importance of water conservation because we always manage to obtain the water necessary to supply…

Baltic region. The Aaland island is the only Swedish speaking region in all of Finland, the island consists of 0.49% of Finland’s land area and 0.50% of Finland’s population. Only the countries Sweden and Finland were involved in the Aaland island crisis. Through 1809 the Aaland island was in the Swedish territory where Sweden had power over the island, but Treaty of Fredrikshamn, signed on 17th September, Sweden had to give up control over the island to Russia. Due to World War 1 the Russian…

Our world is 70.8% water. A human baby is 78% water. A grown human is 62% water. Clean water is essential to humanity. We cannot make more water than what we already have on Earth. Therefore, we need to keep it clean at every point in the global water cycle. The water cycle starts when water is evaporated from water sources, such as rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans. The evaporated water rises into the atmosphere to form clouds. Then the water particles in the clouds condense and fall to the…