Human: We are destroying our planet
By: Molly Zhang
Tags: Climate Change, Human Health, Water Pollution, Solutions, Environmental Issues

Water Pollution

Figure 4 (Image Credit: NRDC.org)

Water is an essential natural resource for all forms of life on Earth. As humans, we use water for drinking and other developmental purposes in our lives, such as clothing, producing food, moving our waste stream, and helping to retain a healthy environment. Thus, water is the most important resource for us to survive. But today, freshwater only makes up a very small portion of all the water on the planet. According to National Geographic, there is only about 3 percent of freshwater on Earth and out of that percentage, about 1.2 percent is drinkable for humans and the rest is locked up in glaciers, ice caps, and permafrost. Although the amount of fresh water on the planet remains constant over decades through the process called the water cycle — continuously recycling the water through the atmosphere and back into our cups — Through the constant human activity, the availability of clean drinkable water for us on Earth decreases dramatically and we begin to face a pressing issue, the water crisis. Due to the amount of generated waste by humans into the water — ranging from heavy metals, acidic atmospheric deposition, plastic debris, and agriculture runoff to city sewage and industrial waste discharge and concentrated radioactive wastes — we affect the primary water quality and causes serious “water pollution” issues.

Water is polluted by both natural and human-made activities. But, the most direct causes of water pollution to the different sources of water are agricultural runoff and industrial waste. Wastewater from manufacturing or chemical processing in industries is directly pumped into rivers, lakes, and oceans. It contains harmful chemicals, waste, and dyes that can kill marine animals and wildlife who consume the wastewater, and harms the overall ecosystem. In addition, it is leaving plant and animal species endangered. For agricultural runoff, through the process of rain, it washes off toxic substances like pesticides, fertilizers from farms, and towns into waterways. Since these substances contain high amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen, which encourage the growth of algal blooms (figure 5). These toxic green algae can produce toxins that kill fish, seabirds, and marine mammals, as well as harming humans. Furthermore, pesticides and fertilizer can also leak into our groundwater through cracks, polluting the aquifer. Since ridding groundwater of contaminants is very costly to do and difficult to almost impossible, once an aquifer gets polluted, it may be unusable for decades or even thousands of years. Most importantly, contaminated aquifers have a significant impact on humans, especially on Americans, as 40% of Americans rely on groundwater for drinking water. Having a polluted groundwater source is leaving us with less safe water sources.

Figure 5, Toxic green algae in the Copco Reservoir, Northern California (Image Credit: NRDC.org)

The degradation of water quality can have negative effects on its residents living in that polluted area. Bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases like typhoid, cholera, encephalitis, poliomyelitis, hepatitis, skin infection, and gastrointestinal are just a few diseases that are spread through polluted water. Millions of people are dying each year more than war due to the use of unsafe water sources. According to the World Health Organization, 80% of the diseases are waterborne, and 3.1% of deaths occur due to poor and unhygienic water qualities.

In order to retain our freshwater resources and have safe drinking water, we have to make realistic changes. We can start by making small changes in our household. First, we can start by eliminating the use of toxic pesticides, fertilizers, insecticides, and also start purchasing cosmetic products that do not contain microplastics — tiny plastic particles (smaller than 5mm) that are intentionally added to cosmetics and personal care products. This small change will bring a big impact on our environment, preventing more nitrogen and phosphorus from being discharged into our water sources. Since the chemical pollution created already requires a long period of time to be decomposed or to be removed, mitigating the amount of pollution we are dumping into our waterways can make it a lot easier for people to clean the remaining pollution. Second, we have to alert countries to be responsible for the amount of pollution that they are creating. It is proven that many countries have not been using water responsibly. For example, Japan dumped tons of radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean without notifying other countries. This could create a huge side effect on the marine ecosystem and on human health. If we consume fish that are contaminated by radioactive wastewater, in severe cases, we could get cancer. Lastly, we have to start using water in a more efficient way. According to National Geographic, by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will be living in areas afflicted by water scarcity. Personally, I found myself an inefficient water user when I was young. But as I start to change my living habit — by taking shorter showers, turning off the faucet when brushing my teeth, and washing my hand— I have made changes to reduce the amount of water that I use every day. My personal actions might seem insignificant, but if we all start taking responsibility to effectively use water, we will make a big difference.

Prospect for the future

Figure 6 (Image credit: The MSP Hub )

After we have understood our relationship with the Earth, the seriousness of the global environmental issues, and the negative impacts that we are contributing to our environment, and how these effects can directly create harm to us. The challenge we now face as we head into the future is how to effectively conserve, manage, and distribute the resources that we have. In fact, scientists around the world have been working to solve this problem for decades. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor often referred to as the ITER, is an expensive international science project that involves seven global country partners. One of ITER’s partners, China, has recently manufactured the technology called the “artificial sun”, which is a nuclear fusion reactor that extracts two ingredients, deuterium and tritium from the ocean water and lashed them up with extreme heat until they combine to form helium, where it unleashes tremendous energy. The Chinese scientists claimed that the construction of the nuclear fusion reactor “will take them on the mammoth pursuit of a virtually unlimited source of power”. The benefit of the “artificial sun” is that it does not produce any pollution, it is 100% green. This way, we can minimize the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that we generate every year due to fossil fuel combustion. Moreover, the ITER project is likely to become the final solution in the future when it comes to energy supply and also climate change.

Figure 7. China’s “artificial sun” nuclear fusion reactor machine (Image credit: The Sun)

It might take years for scientists to undergo experiments and testing to actually make the nuclear fusion reactor machine to be used globally. So, it is our responsibility to mitigate the impacts that these environmental issues create on our planet and to us before we find the final solution for these problems. Thinking about ways to conserve water, to distribute our waste correctly, and to reduce the amount of plastic, we can help to save our planet from the ever-changing climate and the water crisis.

Environmental issues are real, but not unsolvable. Since humans created these pollutants on our planet, I believe humans can definitely solve these environmental issues in the future if we cooperate together. There are lots of actionable steps that we have to enact to make the earth a better place for us and for our future generations.