Clean Water

Water is one of the most important factors in sustaining life. Every single organism on Earth, no matter how big or how small, need water to live. That goes the same for us humans, too. But the weird thing is, even though water is very important for our body, a large amount of water a person use a day is not for drinking, but for many other reasons such as washing, cleaning, gardening, planting... So for us, water is important not only for maintaining a healthy body, but also for doing other daily activities as well.

But if water is so important, shouldn't everyone be able to have access to clean water? Unfortunately, no. There are roughly 7 billion people on this planet. But not all of them got access to safe water. In fact, it is estimated that 783 million individuals on Earth are using dirty water for everything from bathing, washing, to drinking. That is about 10% of our entire population who have to use dirty water to live. In some cases, people, mostly girls and women, have to walk for miles to get clean water back to their families using a container. These journeys are usually quite dangerous, and could potentially took their lives. But since they don't have access to clean water, they are willing to risk their lives so their families can have safe water to use. 

So then what is it that make them willing to risk their lives to bring home clean water? For many people, it's because of their children. Even though the risk is high, the body of an adult can survive after consuming dirty water because their immune system is strong. But for little children and babies, their fragile body is not strong enough to protect them against unsanitary water. By using unclean water, they can be vulnerable to a handful of diseases and sicknesses. One of which is diarrhea.

Diarrhea is the second leading cause of child death in the world today. Because of poor sanitation, hygiene, or dirty drinking water, diarrhea took the lives of 700,000 children every year (that's almost 2000 children per day). What is more shocking is that diarrhea killed more children in the last decade than all armed conflicts have done since the World War II. If that sound bad to you, this next fact is going to sound even worse: dirty water killed more children than war, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and traffic accidents combined. So now you know why is it that people are willing to risk their lives for clean water; it's so that their children can live.

Now that we've understood the effects of using unsafe water, let's talk about where it came from. Out of every medical cases related to usage of unsanitary water, most of the victims lived in developing countries. And since these countries don't have a lot of money to spend on processing dirty water, most of it just went straight into streams or rivers. In fact,  90 percent of waste-water produced in underdeveloped countries is discharged untreated into local waters. And since most of the natives don't have access to clean water, they were forced to use dirty, contaminated waters from rivers.

So what can we do to help? In every blogs that I've created, whenever it comes to this part of the blogs, I've always used these plain, uncreative, restricted, and, to be honest, lazy ways in which we can help solving world problems. It's always either "donate to this charity/foundation" or "let people know about this issue so everyone can be aware of how serious it can be. But after a while I decided that it's not going to do any good.

So now I'm trying a new approach in which we can participate in solving these global issues. The main focus of my approach is that "everything matters". So from now on, any time you read mine or anyone else' blogs about global issues, if you are interested in or are willing to help, you can think about what you can do to solve the world issue that you're interested in. Be brave and think of a way that you can lend a hand in solving these world problems. What you do ,no matter how big or small, will be very helpful to society. So don't be afraid and just try your best to do what you think is helpful for the world. And don't think that what you do is meaningless. Because any action, no matter how little and insignificant it may be, if repeated enough, will make a change in society.
Ps: Just don't do anything that is considered illegal or you're going to get in trouble.

Why is water important? : http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/water-vital-to-life.htm
Water facts: http://blueplanetnetwork.org/water/
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/interesting-water-facts/
http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/
http://www.compassion.com/poverty/water.htm

Deforestation

 

  Watch this clip before you read

The clip above that you've just watched is from a movie named "Matrix". In this clip, the main protagonist, Agent Smith, is talking about how human beings are a disease to Earth, that we are just viruses moving from one place to the other, destroying everything in our path. Now I don't know if using virus is a right way to compare humans but what Agent Smith said was not wrong. We humans have been destroying Earth's habitat for centuries, and we're getting better and better at it. Environmental pollution, global warming, species extinction, natural resources depletion... these are just some of the many ways that we are destroying Earth right now. And for what? Money? Power? Success? Who knows? But one thing is for sure, we are corrupting the only place we have to live. If nothing can be done to stop this, one day everything will collapse, and humans will disappear.

So today I'm going to talk to you about one of human's most dangerous way that is destroying Earth: deforestation. Deforestation is pretty self-explanatory. It's the act of destroying forests for non-forest use. One common sight of deforestation that you'll see is farmers burning forests down so they'll have agricultural land. I know the fact that they need land to farm to feed themselves and their families, but I still don't understand why burning forests down is going to bring them any good in the long run.? Forests are the lungs of our planet. They supply Earth with oxygen to sustain not only our life but the life of every other living things on this planet. They are the lungs of our world. So if they are so important, then why would burn them down?

Another common sight is people cutting down forests after forests so they can take the woods and sell them money. Again, why? Considered forest only covered 31% of our planet's land area, you think that it would be a good idea to protect them, right? Those trees provide you with oxygen that you breathe every day. Without oxygen, you wouldn't be alive for more than a minute or two. So why would you cut down the things that are keeping you alive?

Deforestation is happening all around the world, and it's getting worse and worse every day. According to WWF, "12-15 million hectares of forest are lost each year, the equivalent of 36 football fields per minute." That means that by the time it takes for you to reach this sentence, 100 hectares of forests have already been lost. And what does depletion of forests brings? Biodiversity reduced, greenhouse gas emission released, water cycle disrupted, soil erosion increased, livelihood disrupted, all because someone chopped down trees for money.

So how can deforestation be stop? Well the quickest and simplest way to do this is to stop cutting down trees. But how can we stop people from chopping down forests is the problem. According to National Geographic, "Though deforestation rates have slowed a bit in recent years, financial realities make this unlikely to occur." So what now? Well, National Geographic did gave us another solution, that is to manage forest resources. This can be done either by creating areas that protect trees from being cut down or by planting new trees for every tree that got cut down. And this is exactly what the WWF is doing. They are trying to protect Earth's forests by working to reduce deforestation through management, creating protected areas, and promoting sustainable bioenergy. WWF is trying their best to make sure that Earth's lungs stay healthy and so do we.

So what can we do to help stop deforestation? Deforestation happened because people are unaware of the effects that it brings. I think that if we can help spread the word about the seriousness of this problem to everyone, then many people with have knowledge about this issue that is destroying our home. And if enough people know about this, maybe someone will rise up to help WWF, National Geographic or any other organization to fight against deforestation. The important thing is everyone needs to know about this so that in the future, maybe, just maybe, deforestation can be stop, and we can be more than just viruses destroying our home.

Some links about deforestation that you can check out:
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_forests/deforestation/
http://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview/
http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation