Poisoned Waters

Poisoned Waters
Film Review This article goes perfect with what we have been reviewing in class. It shows some of the main obstacles that environmentalists are facing and focuses on one section that is in dire straights. Back in the seventies the United States started up the EPA and it worked very effectively to clean up our environment because it had very strict regulations that developers had to adhere to. This process was cleaning up our ecosystem and things where getting back to a sustainable environment. It seems that when Ronald Reagan took office he put a stop to this and made the EPA laws “voluntary instead of mandatory. This gave the companies the power to ignore the guidelines provided and adhere to profit maximizing environment destroying policies of their own. Purred Sands was once a rich place where fisherman would fish and people would enjoy the waters. Today people can barely make a living as fishermen of this area and most of the waters are very dangerously filled with harmful chemicals. The anatomy of the animals is changing because of these chemicals. We have frogs being born with six legs and male frogs with female organs and all of those sort of mishaps because these animals are being subjected to very dangerous deadly chemicals. This is cutting off the whole food chain because as the animals feed each other the chemicals are killing even the button nose whales which are at the top of the food chain. In the past people did things because they where ignorant about the environment, things that today would be highly frowned upon, and did not know what damage they were causing. As our population started to grow and we had to mass produce things the everything went bigger including pollution and the effects started showing. For the first time the environment responded to the damage we were causing it. Scientists had to see what was going on and through this we became education that we had limited natural resources and you can not just take there has to be a sense of giving back. Today people are consuming more than they ever did before. To fulfill all these needs we food distributers are having to produce massive amounts of food in a short timetable. All this production causes excess pollution that is very harmful. A perfect example that this article mentions are the chicken farms. The waste from all of these chickens are being filtered into rivers and lakes and dangerous chemicals such as PCB’s are being introduced and destroying the animal life. An important factor to consider is how clean is clean? Standards are just guidelines as to how clean the water is so that it would be considered drinkable. With new chemicals constantly being distributed into the atmosphere it is difficult to determine this and we constantly have to revise our standards to meet new dangers, this is something that can become very expensive. Environmentalists constantly have to struggle against politicians because they are the ones that end up creating the laws that set the regulations. This can become tricky because many companies are lobbying against strict regulations and they contribute very heavily to the campaign, making it very difficult for the congressman for example to side against them. Population greatly supports the cause because they worry about their children and future generations. Environmentalists hit home there and this helps pressure government officials into action. It is difficult to turn down a crying mother who worries her child might die if he drinks tap water. When plans are put into action then it’s the people who do not want to comply. An example used in the documentary was families who owned land in an area which is full of trees. You now restrict them against cutting down the trees so the natural habitat is maintained. This is difficult for someone to swallow if they purchased that property years before as an investment. A constant struggle is formed here between who want the changes and people who believe they are being targeted unjustly. The same balance can be seen when trying to regulate large companies who argue that they provide and essential service and if they had to adhere to the guidelines then they would be forced out of business. It is true that the loss of their business would be bad for the economy because consumers want their product. The key here is finding a cost effective technique that appeases both sides as best possible. Our cities are becoming larger and less green. We can look at a city that has massive amounts of traffic and large sky scrappers that are constantly releasing pollution and there are now plants to filtrate. It is imposable that the surrounding environment is not being effected. Some steps that could be taken are the use of public transportation such as subways to reduce traffic. The creation of parks to help the city breath and ensure public health. Parks are very effective because while they are great for the ecosystem they are usually largely supported by the population. This gives families a day out together. People get up and go for a run which promotes health. It builds jobs for vendors. This is a very economical thing to look at. Our ecosystem is very important and through our great expansion is something that has been put on the backburner. The best thing to do is find more efficient techniques to produce larger quantities and reduce pollution at least to levels that would maintain the ecosystem rather than deteriorate it more than it is. The current generation needs to sacrifice now for the future and while that is difficult to accept it is important if we are to thrive as a culture. The thing to consider is that while these mutation and animal deaths are being shown in the animals that live in these waters. We humans eat these animals and eventually we will see a large amount of cases that show these mutations in our species and humans will begin to die from drinking this water. The United States is country that is good at jumping into action when natural disasters occur and our attention is captured. But we also suffer from short term memory and we quickly forget. In the seventies they oil spills helped jump us into creating strict regulation. It would be a shame that we would need something similar to do the same. They key would be to prevent these things and just create sustainability.