pollution
Water Pollution: Causes, Effects, and Prevention
What would you say the most valuable thing on earth is? Many people would quickly answer that something with monetary value, like oil or gold, would be the most valuable thing on earth. However, humans are able to live, and have lived, without utilizing these things for many years. There is a thing that every living being, creature, and plant on earth could not survive without. It is one of our most basic needs, and yet we take it for granted so often. You probably encounter it once or more every day, perhaps without a single thought of its value. Some humans go so far as to unwittingly, or even sometimes knowingly, contaminate our sources of this precious necessity, often doing unfixable damage to our already limited supply. The most important thing to us, or at least, what should be the most important thing to us, is water. All life on earth depends on water- meaning that without water, there is no life. Although our planet is covered with this liquid, only a small percentage of it is actually drinkable. According to USGS.gov, only 1% of earth’s water is usable by humans, 99% of that water being ground water, and only 1% coming from lakes and rivers. The 99% of earth’s water that we cannot use is either saline, or ocean water, or frozen in ice caps and glaciers. Since we have such a small portion of usable water, you would think that our priority would be to keep our water as safe as possible. However, this does not seem to be the case for all people. Every day, our only source of water, a source we would die without, is being contaminated. This contamination is often done without complete realization, but sadly it is also done with full knowledge of its consequences. This contamination, better known as pollution, is defined as, according to water-technology.net, the addition of foreign substances (pollutants) to a water source that have a harmful effect on living organisms. Obviously, polluting our only
What would you say the most valuable thing on earth is? Many people would quickly answer that something with monetary value, like oil or gold, would be the most valuable thing on earth. However, humans are able to live, and have lived, without utilizing these things for many years. There is a thing that every living being, creature, and plant on earth could not survive without. It is one of our most basic needs, and yet we take it for granted so often. You probably encounter it once or more every day, perhaps without a single thought of its value. Some humans go so far as to unwittingly, or even sometimes knowingly, contaminate our sources of this precious necessity, often doing unfixable damage to our already limited supply. The most important thing to us, or at least, what should be the most important thing to us, is water. All life on earth depends on water- meaning that without water, there is no life. Although our planet is covered with this liquid, only a small percentage of it is actually drinkable. According to USGS.gov, only 1% of earth’s water is usable by humans, 99% of that water being ground water, and only 1% coming from lakes and rivers. The 99% of earth’s water that we cannot use is either saline, or ocean water, or frozen in ice caps and glaciers. Since we have such a small portion of usable water, you would think that our priority would be to keep our water as safe as possible. However, this does not seem to be the case for all people. Every day, our only source of water, a source we would die without, is being contaminated. This contamination is often done without complete realization, but sadly it is also done with full knowledge of its consequences. This contamination, better known as pollution, is defined as, according to water-technology.net, the addition of foreign substances (pollutants) to a water source that have a harmful effect on living organisms. Obviously, polluting our only