Why Can't We Learn ?

We have made some incredibly large mistakes in our society. Most of our actions we do for the benefit of humans and we do not think about how these actions will affect other animals or the planet in the long term. Now, our actions are coming back to bite us. We are running out of the most important natural resource, water.

According to the Netflix documentary on the freshwater crisis, by 2040, most of the world will not have enough water to meet human demand year round. We are facing a global water crisis and our priorities are all wrong. When I think about all the technological advancements we have made it amazes me. How have we created Artificial Intelligence but we have failed to find ways where everyone can have access to fresh water, we have failed to cure cancer, we have failed to learn from our mistakes. If we continue viewing water as an unlimited resource, we will run out.

The Earth has 326 trillion gallons of water but humans can only consume about 1% of this. The majority of that 1% is stored in ice and underground in aqueducts. While aqueducts are easy to take from, they take many years to replenish. Taking too much water from the ground also has consequences, some places in Mexico City have been sinking as much as 9 inches a year. The majority of our fresh water goes to the agricultural industry, our day to day life accounts for only 8% of the total usage. It takes 1,650 liters of water to make one quarter hamburger, that’s about 436 gallons (a LOT of water).

Today, 7/10 people on Earth can count on having clean, running water. But, at the rate we are going, the majority of the world will not have enough water to meet our current demand in 2024. Cape Town in Africa was dangerously close to running out of water until the individuals living there changed their habits. If everyone was more cautious of water use, including big corporations, we could cut our global water usage down and avoid the water crisis. In most places today, water is treated and priced as if there will always be enough for everyone, but that is just not true. 

If we continue viewing water as an unlimited resource, we will run out. If we want our future generations to survive, we need to get our priorities straight and stop wasting all of our nonrenewable resources. 

Thank you for reading !

-AJ

03/04/25

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C65iqOSCZOY