Response to Water & Google Alert

The “forum” we had in class on Friday about water was very interesting and thought provoking. The only thing that comes to my mind though is how can the consumers be blamed for using too much water. We need clothes and food to survive. We’re just purchasing it because we need it to live. The producers are the ones that should be blamed in my opinion. They’re the ones that are using all of the water to produce the product. But then again, they need to produce these things in order to survive and make a living. It’s really a vicious cycle and I wish I had knowledge to offer up in order to help the over usage of water but I just don’t know how to help the situation.

I was perusing my google alerts and came across an interesting article that was sent to me from my “environment” alert. It was about “Tourette-like symptoms” that have emerged from 16 teenagers in New York. All of these teenagers attend the same school and their symptoms consist of face jerking and sudden outbursts, like Tourettes. The cause of this is still being investigated but one of the suspects is thought to be the environment itself. There was a chemical spill about 40 years ago and investigators are saying that this could very well be the cause of these teenager’s disorder. The chemical spill contaminated the water and could have poisoned these kids. Specialists are saying that this kind of contaminated is more common in teenagers, especially girls. Of the 16 teens, all are girls except 1. I’m glad this article was sent to me because it pertains to water, as we were discussing on Friday. It’s sometimes hard to think that water isn’t a big deal in our society because nothing “bad” has happened or we’ve never run out. But water contamination actually does exist and to think that it could product “Tourette-like symptoms” is just baffling and vey scary. It makes everything seem more real. It puts environmental issues into perspective and makes me want to help with the issue of water in our world.