52
The ozone depletion crisis seems to be have peaked in the late twentieth century,
but conditions require constant monitoring as new technologies are introduced to
the market. The fact that the amount of protective ozone over Antarctica has measurably stabilized since just before the start of the millennium proves that our species has the ability to change climate destiny. We have not yet found the catalyzing
argument to mobilize the world’s decision-makers to effectively address the longterm CO 2 environmental crisis.
3.5 Water
The water we drink and cook and clean with is over 4.5 billion years old, older than
our sun. It is not easy to destroy water. It takes a lot of energy to split one molecule
of water into its constituent building blocks, that is, one oxygen atom bonded to two
separate hydrogen atoms. Water endures through the three-phase changes we are all
most familiar with and use each day—ice, liquid, and vapor. Nearly three-quarters
of the earth’s surface is covered with water, almost all of it salty. Over half of the
typical human body is made up of water. Our dependency on clean fresh water to
sustain life is clear. Without it, we would cease to exist.
In recent years, we have gained a deeper appreciation for just how much we
depend on water to sustain our daily lives as we have failed to properly manage this
vital resource. People live in places where water is growing scarcer year-by-year
due to drought on the one hand and chemical contamination and biological waste
pollution on the other. Moreover, we have used our waterways and oceans as a “convenient” place to discard things we no longer want.
3.5.1 Solid Waste Disposal into the Water
For much of the twentieth century, giant barges heaped with garbage were sent out
to sea. They returned empty, ready to be filled again. While this practice is no longer
routine in the United States and many other parts of the world, the flow of waste into
the ocean has continued at an alarming rate. In addition, gravity and the flow of
storm water through our streams and rivers, and to a greater degree through giant
pipes and spillways, carry some refuse to our shores and out to sea. Even municipal
storm and wastewater treatment systems, built to catch pieces of solid waste before
they reach the ends of pipelines that lead directly to the ocean, miss a material percentage of what gets washed into and out of them.
Although we continue to build improved systems of collecting, treating, and filtering the waste we make, in the absence of funding for new infrastructure projects,
we still must use leaky pipes built decades or even a century ago. As our systems age
and the global population increases, our best planned and executed systems strain to
keep pace. The bottom line is that we generate a greater total amount of waste than
3 Trash Can Living
The ozone depletion crisis seems to be have peaked in the late twentieth century,
but conditions require constant monitoring as new technologies are introduced to
the market. The fact that the amount of protective ozone over Antarctica has measurably stabilized since just before the start of the millennium proves that our species has the ability to change climate destiny. We have not yet found the catalyzing
argument to mobilize the world’s decision-makers to effectively address the longterm CO 2 environmental crisis.
3.5 Water
The water we drink and cook and clean with is over 4.5 billion years old, older than
our sun. It is not easy to destroy water. It takes a lot of energy to split one molecule
of water into its constituent building blocks, that is, one oxygen atom bonded to two
separate hydrogen atoms. Water endures through the three-phase changes we are all
most familiar with and use each day—ice, liquid, and vapor. Nearly three-quarters
of the earth’s surface is covered with water, almost all of it salty. Over half of the
typical human body is made up of water. Our dependency on clean fresh water to
sustain life is clear. Without it, we would cease to exist.
In recent years, we have gained a deeper appreciation for just how much we
depend on water to sustain our daily lives as we have failed to properly manage this
vital resource. People live in places where water is growing scarcer year-by-year
due to drought on the one hand and chemical contamination and biological waste
pollution on the other. Moreover, we have used our waterways and oceans as a “convenient” place to discard things we no longer want.
3.5.1 Solid Waste Disposal into the Water
For much of the twentieth century, giant barges heaped with garbage were sent out
to sea. They returned empty, ready to be filled again. While this practice is no longer
routine in the United States and many other parts of the world, the flow of waste into
the ocean has continued at an alarming rate. In addition, gravity and the flow of
storm water through our streams and rivers, and to a greater degree through giant
pipes and spillways, carry some refuse to our shores and out to sea. Even municipal
storm and wastewater treatment systems, built to catch pieces of solid waste before
they reach the ends of pipelines that lead directly to the ocean, miss a material percentage of what gets washed into and out of them.
Although we continue to build improved systems of collecting, treating, and filtering the waste we make, in the absence of funding for new infrastructure projects,
we still must use leaky pipes built decades or even a century ago. As our systems age
and the global population increases, our best planned and executed systems strain to
keep pace. The bottom line is that we generate a greater total amount of waste than
3 Trash Can Living