The Global South

The presentation on The Global South brought up a very important question. Who owns water? This topic is very interesting as water is strongly believed to be a natural phenomenon that everyone should have equal access too, however it is not the case. In developing countries where water is such a scarce resource the people are struggling to be able to pay for their access to water. When they could not afford to pay for the water they were running the risk of health related problems caused by dirty drinking water. When did water become a commodity? A good point was brought up during the movie, that yes water is free, but the system that is involved in getting the water to our kitchen taps, the pipes, purifiers, etc. all cost money and somebody needs to pay for it. Therefore there is a price to pay for clean drinking water. Another interesting question was brought up during the presentation, with the fast pace consumption of such a necessary resource is the privatization of water a necessity for sustainability in the future? I feel that although this does not seem fair to developing countries who can not afford it, or country is taking advantage of our share of access. We are overconsuming our water supply and stronger limitations need to be put in place on our levels of use. Washing our cars and lawn every other day does not need to be done, and limits need to be placed on such activities. I thought that the comparison between three types of drinking waters was a neat idea. Many people feel that they need to have the more expensive water but if they were blind folded they probably would not be able to tell the difference.

Climate Change

The presentation on climate change highlighted how inequality needs to be addressed along side the environment. Examples of inequality were provided through Al Gore's video, An Inconvenient Truth which includes: unequal access to freshwater, resources, and medical care. There is a wide perception that inequality was a developing country issue. However, climate change is introducing inequalities in the developed countries as well. With increased temperatures we will see a higher rate of respiratory disease and not enough people that are able to afford the treatment.
The chapter on climate change addresses why the old approaches of climate change are not working. The Kyoto Protocol was not as successful as many would have hoped it was. Many developing countries would not sign as well as developed countries like the USA and Australia.
So what are the solutions to the future? What approaches should be taken in order to keep the CO2 levels from raising higher?? I feel that one solution is to educate each country on the issue. Al Gore has already began this attempt by making his presentation in different countries. However, I think each presentation needs to target each country individually. The proper scientific data needs to be revealed to provide a strong argument. Once each country has understood the importance of the issue and the dangers that their country faces, maybe they will be more willing to sign treaty agreements like the Kyoto. Rather than jumping to large conclusions, I think it is important to tackle the small ones first.

Disaster Vulnerability

As mentioned in class, there are two types of Disasters; human made and natural. Hurricane Katrina as highlighted was a natural disaster that created greater damage due to a lack of human made prevention strategies. The conspiracy theory that the New Orleans levees were intentionally weakened is definitely a questionable topic. Although the levees may not have been intentionally designed to wipe out the lower ninth ward, it is definitely questionable as to why they only designed prevention strategies for a level three hurricane. In an area that does not receive very many hurricane's and is set back off of the coast, this would seem acceptable. However, in an area that is right off the coast, and prone to getting hurricane's with a high chance of getting a level 5 hurricane, why were the levees not designed better. It is obvious, listening to the man at the end of the video crying, that there are a lot of people who knew there was a problem and didn't/couldn't do anything to change the situation. This event is definitely an emotional one.
There are so many upsetting stories from this disaster, but the one that really got me during the presentation was the retirement home that was unable to evacuate. This is another problem that I see with the system. Why when we have tornado drills and fire drills was there not practiced evacuation drills for events like this. We don't know when there's going to be a fire or tornado but we still prepare for them. Why when people there are likely to experience hurricane's were they not prepared for an evacuation. I feel that this is something that should have really been implemented and instead these people died.

Eat Fresh, Buy Locally

This talk on farms and factories made me think of the ecological footprint that these large factories must be making. These farms are producing a lot of waste, and consuming a large amount of energy in order to raise that many animals in a small amount of space. Shrinking our ecological footprint is a large part of maintaining a healthy environment and although it is not surprising that these farms dominate in the USA it is surprising that Canada is starting to adopt them. I thought Canada had stronger feelings about this? I feel that there should be more encouragement to buy food locally. I think that this is not much of an issue within small towns as they are more likely to support the farmers they know. For instance, at home my family purchases half a cow, pigs, chickens and eggs all from local farms. However, while i'm in the city I am unaware of the local farmers who are selling their products and where to get it. Possibly enhancing the media coverage on this type of issue would encourage people to stay away from factory farm products and support the local economy. It is very suprising while looking at an individuals ecological footprint how much of an impact you are making each day. If everybody became aware of this issue maybe we would have fewer problems.