Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Chapter 1 - Scarce Resources and Opportunity Costs

Article - http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12260907


Summary


The article I read about was found on The Economist website. It mainly talked about a water shortage in many farming regions, such as Africa and the Middle East, and how there are many ways to prevent this. As Colin Chartres, International Water Management Institute’s director-general, put it, to prevent further water shortage, farmers need to increase efficient use of water. Mr. Frérot, the head of the water division of Veolia Environnement, a French firm, stated that up to 70% of the water used for farming never reaches the fields. Many ideas were proposed to save water, such as investments in drip irrigation, cut water consumption for flooding rice paddy fields, and growing fewer crops that require water.



Connections

The main concept that can be connected to the article would be scarcity. Water was believed in the past as a renewable resource, and because of that, people have been taking it for granted. With the increase in greenhouse gases over the past few decades, the glaciers up in the North and South Poles are slowly melting, thus reducing the fresh water supply. The inefficient use of water by farmers also contributes to this factor, as farming accounts for roughly 70% of human consumption of water. Unless advance technology or better techniques are implemented, water scarcity would not only affect developing countries, but the rest of the world as well.



Reflection


The shortage of water is and should be a major concern for all of us, even though it might not seem to affect our current lives. Water is essential to humans, as almost everything we consume contains water. Preserving our water supply will help us currently and in the future. Many of the ideas to save water are very effective, and they should be implemented, even if the costs might be a bit high. Unless changes to prevent global warming from occurring are made, water is going to get scarcer through the years. While the problem is still manageable, precautions should be made for the good of future generations.

2 comments:

Eli said...

Water is the one element nobody can do without but most of us don’t worry about it because it accessible everywhere like vending machines, taps, and stores. I believe that large amounts of people in the developed world are not aware of this possible threat to humanity. So instead of people talking about how the price of oil is so high, they could be talking about the problems that we will face if we don’t change our wasteful ways.

I agree that the high cost of establishing more efficient use of water shouldn’t be a problem because if we don’t start using water efficiently now, later on clean water will be a thing of the past.

-Edmond Li

Eli said...

comment revision

In my opinion, we should find solutions to the global water crisis quickly because the clean water supply only decreases as we wait around and do nothing. I believe that large amounts of people in the developed world are not aware of this possible threat to humanity, as long as there are clean water coming out of their taps they will continue to use water as if it is from a endless supply. I believe that in order to preserve Earth’s supply of clean water is to inform the people of this pressing matter and if that doesn’t work, I guess we should place limitation on individuals’ consumption. If we do nothing at all, humans in the future generations will have no clean water and will cease to exist.

E.Li
Block F

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