Review: Thirst

Thirst

Ok so here goes my attempt to summarize the documentary "Thirst". The main focus of the the documentary was water privatization, and how it affects communities. The film started off in Cochabamba,Bolivia. Cochabamba is Bolivias third largest city and also one of the poorest. Bechtel, a major company took over the water system, and raised the cost of water 30 to 300%. There were major riots referred to as "water wars" because of this change in prices and the new control over the water system. Snipers along with police were brought in during the riots and a 17 year old boy was killed. The community believed that the people should have a right to decide whether or not the water supply was owned by a company/industry or have it be a human right for all people with no individual ownership. Not only did the documentary also show Bolivia dealing with water privatization, it also focused on a small town in India. Many under-developed countries are struggling with water privatization and can not afford to pay for water. While Bolivia sees privatized water as bad, India looks at it from a different perspective. Since there is little rain in India, people have to take matters into their own hands and harvest the water that they do recieve. India preserves their water by a process called rainwater harvesting. They built ponds to help hold the rainwater, which then goes down stream into village wells to provide water to the community. By the community doing this and local people helping out they are providing "self help" for one another. Local companies can help them with this project since India recieves so little water. A man who lived in the small community of India believed that by starting to harvest rainwater in a small village can then extend on into the country and later into the world. Now onto the United States. The documentary focused on the town of Stockton, California. This town was also going through the process of water privatization. The major of Stockton, Gary Podesto, believed that privatizing the city's water supply would save the residents a lot of money over an extended period of time (around 170 million dollars over 20 years to be exact). This savings would come from not having to pay employees, benefits, insurance, etc. Thames water company was involved with mayor Pedesto and was interested in ownership of the city's water supply. The people of the community on the other hand, disagree. They dont want local companies to own their water supply, they think it should be a common right as a citizen and shouldnt be under someones ownership. Some employees even said that they would refuse to work for local companies and want to remain working for the government. Throughout the documentary it was clear that the majority of the community didnt like the thought of water privatization and thought that the water supply should be a human right compared an ownership.

Discussion:

When we were discussing the film in class some good points got brought up. Sara J mentioned that the council men who come up with the decisions on whether or not the water supply should be privatized, probably have the same views as the mayor, so the majority of the community is not fully represented. The council men are usually volunteers so the point was brought up, why would anyone work for someone or something that they dont agree with? Another idea that was mentioned in discussion was what if the price of water becomes as much as the price of gas? I mean we have seen how expensive gas has been, just last summer it was around $4 a gallon. How would we afford water if it cost that much? There are some ways to get around paying for gas such as walking, riding the bus, riding a bike or carpooling. How would you get around using water? Its a necesity a way of life. Being a college student I know I wouldnt be able to pay that much for water, I dont know what I would do if the price of water was that high, its scary to think about.

My thoughts:

When watching this documentary it got me thinking about our water supply. How we seem to have endless amounts of water at our fingertips. What if we lost all of the water from the lakes, streams, rivers and oceans and our water supply ran out? If we were put into the same positions as third world countries, what would we do? How would we get our water? What if water prices were as high as the price of gas? Would our country be able to afford it? All of these questions bring about concern for the U.S.. We see other countries such as India trying desperately to preserve their water supply so we know the possibility of not having enough water is there. Personally, I am going to try and conserve water as best as I can, hopefully our water supply wont run out and our country wont have to face water privatization.

Review of Reading 15: Feeding the World

Feeding the World

I thought that this chapter was very interesting and had a lot of interesting points. In 1999 the Earth's population surpassed 6 billion people! With all the things that are happening including Global Warming, its kinda worrisome to think of how we are going to feed everyone. With the supply of people continuing to increase so is the demand of food and crops. This chapter brings about the question: How are we gonna feed and support everyone? The topics in this chapter include, Socitey's Four Transitional Stages, Evidence for Negative Population Growth, Future Food Supply/Demand Balance, Protecting the Environment, and The Challenges Ahead.

Society's Four Transitional Stages:
The first stage this paragraph talks about is a traditional society. In a traditional society there is low population density and low economic and population growth. Also high birthrates tend to match high death rates. The second stage is a developing stage, this is where agritultural production and plant and animal domestication are an outcome of a society's technological advancements. The third stage is a developed society. During this stage economic surplus and increases in capital and per capita income begin as a outcome of increases in agricultural production and productivity. Finally there is the mature society, there is prominent technological change beyond just agriculture.

Evidence for Negative Population Growth:
This section involves statistics that deals with various populations projections around the world. An interesting fact that stood out to me in this section stated that; According to the United Nations, the total fertility reate-number of children a woman may be expected to bear during her lifetime-has fallen in every region of the world since 1950. (Mckinney 56) During the 1950's on average a women would have around 6 children, the number has currently declined to around 2 children in North America. Because of these statistics, the United Nations are seeking evidence and reasons that could result in negative population growth.

Future Food Supply/Demand Balance:
From 1995-2000 both the population and income grew rapidly. If that streak continues to grow at the same rate, the future food supply will fall beneath the overall demand for food. This is a very scary thought, we just finished watching that documentary on Global Warming and how that is affecting the world, but if you combine that with food supply/demand we could have major issues. Not only is the food supply and demand quickly becoming a problem so is population productivity.

Protecting the Environment:
This section talks about how we can protect the environment and how the relationship between income and population will ultimately save the environment. It is stated in this section that; several studies have shown that the interaction between population and income will ultimately save the environment while leaving sufficient land for food production. (Mckinney 57) This is makes sense because higher income+lower population growth=reduction of pressure on the environment and higher income+more money on services, and production of disposal which in turn is less harmful ont he earth.

The Challenges Ahead:
There are many things that will produce positive outcomes. Some of these factors include; Interacting demographic, economic and environmental transitions. The overall prediction of The United Nations' low/medium population projection suggests that food supply growth will continue to outpace food demand growth, resulting in continuing decline in real prices for farmers. (McKinney 58) To avoid the imbalance of food supply/demand I think that we just need to start being more resourceful and take better care of the environment.

My Views on this topic:

I think its a really scary thought that we may run out of food supply in the future. If you think about it food supply is running low all over the world, especially in underdeveloped countries. If we continue to use up resources what will we do or where will we go in the future?

Terms:
Demographics
Agricultural Productivity
Economics
Developed Countries
Developing Countries
Population Growth

When reading this chapter I became really interested in the world food supply (world agriculture) in relationship to Global Warming so I did a little research and I found this pretty cool site check it out!
http://www.cgdev.org/content/general/detail/14404?gclid=CPmQ4MXJ4ZgCFQ_yDAodYnLzbA

Environmentally Friendly with Jessica

Environmentally Friendly

with Jessica

Hi my name is Jessica Scholzen. I am a Junior at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I am majoring in Community Health. I am currently enrolled in Dr. V's Hlth 3500 Environmental Health. My blog is going to talk about the enviornment and ways in which we can keep it safe.


There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Reviews
5. Share and Voice

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The members of my group are:
1. Hannah

2. Erika

3. Jeff

4. Lauren


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I hope that my blog will help inform you on the environment and ways that we can help keep it clean and safe. Hope you enjoy my blog!!!