Water, The Great Global Crisis

Clean drinking is water is one of the most basic needs of human life. It's easy to forget this is a problem here in NYC, the home of the best tap water in the nation. However, it is a very big problem elsewhere. Global warming contributes because there is less ice formed in the mountains to run down to the rivers in the Spring. These problems are not technologically insurmountable, but the costs, if they continue to be calculated in the way they currently are, will become unsustainable. The escalating world population only exacerbates the problem.

The fact is that really clean drinking water is not nearly so available, globally, as we might like to believe. According to Water.Org, only 62% of the world's population has access to even minimally clean water. (http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/) Why is this a problem? Why am I writing about it here? Because the people who live in these places emigrate to the US and often they handle and prepare our food. In fact, here in NYC, they usually do. Couple this with the fact that a host of diseases, known and unknown, are water-borne and the problem becomes clear. Helicobacter pylori is one such bug and perhaps this article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100504/ap_on_he_me/us_med_stomach_cancer is indicative of what I suggest.

Increasingly, the fates of those across the sea or "South of the Border," are tied to our own. The sooner we accept and address this fact the better it will go for us and our children.  If you're interested in learning more there are some good documentaries you can Netflix, some are even on "instant play"--I love that feature.