Month: December 2018

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California’s Drought May Be Over, But Its Water Troubles Aren’t.

Miller, J. (2017, June 19). California’s Drought May Be Over, But Its Water Troubles Aren’t. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/californias-drought-may-be-over-but-its-water-troubles-arent

In this article the author addresses “the extreme weather swings” California has experienced. From receiving rain and snow to the exact opposite (faced with droughts) then begins to state that because of the weather being unpredictable making sure that Californians preserve and protect their water for times of crises. So, he begins to list 10 progressive ways in which California is on its way to progression. For example, the new technology to help agricultural experts preserve water. Also, finding ways to preserve rainwater while reducing the levels of toxicants found it so it can be in use for other projects. Funding sustainable water solutions to boost projects in California’s water security, which in the future can recycle water and provide “agricultural efficiency.

Because of the ten progressive steps are given to help efficiently regulate water usage in California so it can be preserved in times of drought has helped improve the conditions. This has also been an alternative solution provided from having to pay a tax on water. Which in the future many Californians will benefit from. Lastly, by creating these ten solutions that will not only help preserve California’s water but protect it from the toxins that contaminate it. She talks about when a possible issue had presented itself to the media it was simply ignored. The citizens were told to “let the water run for a bit” before they used it.

In this article by Anna Clark goes through the water history of Flint, Michigan. She talks about when a possible issue had presented itself to the media it was simply ignored. The citizens were told to “let the water run for a bit” before they used it.

 

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“Poll Shows Support for Safe Drinking Water Fund in California.”

Snow, Lester. “Poll Shows Support for Safe Drinking Water Fund in California.” Oceans, News  Deeply, 16 Apr. 2018, www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2018/04/16/poll-shows-support-for-safe-drinking-water-fund-in-california.

State legislation introduced a new bill that would add an additional $1 onto Californians water bills to jumpstart a fund that would potentially start a service for “safe and affordable” drinking water. While the Senate is attempting to put forth an effort to improve the current water situation within many communities there still stood a mass amount of opposition to the proposal. Due to a group of Californians disagreement with the bill that did not affect the releasing of the bill; since the group could not give any counteractive proposals to replace the “safe drinking water fund”. Furthermore, 69% of Californians are in full support of the bill because of the certainty the bill holds for fresh drinking water.

It is quite unnecessary to tax the people of California for something so essential. Instead of trying to take more money from the people the local statesman or government to use the taxpayers money more efficiently. So, an alternative result to this is one more efficient budgeting and active solutions to get fresh and affordable drinking water to Californians without having to pay additional fees for it. Also informing Californians or educating them on how to further prevent the cycle of water pollution in California could be very effective because for those who are not aware of what you pour down your drains can be harmful to the environment will not know not to do it.   

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“360,000 Californians Have Unsafe Drinking Water. Are You One of them?”

Sabalow, Ryan. “360,000 Californians Have Unsafe Drinking Water. Are You One of them?” Sacbee, The Sacramento Bee, 1 June 2018, 3:55, www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article211474679.html.

 

It was reported that approximately 360,000 Californians do not have fresh drinking water. Having to shower in water full of unhealthy contaminants are risks communities of Californians take everyday because the government lack and fail to provide funding into these communities. In the article the author states “ the water problem, however, is far more pervasive than that number indicates. At least 6 million Californians are served by water providers that have been in violation of state standards at some point since 2012” (McClatchy, 2018). It was also found that 3,015 independent water companies were not meeting the state drinking water standards. Closer in the Valley it was reported that they have the highest levels of nitrate in their drinking water, which is proposed to be linked with fertilizer application “and runoff from livestock in the nation’s most productive farm belt” (Sablow, 2018).

Learning that the appliance of fertilizer put on plants and the runoff from it play a substantial role in the contaminations of California’s water needs to be reformed to prevent the situation from worsening more over time. Also, due to the high levels of nitrate found in the water it has caused a to take place on babies with the “Blue Baby Syndrome” because researchers are finding that because of the high levels of nitrate it’s causing newborns to become very ill.  

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“Why Should California Tax Drinking Water?”

Obernolte, Jay. “Why Should California Tax Drinking Water?” Sacbee, The Sacramento Bee, 7 June 2018, 12:00, www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article212749974.html.

To compensate and fix the water crisis in California a “Senate Bill 623” was proposed to tax Californians to generate a sum of money to give to local water companies to supply fresh water. This bill would potentially collect an amount of anywhere from $140 million to $220 million a year. But, because many were opposed to the idea of more money towards taxes the bill did not pass. Furthermore, because of the persistence, the legislature had in trying to get the bill to pass it appeared on the 2018-19 budget, but Gov. Jerry Brown abandon the idea as a whole. Because of a 9 billion dollar surplus, the United States had they gave a sufficient amount to fund clean water projects that would go without having to tax Californians.

Taxing Californians on a basic necessity such as water should be the what the focus point in California should be. Having to pay more for something that should be given to us is more than unbelievable and unfair for those who cannot afford to waste the money.  Government spending is something that needs to regulated more efficiently, so in times of water crises, Americans are not the ones suffering and left to pay higher taxes; which some cannot afford to pay.

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“California, the World’s Fifth-Largest Economy, Has a Third World Drinking Water Problem.”

 

Mecca , Anthony. “California, the World’s Fifth-Largest Economy, Has a Third World Drinking Water Problem.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2018, www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-safe-water-20180614-story.html

 

Third world countries accessing fresh drinking water has been an ongoing issue for decades. But the in the United States (specifically California) is one country that has always had accessible and fresh water to consume. Unfortunately, the author of the article explains that the water supply has become more unusable for Californians. Not having access to fresh tap water to complete non-complex tasks like showering, brushing your teeth, or to just drink are contemporary issues many Californians fear because of contaminants in the water like arsenic or lead that can make one ill. The author also addresses because many cities are found to be at or below the poverty line it has become very difficult for “their leaders from upgrading their water infrastructure” (Snow, 2018). Furthermore, he states that a country who holds the fifth-largest economy in the world is faced with a third world problem.

Having accessible drinking water is necessary for the human body to function on a day to day basis, as well as abiotic and biotic factors. Due to the research on the contaminants found in the water has made it very difficult for many Californians to use or access fresh water, revealing how serious this contemporary case has presented itself. This article also displays how little the United States is attending to the cities who are not financially able to buy or build infrastructures that provide fresh, accessible, and affordable water.     

 

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Z-Plus Population Is More Minority People

Frey, W. H. (2018, November 13). US White Population Declines and Generation “Z-Plus” is Minority White, Census Shows. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/06/21/us-white-population-declines-and-generation-z-plus-is-minority-white-census-shows/

Since the decrease of white people has happened, the new generation has more minorities or people of color. The generation Z plus has more minorities than white people and that can be the cause of white people not having kids till later in age or having less amount of kids compared to those of minorities. While the white population has declined, the minority population has grown by 4.7 million and of those, there are 2.4 million Hispanics. Overall, the increase of all these kids is more of a problem to the US and all of the resources.

The way the environment can be damaged is much worse than what it was hurt before. These new generation kids will need more resources than the kids before because kids nowadays are much bigger and have more necessities than before. Overall, the newer generation kids that are coming will dramatically help the united states and environment or they will hurt it more than our generation.

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White Population Decreasing

 

Wilson, R. (2018, June 21). America’s white population shrinks for the first time as nation ages. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/393322-americas-white-population-shrinking-as-nation-ages

The white population in the United States has gone down for the first time and that can be a bad thing or a good thing. But if a population decreases rather than staying at a steady pace, that could overall have a much more negative impact for the United States. White people have been an influence for a long time now since they have seemed as more superior than other races and one thing many of these white races do is wait till a late age to have kids. That is a good thing but if more and more people are aware of how that could help them, they won’t reproduce and that could overall lead to a decline in population growth for that race.

The environment could be impacted in many ways by the decline in White people. If more and more white people follow this trend the population could decrease more and more for them. Many white people have power and overall help a lot of the time to provide for many of these big problems for the environment.

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Immigrant Population

Batalova, J. B., & Alperin, E. (2018, August 01). Immigrants in the U.S. States with the Fastest-Growing Foreign-Born Populations. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/immigrants-us-states-fastest-growing-foreign-born-populations

In the United States, there are many people that immigrant here. There are 44 million immigrants living in the united states representing 13.5% of the population. From 2010 to 2016, there was an increase of 9% of immigrants. There are many reasons why people move to the united states but the one goal nearly everyone has is to become a better person and have a better life for them and their families. The percentages of nearly every category have increased because of immigrants and those categories consist of size and population change, countries of origin, Employment and education, etc.

Immigrants play a huge role for the united states and that can mean a good and bad thing but for the most part, it is a good thing. But the one thing that it can hurt the most is the environment. The environment can barely handle the people of the united states but when you have more and more people come, it could cause a lot of damage. Like I said before, the housing may increase and overall the amount of resources that are going to be used is going to go up because of these new people. Although many of these immigrants come with lack of job experience and have no other option but to work in Agriculture, at the end of the day it is still going to be hard to maintain such a huge population.

 

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Fast Growing Population Despite Falling Fertility

Lardieri, A. (n.d.). Global Population Growing Despite Falling Fertility. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-11-08/global-population-growing-despite-falling-fertility

 

Around the world countries are facing population changes. Some nations not producing enough offspring to maintain their populations, while others are experiencing high birth rates “a baby boom”. In more rural states (in the US) that lack the education are subjected to higher infant mortality rates, which expands population size.

When women are educated, given resources to family plan, and provided with proper healthcare a decrease in TFR will happen. Bringing a balance to the birth and death rate ratio. When there is more life being brought into the world at a rapid rate but not enough people to assist the older generation, a imbalance is created. Which can be prevented if TFR is stagnant.

 

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Fast Growing Cities in The United States

Newcomb US Census Bureau, A. (2018, May 24). Census Bureau Reveals Fastest-Growing Large Cities. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/estimates-cities.html

 

In the United States, some of the biggest states with the most population growth were in the South. And overall more and more cities are growing and this means that the amount of housing needed in the US has gone up due to the number of people there are. The housing stock of the United has been growing and in total has increased to 5.7 million units since April 1, 2010. In addition, 14 states added 100,000 housing units between April 1, 2010, to July 1, 2017. A house is necessary for every human but the cost of it is high.

In order to make more houses in the United States, you need more space and wood. This relates to Environmental Science because making a house is expensive and it comes with a lot. When you build a house, you need to have space for it and that may mean that you are disrupting many ecosystems and life. Also, housing requires materials such as wood which is probably one of the most important resources in a house. The more houses there, the more forest we use and cutting down more trees can also lead to a lot of problems and it may hurt the environment and ecosystems.