This essay will focus mainly upon the problems of groundwater depletion by looking at case studies in regions that have suffered it. Also, it will touch on the basic ways that groundwater is extracted and look at the ways to conserve this vital resource in areas such as the Appalachian Mountains.
For a majority of the population in the United States, groundwater acts as the primary source drinking water. This is because areas that lack direct access to large bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, must rely upon water that has been soaked into the ground from rainfall. According the United States Geological Survey (USGS), groundwater is “the source of drinking water for about half the total population… and it provides over 50 billion gallons per day for agricultural needs.”(USGS) However, because groundwater is dependent upon a steady amount of rainfall to replenish its wells and the ways in which it is being used; many questions are asked as to how to keep groundwater from disappearing.
A question that comes to mind is, “Why concern oneself with preservation of groundwater?” This is relevant because aside from the high costs of desalinization, the process of removing salt from water, most regions in the United States can get access to water without necessarily taping into the groundwater supplies. In other words, worst comes to worse for these regions, they can always look to the oceans or other more distant, but nonetheless, viable bodies of water for drinking and agriculture. However, the most dramatic effect that can happen as the result of human-caused groundwater depletion is the formation of sinkholes.
Sinkholes form as the result of groundwater naturally dissolving the bedrock of an area of land and over enough time, enough of the bedrock can be broken down that the overlaying structures of soil and sediment can give way. This happens dramatically because while sinkholes can be forming for years, usually their appearance happens quickly and without much warning. Now while the formation of sinkholes can happen naturally, the appearance and increase in sinkholes across the United States has been attributed to the depletion of groundwater in areas of high construction according to the USGS. As groundwater is pumped away from the area that a sinkhole may form, the structures that the groundwater itself was once holding up become compromised and collapse.
I feel that this essay will continue to look at the problems associated with groundwater-depletion and begin to formulate examples in which groundwater has effected not only the region it occurs, but how it effects all of us in one way or another. I will draw from: the Atlantic coastline, in which naturally desalinized groundwater is becoming polluted by the creeping of ocean water in the aquifers of the region; the Appalachian region which has no real abundant source of attainable water outside of groundwater; and finally, the Southwest, whose practices in cultivating agriculture have lead to massive issues dealing with groundwater depletion.
Bibliography
Alley, W.M., Reilly, T.E., and Franke, O.L. "Sustainability of ground-water resources." U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1186. (1999) p. 79.
Grannemann, N.G., Hunt, R.J., Nicholas, J.R., Reilly, T.E., and Winter, T.C."The importance of ground water in the Great Lakes region." U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 00-4008. (2000): p.14.
Perlman , Howard. "Groud-Water Depletion." (2009): n. pag. Web. 29 Jan 2010. (http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/gwdepletion.html).
Taylor, C.J., and Alley, W.M. Ground-waterlevel monitoring and the importance of long-term water-level data. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1217.(2001). p. 68.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
"A Forest Film"
The short film, "A Forest Returns", is an excellent documentary about the history of the revitalization of the Wayne National Forest during the past 70 years. As told by retired Jackson-based journalist and editor, Ora Anderson, the story shows how even in the midst short-term, "rational" interests, we can come together and help nature by in some cases neglecting it.
Anderson tells a compelling story about how areas that had been ravaged by deforestation in order to fuel the hot fires of iron smelts. After most iron production moved North after the extraction from the Mesabi Iron Range in Minnesota became more accessible, jobs in Southeastern Ohio began to dwindle. FDR's plan was to establish a national forest and purchased the land from homeowners who could do little, but cultivate a small garden for food. Everything else on their property had to "return to nature."
As the film shows, in a short amount of time, geologically speaking, the forests blossomed back in full color. Now, one can only really see the damaging effects of human industrialism from the various iron ovens scattered about the region.
I felt that this was an optimistic look back at how we can help stop, to a certain extent, the damage that we wrought against nature by merely leaving it alone. Now while this won't solve all of our problems, I feel as though "A Forest Returns" represents an idea that perhaps not all is lost because of our short-sighted self-interested motives.
Anderson tells a compelling story about how areas that had been ravaged by deforestation in order to fuel the hot fires of iron smelts. After most iron production moved North after the extraction from the Mesabi Iron Range in Minnesota became more accessible, jobs in Southeastern Ohio began to dwindle. FDR's plan was to establish a national forest and purchased the land from homeowners who could do little, but cultivate a small garden for food. Everything else on their property had to "return to nature."
As the film shows, in a short amount of time, geologically speaking, the forests blossomed back in full color. Now, one can only really see the damaging effects of human industrialism from the various iron ovens scattered about the region.
I felt that this was an optimistic look back at how we can help stop, to a certain extent, the damage that we wrought against nature by merely leaving it alone. Now while this won't solve all of our problems, I feel as though "A Forest Returns" represents an idea that perhaps not all is lost because of our short-sighted self-interested motives.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Research project
I want to do my research project on the depletion of drinkable water in our world. It almost seems like a joke because the idea that water, a natural resource that we for granted, can somehow ever run out. This paper that will not focus primarily on the problems of third world countries that have polluted water supplies and are unable to gain access to them. Instead, I will look at the effect of this issue in America.
This will probably end up becoming a discussion on the neglect of something that is essential to survival. The inability to recognize that the demand of 6 billion + humans to have clean, drinkable water will one day outweigh the supply of something that seems endless is something that I want to explore more readily. An interesting article, "Our Drinkable Water Supply is Vanishing" (http://www.alternet.org/environment/64948/), highlights the serious threat that is posed when we come to face the fact that we can't just make more. The paper will trouble-shoot some of the questions and attempt to provide pragmatic solutions that we all can do.
I also want to look at the increasing privatization and outsourcing of water to different businesses. Though, I would not like this to become an attack on capitalism itself, I would primarily like to see where and why the government thinks it's a good idea to put a dollar on sign on something that is a much more invaluable resource. It's also interesting to note that plenty of water we deem drinkable, we use to water our flowers, wash our cars, and in general, just wash down the gutter, literally.
This will probably end up becoming a discussion on the neglect of something that is essential to survival. The inability to recognize that the demand of 6 billion + humans to have clean, drinkable water will one day outweigh the supply of something that seems endless is something that I want to explore more readily. An interesting article, "Our Drinkable Water Supply is Vanishing" (http://www.alternet.org/environment/64948/), highlights the serious threat that is posed when we come to face the fact that we can't just make more. The paper will trouble-shoot some of the questions and attempt to provide pragmatic solutions that we all can do.
I also want to look at the increasing privatization and outsourcing of water to different businesses. Though, I would not like this to become an attack on capitalism itself, I would primarily like to see where and why the government thinks it's a good idea to put a dollar on sign on something that is a much more invaluable resource. It's also interesting to note that plenty of water we deem drinkable, we use to water our flowers, wash our cars, and in general, just wash down the gutter, literally.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
LM Finale
A. Wendell Berry sees the rational mind as something that is cold and calculating. It has no time to chew over the implications or the effects of its decisions, so long as it can profit, even in a minor way, from the objectives at hand. The sympathetic mind, on the other, attempts to view the world as a whole and as a more organic entity. It looks at the implications of its decisions and refuses to believe that its own individualistic profit is the only measure of gain.
For Reece, he demonstrates this well in the reflection in the August 2004 chapter, in which he argues against those that believe "it's already fucked up anyway" so why not just finish the job. He argues defense of a culture and an area of which he himself is not a native. He shows that while the people in the area have hurt the ecosystem in some ways, they have also contributed to it in other ways.
One thing that I enjoyed was the other way he expresses his sympathetic mind. In Before the Law, he actually goes out and fights for the rights of the people to whom he has no allegiance. I admire that he is not only talking the talk, but actually walking the walk and takes time in order to help, in whatever way possible, save the land and preserve the rich culture of Appalachia.
B. The quote that I found most astonishing in the conclusion was actually the quote of Frank Lloyd Wright that Reece uses. The quote is, "The actual difference between 'individualism' and individuality of a true democracy lies in the difference between selfishness and noble selfhood." (242) This distinction is profound in that Reece, through Wright, is not attempting to express the idea of selflessness, but recognizing that we have a place in the bigger picture. Instead of extracting ourselves from the picture entirely, in the case of selflessness, we must see the role that we play in order our world, our picture, more perfect.
The connection of Lost Mountain the mountain to this idea is that ultimately we come from and are a product of nature. We will inevitably die and we will become food for everything in nature. Essentially, though our human bodies can destroy mountains with our machines, the stuff that makes us who we are is the very same stuff that creates mountains. Or planets. Or galaxies. So in a very literal sense, we are not the overseers and protectors, as our egos try to convince us, but instead, we are nature. We are not extracted from, we are not superior to. We just are. And with that sense of selfhood in relation to everything in our universe, we must realize that our legacy depends upon something much larger than our selfish and destructive quests for comfort. Our legacy depends on those that come after us. In sum, if we fail to insure future generations, then our 'self' becomes irrelevant.
I'm poked and prodded out.
For Reece, he demonstrates this well in the reflection in the August 2004 chapter, in which he argues against those that believe "it's already fucked up anyway" so why not just finish the job. He argues defense of a culture and an area of which he himself is not a native. He shows that while the people in the area have hurt the ecosystem in some ways, they have also contributed to it in other ways.
One thing that I enjoyed was the other way he expresses his sympathetic mind. In Before the Law, he actually goes out and fights for the rights of the people to whom he has no allegiance. I admire that he is not only talking the talk, but actually walking the walk and takes time in order to help, in whatever way possible, save the land and preserve the rich culture of Appalachia.
B. The quote that I found most astonishing in the conclusion was actually the quote of Frank Lloyd Wright that Reece uses. The quote is, "The actual difference between 'individualism' and individuality of a true democracy lies in the difference between selfishness and noble selfhood." (242) This distinction is profound in that Reece, through Wright, is not attempting to express the idea of selflessness, but recognizing that we have a place in the bigger picture. Instead of extracting ourselves from the picture entirely, in the case of selflessness, we must see the role that we play in order our world, our picture, more perfect.
The connection of Lost Mountain the mountain to this idea is that ultimately we come from and are a product of nature. We will inevitably die and we will become food for everything in nature. Essentially, though our human bodies can destroy mountains with our machines, the stuff that makes us who we are is the very same stuff that creates mountains. Or planets. Or galaxies. So in a very literal sense, we are not the overseers and protectors, as our egos try to convince us, but instead, we are nature. We are not extracted from, we are not superior to. We just are. And with that sense of selfhood in relation to everything in our universe, we must realize that our legacy depends upon something much larger than our selfish and destructive quests for comfort. Our legacy depends on those that come after us. In sum, if we fail to insure future generations, then our 'self' becomes irrelevant.
I'm poked and prodded out.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Lost Mountain (85-165)
In this last section, Reece begins exploring more of the story lines around him. He interviews many locals who are indeed as concerned and pissed off about strip mining as Teri Blanton in the previous section. One, Mickey McCoy, was a former mayor in a town in Martin County whose color adds a certain appeal to anyone who has ever had that crazy, yet wise, uncle. He also continues to look at indicator species such as the Southern flying squirrel who, like the cerulean warbler, needs cast amounts of contiguous forest in order.
As indicated by my previous, I was interested in, but unmoved by the stories of dying birdies and displaced, cancer-stricken people. I thought that business is business and sometimes the little guy gets screwed in order to provide a commodity for all. However, I was struck by the indifference of the EPA and the various supposed watchdog agencies who permit, and in some cases encourage, the criminal acts perpetrated by the coal industries. In "Acts of God" and "Whitewash in Martin County," Reece hammers home the point that freedom of speech is moot if you don't have the dollars to back up that talk.
In sections like the "Ecovillage" and his reflection on the Chinese poet, Wang Wei, Reece finds the brighter side of life. Even with odd juxtaposition of the smiling Professor Krupa saying, "Oh, we're all doomed," there is a certain amount of hope that as long as someone can see it, we still have time to turn the ship around. For me, this book continues to fascinate me. And yet, I wonder if by the end I, too, am a "goddamn... beatnik!"
As indicated by my previous, I was interested in, but unmoved by the stories of dying birdies and displaced, cancer-stricken people. I thought that business is business and sometimes the little guy gets screwed in order to provide a commodity for all. However, I was struck by the indifference of the EPA and the various supposed watchdog agencies who permit, and in some cases encourage, the criminal acts perpetrated by the coal industries. In "Acts of God" and "Whitewash in Martin County," Reece hammers home the point that freedom of speech is moot if you don't have the dollars to back up that talk.
In sections like the "Ecovillage" and his reflection on the Chinese poet, Wang Wei, Reece finds the brighter side of life. Even with odd juxtaposition of the smiling Professor Krupa saying, "Oh, we're all doomed," there is a certain amount of hope that as long as someone can see it, we still have time to turn the ship around. For me, this book continues to fascinate me. And yet, I wonder if by the end I, too, am a "goddamn... beatnik!"
Lost Mountain (1-85)
In one of the opening chapters, The New Canary, Eric Reece discusses the importance of contiguous forests for a very specific type of bird, the cerulean warbler. This bird needs a vast amount of uninterrupted forest in order to nest because they are often pushed out by another animal named the cowbird, which invades the nest of cerulean warbler and makes their nest its home. The reason why, in Eric Reece estimation, the warbler is so important is because it represents, like its coal mining brethren, an indication of the change going on in Appalachia. The less you see of the cerulean warbler, the less you see of the Appalachian forests as a result of strip mining.
His arguments are directed towards the idea that the forests are a place of reflection and are needed in order to dispel human arrogance and create an atmosphere that is humbling and perhaps, even religious. Reece realizes that man looks at a mountain in two ways: As a thing to be conquered or as a thing to be revered. He believe that by holding the mountain in reverence, and of all nature for that matter, we can better understand the beauty and intelligence of the natural world.
When dealing with this debate, I am torn in both directions. Reece's comments are powerful and invoke a deep-seeded love with the wilderness that I have had since I was a young boy. Nature is the thing that brought me to Ohio University and kept me here. On the other hand, Ohio uses close to 90% coal in order to power itself. I am not ashamed to to admit that when it comes to my creature comforts here and now versus the extinction of a species of animal far away from me, I will typically choose my comfort. But perhaps in the course of reading this book my mind will be changed.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Clean Coal
On first impression, I felt that This is Reality is presenting a much more emotional appeal. It's a very slick and professional website, but it's professional in the sense of marketing, not substance. This is Reality bombards with quotes from EPA officials trashing the idea of "clean" coal technology, but seems to be able to ever give context to these discussions.
On the other hand, America's Power gives much more detailed information from the start, however it's bulky opening page and drab layout give the reader too much information at one time. Instead, they have opted to give readers the option to choose from seemingly endless accounts of information without, again , contextualizing why and how this information is pertinent to their beliefs.
Obviously, in the case of This Is Reality they are speaking to younger more active audiences in how their website is set up. Every link seemingly can send you to their "Join Now!" section and the layout is simple for the tech-savvy generation. America's Power appeals to a much more business minded group of people who are less concerned with saving the world and more concerned with saving a little bit of money.
This Is Reality shows the issue at hand is that the use of "clean" coal is a misnomer. They appeal this point by presenting numerous statements by different governmental agencies and authorities concerned with environmental affairs as being opposed to the idea that coal by its very nature can ever be clean. The website encourages that readers look and oppose this obvious attempt to "greenwash" something that is inherently not green.
With America's Power, they want to argue that "clean" doesn't mean 100% pure. They recognize the inability of the coal industry to remove all toxic pollutants in the production of coal, but they appeal to the idea that it is 77% cleaner than ever before. Their logical arguments stem from the idea that coal, while its getting cleaner, also substantially helps save money on energy costs. So while This Is Reality attacks the idea that coal is harmful environmentally, America's Power argues that it is beneficial economically.
On the whole I find that I'm split between the two websites. However, because the issue at hand is to show whether or not clean coal exists, America's Power fails to address the fact that there is no such thing as clean coal. In other words, 77% is clean, perhaps cleaner, but not clean. I feel as though This Is Reality hammers this point home effectively and their point is made clear through their effective use of the Coen brothers and the quotes from different professionals.
On the other hand, America's Power gives much more detailed information from the start, however it's bulky opening page and drab layout give the reader too much information at one time. Instead, they have opted to give readers the option to choose from seemingly endless accounts of information without, again , contextualizing why and how this information is pertinent to their beliefs.
Obviously, in the case of This Is Reality they are speaking to younger more active audiences in how their website is set up. Every link seemingly can send you to their "Join Now!" section and the layout is simple for the tech-savvy generation. America's Power appeals to a much more business minded group of people who are less concerned with saving the world and more concerned with saving a little bit of money.
This Is Reality shows the issue at hand is that the use of "clean" coal is a misnomer. They appeal this point by presenting numerous statements by different governmental agencies and authorities concerned with environmental affairs as being opposed to the idea that coal by its very nature can ever be clean. The website encourages that readers look and oppose this obvious attempt to "greenwash" something that is inherently not green.
With America's Power, they want to argue that "clean" doesn't mean 100% pure. They recognize the inability of the coal industry to remove all toxic pollutants in the production of coal, but they appeal to the idea that it is 77% cleaner than ever before. Their logical arguments stem from the idea that coal, while its getting cleaner, also substantially helps save money on energy costs. So while This Is Reality attacks the idea that coal is harmful environmentally, America's Power argues that it is beneficial economically.
On the whole I find that I'm split between the two websites. However, because the issue at hand is to show whether or not clean coal exists, America's Power fails to address the fact that there is no such thing as clean coal. In other words, 77% is clean, perhaps cleaner, but not clean. I feel as though This Is Reality hammers this point home effectively and their point is made clear through their effective use of the Coen brothers and the quotes from different professionals.
Monday, January 4, 2010
About me and me
Hey, my name's Patrick, Pat if you like. I'm currently a Public Administration undergrad at OU. I hope to finish up my minor in Philosophy if I have the time. I work as a student manager at Nelson Dining Hall, which by the way is the greatest place to work in the world and if there is a heaven I hope it is modeled after the wonderful atmosphere of that great and beautiful place. Out of obligation I have to name-drop Shawna, so there it is.
I have probably an unhealthy fascination with the evolution of Batman over time in film and comic books. However, I am not a comic book nerd, I just so happen to absolutely go ape for anything and everything Batman.
I love music and film in general, however people would probably consider my tastes extremely snobbish. I can't even begin to tell you what my favorite's albums/movies/books are because they seem to change from week to week. Right now, though, my favorite album is Electric Ladyland, my favorite movie is Boogie Nights (P.T. Anderson is a genius) and my favorite is Infinite Jest.
That's about it for now, but keep breathing and you'll see more...
I have probably an unhealthy fascination with the evolution of Batman over time in film and comic books. However, I am not a comic book nerd, I just so happen to absolutely go ape for anything and everything Batman.
I love music and film in general, however people would probably consider my tastes extremely snobbish. I can't even begin to tell you what my favorite's albums/movies/books are because they seem to change from week to week. Right now, though, my favorite album is Electric Ladyland, my favorite movie is Boogie Nights (P.T. Anderson is a genius) and my favorite is Infinite Jest.
That's about it for now, but keep breathing and you'll see more...
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