I attended Dr. Philip Allen’s (FSU Dept. of Geography) presentation on the importance of water and how we might run dry soon if we don’t change our ways. Dr. Allen was humorous and his presentation was very interesting as well! It was very educational, for example he explained the, “misuse of our planet’s natural resources is the biggest threat to our life style.” He also stated that this could effect our children, our grandchildren, and our grandchildren’s children. We must change the way that we use our world.
Why is water important? There are many reasons. Dr. Allen stated, “over 75% of earth surface is water. Water shapes the earth." Water is a crucial element of our food and materials here on planet earth. Yet, the problem with water is only one percent is available to human consumption. Water can be in a liquid, solid, or gaseous state. Water, in its gaseous state is considered a greenhouse gas and is very important to our atmosphere. Oceans contain about 97% of the water on the earth.
I think that the most interesting and humorous portion of the presentation was Dr. Allen’s game show, Who wants a drink? Dr. Allen picked a random volunteer from the audience. The contestant is then handed a glass of dirty, brown, awful looking water. The boy looks down at the glass in shock and asks Dr. Allen, “Is this water?” He replied that it was water indeed. Dr. Allen went on to jokingly say, if you drink this water you can win many of prizes, however I must warn you of the side effects. “If you drink this water you will probably sh*t yourself profusely.” The audience then erupted with laughter. After this he proceeded to explain how young people in Afghanistan had to drink water like this everyday. They know that it will do harm to there body but they have no choice. Dr. Allen said that it would be a long shot if they made it past 20 years of life. Watching Dr. Philip Allen’s presentation really made me appreciate how much water we have in the U.S. and how clean it is. I thank him for that.
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