Water everywhere

Water is a topic that seems to keep popping its head up everywhere you look--in Geography and in the news.

Access to water in the world's exploding, dirty megacities cities; water at the center of climate change in terms of extreme rains and floods; water in the rapidly-melting glaciers in the Himalayas and Polar Ice Caps; water as the medium for increased shipping across the Arctic as more ice melts for longer seasons.

The US burbs that Joel Kotkin is a fan of stand to have major water issues as Laurence Smith also talked about -- Phoenix and Vegas are built in deserts and running on a finite supply of underground water from aquifers.

Matt Damon now has a whole charity involved with water. Some of my students have said they are going for degrees in Hydrology.

Water was the driver of Katrina and Sandy.

In Bolivia in 2012 I noticed giant signs for "MiAgua" i.e. My Water government program in which the indigenous socialist president Evo Morales has given 50% of the funds to local water projects all over the country.

New dams are one of the most controversial environmental topics today. Belo Monte dam being built in the Amazon of Brazil is really coming under fire for contributing to deforestation and disruption of ecosystems. Egypt's Aswan Dam and China's Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, are also controversial.

Mercury from factory pollution ends up in the ocean water, then in fish we eat. Bigger fish have more mercury from eating smaller fish. East Asians, who on average eat incredible amounts of fish, frequently have toxic blood mercury levels. 1 in 4 New Yorkers has elevated blood mercury levels, but the levels are highest among Chinese immigrants.

Even the health of "normal" tap water is questioned: overuse of fluoride, low pH levels, high copper content from pipes, and even traces of birth control and antidepressants.