Blog 8

 Growing up in California I was used to water restrictions. Brown lawns, dry grass, and common drought warnings were ingrained early on. I never really questioned it or knew why this was, but it all seemed normal to me. In lecture, when we learned about how water accessibility is a common problem in this state, everything started to make sense. I was shocked when I found out that only 0.024% of Earth's water is actually accessible freshwater. I had to read that twice. That's almost nothing. And we're wasting it constantly. The Colorado River video was very unsettling to watch. That river supplies water to 40 million people and it's been in drought since 1999. There were shots of Lake Mead with these massive white rings on the canyon walls showing where the water used to be. The river doesn't even make it to the ocean anymore. It just stops. Thats something that stuck with me. In the Nat Geo episode, the probkem started to look more global. In many countries, water is not easily accessed. It can be blocked, contaminated, and used as a weapon.Even small things like my everyday living feels wasteful now. A hamburger takes 12 bathtubs of water to produce. Jeans take 72. I never think about that when I'm buying things. I think growing up around drought gave me some awareness, but honestly even I kind of forgot about it once the restrictions lifted. This week reminded me why it matters and that the problem didn't actually go away just because my lawn got green again.

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