Come on people, really? You're going to continue polluting one of the U.S.'s largest and one of the most vital aquifers? Something YOU depend on everday for drinking water, crops, and your livelyhood? That sounds smart. The aqquifer stretches from North Dakota to Texas, and is considered a precious resource, often praised as "the best in the world." I find it hysterically hypocritical that "landowners battled ferociously against the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried oil extracted from Canadian tar sands through the environmentally sensitive Nebraska Sand Hills. If the pipeline leaked, they argued, chemicals and oil would seep down into the aquifer, contaminating a precious resource responsible for 27% of the nation’s irrigated agriculture" They won, but they did not prevennt the contamination of the aquifer in any way shape or form, the contaminants were already there. The aquifer is being waated and polluted, wasted on crops, and ontaminated by pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers. They are squandering this incredibly valuable water source. The aquifer is only filled by rain fall and snow fall that seep into the underground, "In our Kansas district, less than half an inch of that reached the aquifer in a given year. We were allowed to pump out over 30 times that amount." Not only are we drying yp this important geographical formation, we are risking the well being and saftey of all those who live off of the water supply.
"Polluting the Ogallala Aquifer" by Juline Bair was a very straight forward and informative article with a touh of personal relevance. Heavy with logos and ethos. She made it seem like the reader could trust her because she had been there and knew about these matters by experience. "Not that I don’t empathize with the Nebraska farmers. I grew up on a Kansas farm. Like them, we called our Ogallala water “precious” and bragged that it was the best in the world." This was a successful article because it just made sense. Why use up a limited resource? There really is no justification, but we continue to use up limited resources every day. "In an era of growing population and advancing drought, we cannot afford complacency in the face of 'creeping normalcy.' "
to read more on this article>>> Polluting the Ogallala Aquifer <<<
This is really a problem! I think the reason people have to be hypocrites is that even though the problem upsets them, they need to keep doing it so they can afford to take care of their families. We need to find an alternative to these resources.
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