This
article addresses the water problem in the town of Seville, in Central Valley
California. The focus of this article is mainly on the poor quality of the
water in an already poverty ridden town. This article says how the area, which
is predominantly agricultural, suffers from years of pesticide use and over
irrigation. While these are two common practices of farming, they are
detrimental to the surrounding land and more importantly the surrounding water.
These pesticides and toxins infiltrate to ground water supplies in rock and
such and contaminate water that we tap into for municipal use. Brown says how the
town of Seville has such dirty water that they are unable to use any tap water
and one of the first things they are taught is “No tomes el agua”, as this is
Spanish community. The article addresses problems such as how expensive, but
necessary, it is to use bottle water for everything; and how the school has an
unbelievably low $100-$500 budget to satisfy the needs of their students.
Without bottled water the water in this area has been linked to thyroid disease
and “blue baby syndrome” which essentially limits the body’s blood capacity to
carry oxygen.
While
this article is not directly related to biology it addresses a key part of
science today: environmental science. Water is one of our most precious
resources and as it is being depleted this article has much significance on
humanity. Not only are our resources of fresh water being depleted, those that
we have are being contaminated. This article exemplifies how dangerous our past
decades of farming methods and such have been on the environment and show why
we need to make a change. There are many situations like that in Seville where
the water is contaminated by chemicals and toxins and puts a strain on the
community to provide itself with what seems like such an accessible substance.
While this doesn’t affect us directly, all around the world towns like Seville
are suffering without water and children are susceptible to horrible water
borne diseases as a result of drinking contaminated water.
This
article I believe was really easy to ready and understand. While it wasn’t
complex like many other previous articles, many having to do with biological
advancements and such it is just as informative of an important finding. It
gives details on possible diseases such as thyroid disease that has been linked
to water borne diseases and shows why we need to improve the quality of our
groundwater. It also states how previous use of chemicals and pesticides in
farming have resulted in this contaminated groundwater and therefore show us
that to improve the quality of water we simply need to omit these substances
and use more organic ways to improve yield. The only thing that could have been
improved I believe is it talked a lot about the money involved in supplying
water bottles and such and how the government is involved when I think it
should have been primarily focused on ways to clean contaminated water and stay
more to a purely science article.
Brooke did an excellent job of evaluating and portraying the information presented in this particular article. She did a good job of explaining the purpose of this article in how it is supposed to inform the reader of how Central California agriculture has suffered from over irrigation and pesticide use. She also did a good job of explaining exactly how each of these things has hurt the region. The pesticides infiltrate to ground water supplies in rocks underground and contaminate water that is tapped into for municipal use. Brooke also did a good job of explaining how detrimental this has been to Spanish communities, who are taught to not drink the water, and despite its inefficiency in spending, to use bottled water for everything.
ReplyDeleteOn the downside, I believe this article review could have been improved by providing background on how this region in California is dealing with this ongoing problem. It seems as if purchasing bottled water over and over again will be an inefficient alternative to this problem, so there must be different ways to avoid this problem. Another way I think this review could have been improved is when exactly this problem started. It was a little unclear to me on when this problem first arose, and if it dated back far enough, there could have been changes in these agricultural methods that could have stimulated this problem of intoxicated tap water.
I was surprised on the effects of the consumption of this intoxicated water. The review stated that if the water had been consumed normally, it can spark thyroid disease which can be detrimental to a human’s blood capacity to carry oxygen.
Brooke does a fantastic job putting into perspective how the water conflict is affecting Seville, California in this present day. I often hear about a lack of water supply in areas across this diverse state, however, I never fully understood why there is so little water there and why this problem is so difficult to solve. Now I understand how the toxins from pesticides impact the water supplies in rock underground. Brooke also assures her readers that although our world’s water supply is being depleted; it is also being contaminated at a very scary rate, which makes me question our current farming methods in these areas. Lastly, I agree with Brooke in that the article should have presented more solutions, instead of simply complaining about the problem.
ReplyDeleteA couple of suggestions I have, include that Brooke may want to read over her review as a whole to check for spelling errors and sentence structure, just so her summary is easier to understand. A second suggestion would be that she provide some potential resolutions since the article might not have. Despite these few things that I would’ve liked to see, I have a very positive opinion on Brooke’s work.
Looking at this review as a whole, I am impressed by the length of the work, which leads me to make the assumption that Brooke really thought about her article and formed her piece carefully. This review makes us realize how much we take water for granted and that we should be thankful for our clean, tap water.
The review of The Problem is Clear: The Water is Filthy was very well written. One well-represented point in the review was that the dirty water issue was causing a very high expense to a place that was already very poor. The reviewer then goes on to explain just how dangerous the water is to use because it is filled with bacteria and pesticides. The people in Seville are unable to use this tap water for anything, causing them to buy water instead, which is an expensive necessity.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the review explains how expensive bottled water is for schooling is another good point. The low budget of water for the school is a serious issue and is very expensive. Another good point in the article is the dangers of drinking the water. Children are taught not to drink the tap water. The water in Seville has been shown to cause Thyroid Disease and Blue Baby Syndrome, which the reviewer explains limits the body’s blood capacity to carry oxygen.
While the review was very clear, I think that how California is dealing with this water issue should be addressed more clearly. Are the people of Seville just going to continue spending their salaries by purchasing bottled water? Water should be a given, not something that puts people in deep poverty. Another thing that could have been better represented was in the schools; the children are unable to drink from the water fountains and must be supplied with bottled water that cuts into the budget that could be used for something other than water to benefit the children. Such as the article said, the budget is like a laptop a month for the school that is spent on clean water.
What really surprised me in this article is how people are struggling to have clean tap water and instead must spend their paychecks on clean bottled water. Here in New York, we have clean and clear tap water that we can use to shower and brush our teeth and wash dishes with. It is crazy to think that what we take advantage of every day, people in other parts of the United States do not have.
Marika Chrisanthopoulos
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
November 27, 2012
Comment #5, Lab class day 6: “The Problem Is Clear: The Water Is Filthy” reviewed by Brooke Bonfiglio
The universal substance of water is one of the most important issues that is being addressed today, and the article “The Problem Is Clear: The Water Is Filthy” emphasizes the problems that are happening on a daily basis all around us, focusing in on a town named Seville, in Central Valley California. In this town, the water that should be used for drinking has been contaminated through improper systems of farming and irrigation, causing the citizens to only be able to drink bottled water. The use of pesticides and over-irrigation has changed the water and the ways of life of these people, affecting them physically as well as socially. One thing that Brooke does well in her analysis of this article is that she describes how this problem is affecting the community; that the school has a very low budget from $100-$500 to help their students, and how the children are taught from a very young age not to drink the tap water. Another thing she does well is mention the diseases that arise from possibly drinking this contaminated water, including thyroid disease and “blue baby syndrome,” which limits the body’s blood capacity to carry oxygen. One other thing that Brooke does well in her review is that she talks about even though this article isn’t directly related to biology, it is related to environmental science, and then talks about how water is one of the most important substances, if not the most, in the world. Water is a unifying force among all organisms, which is why the problems involving contaminated water are so serious. She does explain how even though this particular problem is not directly affecting us in Bronxville, it is hurting thousands of people all around the globe, and that this needs to be fixed.
Even though the review was well written, there are a few things that Brooke could have improved on. It would have been beneficial is she explained the diseases that were caused by the water contamination a little bit more; she does provide short descriptions, but they do not highlight the severity of the situations. It would have also been good if she talked more about how the government and other organizations were planning on fixing the problem instead of just what the problem is. One thing that I learned from reading this review is the intensity and severity of the problem right here in the United States; I knew that there were limited resources of water in countries in Africa and in Asia, but I did not know that here there were as well.
Brooke does a nice job identifying the problem and severity of groundwater contamination in the town of Seville, California. The use of pesticides has contaminated the groundwater to a degree that it is not drinkable anymore. She provides good details of how this situation with the water has affected the poverty stricken community of Seville, in which people are taught from an early age that water is not a readily available source. Unless they drink from bottled water, which may be too expensive for a school district that has a budget of about five hundred dollars, they could receive the thyroid disease and “blue baby syndrome,” which essentially limits the body’s blood capacity to carry oxygen. Finally, Brooke does an excellent job pointing out the flaw of the article, which is that it did not stay entirely scientific.
ReplyDeleteThere were aspects in which this review was weak, and that was primarily due to its failure to answer the “so what” question. It would have been much nicer if the review discussed the alternative ways of farming to using the environmentally damaging methods. Also, I would have been interested in learning the water clean-up process required for water as damaged as that of Seville, and whether or not this is actually happening in real life.
This is a topic that we discussed a lot in AP Environmental Science last year with Ms. Meyer, but I am still awed by the severity of the issue. On one hand, these measures such as inorganic pesticides and fertilization seem necessary to feed the rapidly growing population. On the other, it is so unsustainable and damaging to the environment that the Malthusian prediction may come true due to a failure in agriculture. I would follow the steps taken to make farming more suitable in the next decade very closely.
Brooke did a great job reviewing the article “The Problem Is Clear: The Water Is Filthy”. She did a great job summarizing the article. I previously did not know a great deal about the water situation in Seville, in Central Valley California. I think she did a great job summarizing the key points. I also thought that Brooke did a great job explaining the importance of the article. She mentioned that it may not have been as related to biology as other articles but it was definitely important. I thought that was a good thing to mention because this article was about a very important topic that many people might not know about. A final aspect of Brooke’s review that I thought was well done was her explanation of how to change the situation. She said that it was necessary because of all the toxins that had contaminated the water. She gave some background information but also offered insight into the future on how this problem can be resolved.
ReplyDeleteWhile Brooke did a great job on her review there were a few areas where it could have been improved. While Brooke mentioned some of the hazards from drinking the contaminated water like blue baby syndrome and thyroid disease she could have gone into more detail about them. Brooke also could have mentioned what the area was doing to fix the situation. Obviously, spending money to keep purchasing water bottles is not a good solution so maybe the area is trying to find other fixes.
I learned many things from reading this review. I learned much more about the situation in California. I did not know much about the water contamination or why it was occurring. But after reading this article I found out that it was due to pesticides and poor farming tactics. I found this review to be very informative and interesting.