Plenty of Water, but Little to
Drink
The article “Plenty of Water, but
Little to Drink” was an interesting article by Cornelia Dean that explains the
situation of water on our planet. As we all know most of the world is covered
with water however less than 5 percent of the water is fresh. Water is also
trapped in ice sheets and in large quantities underground. The article explains
that since water is not always in the place it is needed, we humans, have dug
tunnels and built pipe lines to bring water to populated areas from their original
resting place under ground or in mountain ranges. As of now we are using more
water than can be replaced. Much of public water is also contaminated with “by
sewage, industrial waste, parasites, and other contaminants.” Mr. Salzman, a
teacher at Duke who teaches environmental studies, believes that if water were privatized,
even in poor regions, then the water would not be as contaminated. By privatizing
water it becomes a responsibility for the person or community to keep it clean.
It also ensures that water is not wasted through unnecessary means. Studies
have shown that it takes an incredible amount of water to produce and ship
small goods. For example, “it takes 22.8 gallons of water to produce, package,
and ship a single egg. A pound of beef requires 183 gallons.” Water is the most
valuable resource on the planet. It may be that clean water will soon no longer
be a natural right for people.
Water
is an important issue in our world today. With the rise in population more and
more people will need access to clean water, especially in third world
countries. Countries have already started arguing over water and it is not
unlikely that a war over water will break out over the next fifty years. People
need to find ways to try and conserve water more. It is simple, take shorter
showers or don’t leave the facet on while brushing. Simple measures like these
on a large scale can go a long way. Water is essential for life and scientist
believes that life cannot exist without water. This is pretty good reason to
not waste water!
I
thought the article was a well written informative article. It referenced a
number scientists and their studies of water, showing that Cornelia Dean did
her research before writing the article. It was easy to read and helped explain
the importance of clean water, especially in a world where the population continues
to grow exponentially.
After reading the author’s summary and review of the article “Plenty of Water, but Little to Drink,” I have learned so much more about the amount of water that we use and the effects of our decreasing supply in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe author of this summary referred to different studies, such as the study done by Mr. Salzman, which was really interesting to read about and, also, it gave the argument that some background and support when reading. Also, the review was clearly organized beginning with a concise summary, then talking about the implications of this research for the future and finished off with a personal opinion of the article. I thought that the review was also enriched by the addition of specific facts from the article. For example, the fact that it takes 22.8 gallons of water to produce, package and ship a single egg. This really helped me as a reader understand the amount of water we use and made me want to think about how much water I personally waste. Connected to this idea, I also thought it was a really nice addition to end the article with things that we can do to help reserve our limited water supply, such as taking shorter showers. This addition makes me feel like I can do something to help the problem of limited water discussed in the article.
One thing the author could have done differently is given a longer personal connection and opinion on the article. He begins to talk about how the article was informative and well written, but, in my opinion, he could have talked about his reaction to the article at more length. Also, there were a couple grammatical errors but this didn’t take away from the information he presented in the review.
One fact that I thought was really interesting and didn’t think of before was that the limited supply of water on earth could potentially cause a war in the next 50 years. This idea is really scary and makes me, again, want to try and find ways to conserve the amount of water we have now.
JP did a great job summarizing the article, “Plenty of Water, Little to Drink.” After reading his review about the article I learned quickly about the earth’s lack of clean water supply. One good part of the review is how JP immediately states facts about the world’s lack of water in different places, and how only 5% of the water on earth is fresh. He goes further into detail about the article by talking about the studies done on water usage. JP refers to Mr. Salzman, and teacher, and clearly states his opinion that water damage can be avoided if water was privatized. Another thing JP does well in summarizing this article is he clearly states how the reader can get involved in stopping the problem for instance by taking shorter showers. One thing JP could have done to enhance his article review is use direct quotes from the studies like the one about Mr. Salzman so the reader can have a better understanding of what specifically the studies said.JP could also have gone into more detail about how people get access to water across the world. One thing I that impressed me after reading this review was the fact that only 5% of the world’s water is clean. And some of that five percent is hard to access.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot form reading “Plenty of Water, but Little to Drink”, and article by Cornelia Dean, and from reading JP’s review of this article. I thought JP wrote a very good review of the article. He did a good job of summarizing all of the data, condensing it and only keeping essential parts. In his summary he made sure to keep all of the key facts but also kept it interesting. Another thing that he did well was quoting the document. He made sure to quote all of the facts that he took directly from the document, and the facts that he did chose to take from the document were very key points. He also added many facts from the article that greatly enhanced the read. The third thing that I thought JP did well was telling the reader how they could help to conserve water. I know that I waste a lot of water every day, so reading this helped me to open my eyes and to make a change in both my own life and hopefully help my family to change as well.
ReplyDeleteOverall I thought that the review of the article was very good but there were still some ways that it could be improved. First of all I liked that he added ways to conserver water, but I do think that he could have added more and not only ones that were from the article. Also there were a few grammatical errors, as there are in most if not all documents. But they were few and not too major as to distract the reader.
I thought the article was very interesting. I had heard before that there are problems with a water such as pollution and water being trapped in ice, but I had no idea how sever the problems are or how bad they can get. Lastly I believe that people should read this article as it is very informative about a very important topic.
James did a great job in creating a summary for the article, “Plenty of Water, but Little to Drink”. It was very well written and he did many things well that impressed me. One thing that James did well was that he took out the important things from the original article instead of stating unimportant irrelevant facts. This helped in getting straight to the point and allowing an easier read for the reader. Another thing that James did well was that he included small facts that helped enrich his explanation at the right times and used them well. For example he directly quoted by saying that public water is contaminated “by sewage, industrial waste, parasites, and other contaminants”. These are very good examples of water contamination and helped the article summary be better. The last thing that was done very well was that James included ideas as to how to preserve water. This made me think more about the water problem that we have. Maybe this article will help people save water. Although this article was written very well there were some things that could have been done better.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that James did not do well was that he included many grammatical errors. Proofreading is always appropriate after an assignment. Even though there were some errors it did not effect the understanding of the context. Another thing that could be improved was that there wasn’t much of a connection or critique of the original article. It was said that the article was well written but I didn’t get a good sense of what it was like.
The article was very interesting and I learned many things. One thing I didn’t know that I thought was very cool was that the potential threat of complete loss of water could cause a war in the future. This is just absurd and mind blowing. In this case I worry for the future and I am not sure what to expect.
After reading JP’s article review on the importance of clean water from the NY Times, I grasped upon the importance of clean water and how much of it is available compared to how much we need and use. I thought JP did a nice job incorporating different scientists quotes in order to back up his information and cite his sources. For example, instead of just saying we use water for other reasons, not just to drink, he mentioned the quote from the article starting out as, “its takes 22.8 gallons of water to produce, package, and ship a sing egg…”. I found that by adding this quote, it helped me put things into a different perspective instead of having the information thrown at me in a listed way. Also, by adding the importance of water in third world countries was something that was needed to be said, but was not mentioned in the article that was reviewed. Everyone knows about third world countries and the resources they lack, along with the struggles they face on a day-to-day basis. This piece of information for a great topic to bring into the review because it showed that water availability is already an issue we face. Lastly, using an article from the NY Times was a reliable source that is very trustworthy. One thing, however, that JP can improve on is lengthening his view of the article and his reaction towards how the author wrote the article. Secondly, there were view grammatical errors, which can be fixed by thorough editing after the review is written. Even with these view mistakes, I did think that the facts presented helped me learn more about our planets water availability. One fact that I was shocked by is how much water we use to ship and deliver such simple and small products. Overall, I thought the topic chosen was a great one to discuss because of its connection to us as students and everyone in the world.
ReplyDeleteJP did a good job in his review of “Plenty of Water, but Little to Drink”. this article brought to light the real issues of water. I liked how JP used facts to show how little water is fresh and how much is used to ship food. I also liked how he included why water is so crucial to society (besides the obvious reasons). This review shows how people waste water and how we can stop the waste of our precious water. The third thing I like about this blog is the easy tone of voice which make it easy to read. this article make you want to know more and try to change your own ways to better the world. something that I would improve on this article is to add more facts. water is used millions of times everyday and tell the readers how much water we waste and compare it to something so everyone can understand the urgency of this problem. Another thing I would change in this article would elongate the section on the author and the original article. I was really impressed by this article and how JP used the facts and the history of water to show it's importance. Another thing I liked was how he told us what will happen in the future at the rate of waste we are producing. overall, I thought this was a great article which showed the importance of water and how we can solve this problem for our future.
ReplyDeleteI thought that JP summarized the article “Plenty of Water, Little to Drink” really well. I liked how clear and concise it was, clearly outlining every major point. I knew very little about the subject before reading this summary, and I am amazed at what I read. I had no idea how little fresh water there was on earth, and how precious of a commodity it really is. I also liked how JP put in his own thoughts about the article. I thought that this definitely helped the reader better understand the article. He also gives us things that we can do to try to help to conserve water, which is something that I really liked. This helps to involve the reader more, and can as a result connect with him or her more. One thing that I think he could improve on would be to give us more opinion about the article. This is obviously a huge issue around the globe and there are many opinions about the subject. I would have liked for JP to have gone into more depth about his own belief on the topic. Another thing that I think needs work were the grammatical errors. While there weren’t too many, they were definitely noticeable. Overall though I must say that he did a really great job summarizing “Plenty of Water, Little to Drink”. One fact that I thought was really amazing was the fact that “it takes 22.8 gallons of water to produce, package, and ship a single egg.” That seems like an insanely high number. I had no idea that so much water was required.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading my fellow peer, JP Donohue’s, review on the NY Times article titled, Plenty of Water, but Little to Drink, I think JP did a great job summarizing and explaining the already great article. One thing I think JP did well was providing the information from Cornelia Dean’s research in a short and sweet format that gave us all the key points that were needed to understand what she did. Another thing I think JP did well was the incorporation of quotes from the original article. By providing specific quotes from the article to help support his review, JP not only helped the reader get a sense of the way the article was written but he built credibility in talking about this serious issue. A final thing I think JP did exceptionally well was the connection he made to our everyday living. He stressed the importance of water preservation and illustrated us the scary possibilities of the future if we are not careful. Additionally, he gave us simple tasks we could do to help out against this problem, which was a nice touch.
ReplyDeleteOne way JP maybe could have made the review better was to further explain the actual research that Cornelia Dean did. Although it might have been not completely necessary, I feel that was left in the shadows and could have been brought out more. Another thing JP could have added to his review was perhaps a deeper connection to the issue itself and explain how he felt personally the problem at hand. I feel that could have been a good addition.
Although I already knew a lot about the water epidemic in our world, I was shocked to learn how serious it was becoming. JP’s review did a great job summarizing the informative article and is a great insight to this unrelenting issue that needs to be addressed as a world united.
I thought the article “Plenty of Water, but Little to Drink” was thought provoking and scientifically interesting. JP did an excellent job of reviewing such a polemical article and handled his review of this disputed issue quite well. This article was pretty straight forward and JP did a great job of making this article sound exciting and interesting. I think JP did a great job of simplifying the overall idea of the article to make the main concepts of the article stand out. Furthermore, JP’s writing was clear and effective. He got to the heart of the article quite eloquently. Lastly, JP’s connection of this article to the world today and what we can do to be more environmentally friendly was excellent.
ReplyDeleteAlthough JP’s review was great there are some things that he could improve on. For instance, JP didn’t really go into detail about how different parts of the world are handling scarcity of water. I would have found it interesting to read about a comparison between different regions and lands. In addition, I think more evidence from the article would have been nice to have as a reference while reading his review.
From this article I learned that water on this planet is extremely scarce and that, although we are currently attempting to counter this move towards scarcity, we need to make more of an environmental effort for future generations.
The article "Plenty of Water, but Little to Drink" provided specific facts and statistics that opened my eyes to the amount of water that Americans consume on a regular basis. In his review, JP did a good job highlighting each major point of the article. One thing in particular that JP did well was that he provided evidence directly from the article as a part of his summary. JP included quotes from the article, and clearly and concisely explained each point. Another thing that JP did well was that he brought in his own personal view in relation to the article. In JP’s opinion, the water crisis is a very important issue and could possibly lead to war within the next 50 years. It was interesting the read the article to learn about the crisis and then to also learn about JP’s personal views. A third thing JP did well was that he gave advice to the reader on how to fix the problem. For example, JP suggested that we “take shorter showers or don’t leave the faucet on while brushing.”
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think that JP effectively presented the article and its major points, I think he could have expanded a little on his personal opinion of the article. He only really needed to include a sentence or two more to elaborate on his points. Another thing he could have improved upon is the way in which he included quotes. Instead of including a few sentences in quotation marks, JP could have paraphrased some of the quote and include a phrase in quotations. However, I really liked JP’s review of the article and I think he did a good job.
One specific fact that I found both interesting and astonishing was the amount of water used in the production of various commodities. The article mentioned that 22.8 gallons of water are used in the production, packaging, and shipping of just one egg. I found both the article and JP’s review of the article very interesting, and I learned a lot of things I didn’t already know about water consumption, and ways we can change our daily habits to help mitigate the problem.
JP presented the issue of clean drinking water very thoroughly in the first paragraph of his review. He touched on each major point of the article specifically such as where the water on earth is located and the human impact on water. His presentation of the information was further strengthened with his providing of evidence. For example, he included quotes and references of studies from the article. Another aspect of the review that was well presented was the way JP applied the article to humanity. He informed the reader that, “with the rise in population more and more people will need access to clean water, especially in third world countries.” He further connected us to the issue by suggesting day-to-day ways in which we can conserve fresh water, such as turning off faucets when brushing teeth.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I appreciated the way JP included methods of water conservation, I think he could have suggested even more ways we can conserve, more than just turning off faucets. Furthermore, he could have expanded more on his personal opinion and reaction to the article because this is a key component to a solid review. In addition, various issues in grammar and punctuation took away from the review at times. Still, I found the review overall effective and informative.
Certain facts from article really startled me. One such fact was one that JP quoted in his review: “it takes 22.8 gallons of water to produce, package, and ship a single egg.” Another idea I found interesting was JP’s point that the limited supply of water on earth could potentially cause a war within the next 50 years. Such an impending and violent possibility makes the issue seem all the more threatening.