Water Conservation Essay, Research Paper

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to conserve and protect our oceans and fresh water supply.

Central Idea: Our water is a treasured resource that should be protected for our future generations

Introduction

I. About 70% of the earths surface is covered with water. (show globe)

A. Of all this water, only .3% is usable by humans, the remaining 99.7% is either unusable salt water or unavailable fresh water. (show graph #1)

B. Much of the useable .3% is out of reach and locked up in icecaps and glaciers.

II. We all know that water is important.

A. Plants and animals need clean water to survive.

B. People cannot survive more than a few days without water.

C. Almost everything we do uses water: drinking, bathing, growing food and gardens, even making the toys and tools we use today.

III. Although water covers most of the earth, all of us share less that 1% of all the water on earth.

A. The water we have now is all we will ever have. We can not produce anymore.

B. Water is a commodity that is essential to all life on this planet, and it needs our help. It is our responsibility to not only conserve our water supply, but to clean it up as well.

Body

I. Most people do not know this, but our fresh water supply has never been abundant.

A. Statistics indicate that the world will be severely challenged to conserve what little there will be in the next century.

B. In 1998, 30 nations possessed less than the minimum supply of water required by a human to meet the basic needs of the nations population.

C. For Florida, management of our water resource is critical as population demands increase, especially in the coastal counties.

II. We not only have to consider conserving our water supply, but cleaning it up as well.

A. As we enter a new millennium, it is appropriate to keep in mind how much we?ve already done to clean up our polluted waterways, how much further we still have to go, and the role that each of you can play to get the job done.

B. Water pollution touches everyone?s lives in many ways.

C. Humans and wildlife alike suffer a multitude of health problems due to exposure to toxic chemicals found in our water supply.

1. An example of this in humans is a tragedy, which took place in Wisconsin in 1993. More than 100 people died from an intestinal virus linked to contaminated water from farmland runoff where live stock grazed.

2. Another example of how pollution effects wildlife is a tragedy which took place all along the beaches from New Jersey to Florida in 1987 – 1988 when 2,500 Bottlenose dolphins washed up dead due to morbillivirus infections, which was the result of compromised immune systems due to chemical toxins.

III. The effects of water pollution on human health can be deadly. (show picture #2)

A. Each of us, no matter how carefully we watch what we eat and drink, has traces of industrial chemicals and pesticides in our bodies. It is unavoidable.

B. The toxins enter our bodies through the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.

1. Most of these toxins are fat-soluble and remain in our bodies for long periods.

2. Pregnant women can pass these toxins to her infant through her placenta and then later through her breast milk. This can cause many devastating effects in the baby?s key stages of development.

C. Some of the toxic effects of chemicals found in our water supply include: learning impairment & hyperactivity in children, lowered sperm count in men, immune system disorders, and cancer.

IV. Only time will tell the extent of the damage, but we are already seeing serious genetic damage in many species of wildlife that are dependent on the same water supply we are. (show Picture #3)

A. The effects often show up sooner in wildlife than in humans.

B. Our wildlife has no choice but to depend on the nearest stream, lake, or pond for its water whether it?s polluted or not.

C. The National Wildlife Federation has fully documented that the toxic effects of chemicals in polluted waters include damage to an animal?s endocrine and reproductive systems.

Close

I. Believe it or not, state and federal agencies still allow the legal, permitted discharge of even the most dangerous chemicals into our nation?s waters. (show diagram #4)

A. This is a diagram, which shows how each state, rates on testing its waters and taking steps to protect its watersheds.

B. As you can see Florida is among the poor category. This means it must take drastic steps in changing some areas of pollution, which the state has failed to address.

II. Prevention is the only sure way to treat problems caused by polluted water.

A. It is up to us to keep the water we rely on clean.

B. The following are some things you can do to take action

1. Join programs, which take an active role in cleaning up our beaches and waterways.

2. Ask your representative to protect our coasts

3. Take a stand, get educated and become part of the solution, not the problem.

III. In closing, I?ve made some handouts with viable information on how you can help save our water supply for future generations. (pass out handouts)

A. Beyond familiarizing you with the many threats to your waterways and potential consequences of those threats, I also wanted to highlight the opportunities that all of us have to clean and protect our water.

B. With your help, we can assure that watersheds across the country are clean & healthy and meet the needs of the wildlife and the people that depend on them.