"We Are Water"

This year at the Boston Sea Rovers show, I had the opportunity to listen to Jill Heinerth present about her adventures deep within the planet's veins. As an extremely talented and passionate cave diver, Jill has spent hundreds of hours underground and has witnessed the depressing ambivalence and lack of connection that people have to water.

Her film, "We Are Water," aims to establish a bond of appreciation between humans and the water we depend upon for life. Brushing your teeth...a shower after the gym...a cold glass on a hot day...a nice swim at a public pond...flushing your waste down the toilet...OUR OWN BODIES...

In high school science class we all learned about the Earth: the water planet that supports unique conditions that allow various lifeforms to thrive. I recall one specific lesson in ninth grade biology where we took our seats as my teacher presented us each with an apple and plastic knife. She told us to strategically cut away at the apple as she explained to us the percentages of water on the planet - no one was allowed to eat the percentages cut from the apple. We were to throw the delicious fruit in a bag at the front of the room as we slowly but surely ended with less than one percent of the apple remaining at our desks.

With a sliver of apple peel left on our plates, she said, "This is how much of the world's water is available for us to use and survive. This is the water that we drink, the water that we use in our homes, the water that is currently underground and in our lakes and streams. You can eat it in one bite or you can throw it in the garbage, but you will never get that water back once it's been polluted." 

Despite the rough accuracy of her analogy and the fact that it was the period before lunch as we drooled over the discarded apple bits, the experiment seemed to have a profound impact on the class as a whole. At swim practice that night it was all I could think about.

Eight years later, it's still something I ponder daily. What will America do when there is not enough clean water? It's already a global issue. When will people realize that their water comes from more than their tap? When will people care about their personal connection to the life-giving resource?

"We Are Water" Trailer:

You should watch the whole documentary. It really demonstrates the need for better environmental education and activism!

When I congratulated Jill on her work with the film she mentioned, "In my area, the local farmers call sinkholes 'go away holes.' Anything they put in there simply goes away." Having cleaned up many sinkholes and seen trash miles into the rocky earth, Jill knows first hand that trash and pollution to NOT "go away."  

The fact that this is still a common belief and practice is absurd. I can't stifle the mental image of taking humanity by the chin to rattle its lopsided thoughts out of its ears...[to make way for an appreciative and rational perspective of course!] :)

Polluted water eventually ends up in two places... 1. The ocean, where it disturbs delicate chemical balances in underwater habitats that support one of our major food sources.... or 2. the underground aquifers that supply whole nations with fresh drinking water. (I'm not sure which is worse...)

Even in the small amount of caving I have done on the East coast, I have seen enormous piles of trash at cave entrances and at the bottom of underground waterfalls. In the most remote places on earth, you can still see human disturbances. On one occasion, the water in a cave we were exploring smelled like human and agricultural waste.

As a budding environmental field scientist, I frequently test for fecal coliform bacteria and note large nutrient pollution areas along the shores of lakes where septic systems have failed. I see the nightmarish results of poorly-designed developments and water runoff causing erosion. I see wells running dry in areas where there is not enough groundwater replenishment to support new housing complexes. Nevertheless, the most harrowing of all is the number of people I come across who simply do not care about nature...

Because I like to end on a positive note, please think about where you get your water from. Think about the water that goes into your food you buy from the grocery store (food does not come from stores)...Think about where it goes when it pours down the drain and ask yourself what you can do to lessen your personal impact on the global water crisis!

With that I will leave you with another stunning documentary to watch in addition to "We Are Water."

...."Blue Gold" will also seriously get you thinking about the regulation of global water resources and the economy....

Cheers (to water) everyone!

Trailer:

Full Video: