Every Drop Counts

The blue planet is unique because it is where water exists as a liquid. It is because of this fact that life in all its diversity thrives. When the number of human beings was small their effect on the planet was also small. But over the past 100 years the number of people on earth has exploded.

Now our presence is felt around the world and our impact can be seen even from space. Sprawling cities and towns load our rivers with increasing amounts of waste and threaten our water systems as we squander this precious resource on our lawns, our cars and our pools.

Throughout human existence we have poured our waste into our water systems. When our population was small, this pollution was not a serious threat to the overall health of this larger life giving system. The water stayed clean because microscopic creatures were able to digest most of the waste and a balanced system was maintained.

Today with 6 billion people adding their waste to the world's water stores these microscopic organisms can no longer be relied on to maintain the balance. We are beginning to ask ourselves some very important questions.

What happens when human waste can no longer be absorbed by our natural systems? Are there other choices humans can make to change or even reverse our growing impact on our overburdened water systems? How are the oceans, the atmosphere, land and life connected? How do these connections affect us?

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