unicef:

CAN YOU SEE ME?

Caradine, 13

Caradine sits in an empty classroom in Man, a western town in Côte d’Ivoire where hundreds of people took shelter during the recent post-election conflict. Caradine’s school, like many around the country, was closed due to political instability. As a UNICEF-trained volunteer peer educator, she spent her time teaching displaced children about hygiene, sanitation and other critical life skills. Many people have since returned home, but the situation remains unstable.

Côte d’Ivoire, 2011 ©UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0411/Asselin

You can receive UNICEF’s “Can You See Me” (and other images from UNICEF) on your iPhone by visiting: http://bit.ly/nWsSp2

I was at Pottery Barn today, getting a gift for my friend’s upcoming wedding, and I was very happy to see that FEED and UNICEF have partnered up for a Pottery Barn-exclusive water bottle that benefits UNICEF’s Tap Project, an effort to bring clean water to those in need. FEED also created several other products for Pottery Barn.

I’m so passionate about helping others. I love what the organizations like FEED are doing for not only other societies around the world, but for our own society. It’s so important to be a global citizen, you know? 

Keep questioning,
Sara 

twentyproject:

I feel like kind of a nerd for posting this, but it’s kind of a big deal. So I will not pretend like I’m less excited than I am. Scott Harrison, the founder of charity: water, just donated to my campaign. Sixty dollars. And today, two other people donated twenty dollars each. I literally just ran in circles with excitement.

Scott, if you happen to read this, thank you very much for the donation and for what you do. And, I want to interview you for a book I’m writing. Please email me at kayla.frost@yahoo.com. Otherwise, I’ll track down your email some other way.

(What? It’s worth a try!)

OH MY GOODNESS! I would be geekin’ out, too! I did a mini research project on charity: water, and if I were to create a campaign and spend as much time & effort on it as you have, I would be over the moon if Scott Harrison donated to my cause.

Congratulations! Keep up the good work. I absolutely love what you’re doing.

Love always from a fellow water-advocate,
Sara

Clean drinking water from rain water (via Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia @ flickr’s creative commons)

Water.org is a non-profit organization whose mission is “to draw attention to the world?s number one health problem, unsafe and inadequate water supplies, and to raise funds to help fight this immense problem ? one community at a time” (Mission & Vision, 2011).

Areas that have benefitted from water.org

• Kenya: Kisumu, rural Eastern province
• Uganda: Kampala area
• Ethiopia: Tigray, Amhara
• Bangladesh: Dhaka, Rajshahi, Manikganj
• Ghana: Volta Region (around Lake Volta), Upper East Region (border between Burkina Faso and Benin)
• Haiti
• Honduras (all in the west): Lempira, Intibuca
• India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu

Morocco water man (via cbertel @ flickr’s creative commons)

In 1991, in order to protect the surrounding towns from flooding, Morocco began work on the Al Wahda Dam. Since its construction, the dam has reduced flooding by 90% in areas near the Ourgha and Sebou Rivers, and has provided the area with a green electricity source. By 2020 Morocco hopes to have 42% of their energy generated from green sources.

Though hydropower is a good source of renewable energy, dams are complicated structures that take a lot of energy themselves to maintain. Sediment can build up on the upstream side of dams, which puts pressure on the Earth’s crust and raises the water levels. Over time, as sediment builds up, the weight can cause the Earth below to collapse under the pressure which can lead to earthquakes. Natural and human-induced erosion have caused the dam to lose approximately 60 million m³ of capacity each year. Is it worth all the trouble?

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This is part of a project for my EARTH111 class, Water: Science & Society. Since this assignment is due tonight at 11PM (eek!), stay tuned for some more real-life water crises, which will ultimately be documented and available for free download in the form of a Google Earth file that geolocates all of these issues.

Keep questioning,
Sara

Adult & juvenile blue crabs (via chesbayprogram @ flickr’s creative commons)

The blue crab is the keystone species of the Chesapeake Bay. It is one of the few creatures in the bay’s complicated ecosystem that acts as both a predator and a prey, making it an invaluable link in the food chain. Over the years, agricultural, urban, and suburban run-off have polluted the Chesapeake Bay causing a rise in nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment levels. Poor water quality has hit the blue crab population hard. The bay’s ecosystem is at a critical point. The blue crab are disappearing.

Over one-third of the entire country’s blue crabs sold for consumption come from the Chesapeake. The area has recently gone through a population increase. Agricultural run-off has had a negative impact on the underwater bay grasses the crabs call home. All of these things are contributing to the decline of the blue crab population.

The Chesapeake Bay Executive Council and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have created initiatives and laws that have alleviated some of the pressure put on the bay’s ecosystem. Plants that act as pollutant buffers have been placed along the bay, restrictions on commercial fishing, and pollutant limitations for businesses and farms have all been put in place, but the blue crab is still disappearing.

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This is part of a project for my EARTH111 class, Water: Science & Society. Since this assignment is due tonight at 11PM (eek!), stay tuned for some more real-life water crises, which will ultimately be documented and available for free download in the form of a Google Earth file that geolocates all of these issues.

Keep questioning,
Sara

boiling balata at nappi (via nicholaslaughlin @ flickr’s creative commons)

Guyana is a small country of 750,000 at the northern tip of South America, bordering Venezuela and Brazil. In the early 2000s, the British company, Severn-Trent, was contracted to manage the country’s water supply. Severn-Trent received funding from the British government and the World Bank to alleviate some of the water-related problems that were occurring in the country.

Before the privatization of water, the people in Guyana suffered from poor water quality, a lack of access to water, and major flooding. The infrastructure that governed access to water and sanitation was very weak, so Severn-Trent was brought in to manage (not own) the water supply. 

Unfortunately, no clear goals were outlined or communicated. Severn-Trent continued to get major funding from the Guyanese and British governments and the World Bank, in the hopes of improving Guyanese access to water, but little money went toward building a stronger infrastructure. In 2003, Severn-Trent withheld water from citizens who could not pay water bills. Ultimately, the partnership was severed; none of the parties involved felt there was any value in water privatization.

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This is part of a project for my EARTH111 class, Water: Science & Society. Since this assignment is due tonight at 11PM (eek!), stay tuned for some more real-life water crises, which will ultimately be documented and available for free download in the form of a Google Earth file that geolocates all of these issues.

Keep questioning,
Sara

Dead tilapia on the Salton Sea short (via Wikimedia Commons)

California’s largest body of water, Salton Sea, is a man-made lake in a desert basin in Southern California. In the early 1900s, the lake became a dumping ground of sorts for the Colorado River. After the river flooded and destroyed the town that used to reside in the desert basin, the area was evacuated and became a permanent lake.

The surface of the lake is approximately 227 feet below sea level, it is bordered on three sides by mountains, and there is no outlet for its water except for evaporation. The hot and dry climate has intensified the salt concentration of this body of water, which is now 25% saltier than the ocean.

In the 1980s, the elevation and salinity of this lake were rising, causing a shift in the ecosystem. Fish populations began to decline, algae flourished, and pathogens and parasites were found in abundance, bringing diseases to the nearby plants and animals, including hundreds of thousands of birds. In 1999, an August 4th measurement confirmed the death of 7.6 million fish in one day.

With increasing pollution of the nearby Colorado River (due largely in part to agricultural run-off), there is very little clean freshwater coming into the Salton Sea… and with an increasing need for freshwater supply, the surrounding area is in dire need of some kind of solution.

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This is part of a project for my EARTH111 class, Water: Science & Society. Since this assignment is due tonight at 11PM (eek!), stay tuned for some more real-life water crises, which will ultimately be documented and available for free download in the form of a Google Earth file that geolocates all of these issues.

Keep questioning,
Sara

I’m researching charity: water for an upcoming podcast project for my Earth science class. Stay tuned for the final product!

Keep questioning,
Sara

world-shaker:

Here’s a great write-up on a lesson using fake Facebook profile for literary figures (with a link to download the template yourself).

Quick note on the template: When you go to download it, select the option to download the original. Being public, anyone can edit it (so it’ll look terrible). The original is the clean, unaffected version.

via ilearntechnology.com

I’m thrilled this came up on my dashboard today! At the beginning of the semester, my Water: Science & Society class was told that we’d be creating case studies based on domestic and global water crises, and we’d be teaching one of the cases to the class. For my first case on malaria and hydropower in Africa (specifically, the Koka dam in Ethiopia), I utilized a GigaPan image to generate discussion and to use as a focal point. I hope to better develop the lesson and eventually put it up on the Earth & Space QUEST website (filed under the K-12 exercises tab).

For my second case study, I chose to study the N-aquifer and the Black Mesa mine in Arizona, and its effects on the local Hopi and Navajo population. I had seen this facebook template floating around the internet over the past few months and knew I wanted to use it in one of my future curricular endeavors… this case seemed like the perfect choice! 

I’ve done all the background research on the history of mining operations, the over-pumping of the aquifer for coal mining, the measures the tribes have taken to protect the waters that are so sacred to them, and the ruthless nature of Peabody energy, and now it’s time to play around with this template!

More to come… stay tuned :)

Oh, and keep questioning,
Sara