My story is about coming to Earth Camp with a knowledge already filled with understanding of water. But what I didn’t know was that there is so much out there that I didn’t know about water, such as that 97% of all the water on earth is salt water, and 80% of it is frozen in the icecaps and glaciers. I also learned that .6% of water on our planet is available fresh water, and .003% is fresh drinkable water. That fresh water is like looking at a drop of water in a bucket. And that drop of water has to supply to 300 million peoples toilets, sinks, showers, drinking fountains, dish washers, and cloths washers. And all that used water has to go to the sewer and then to a water treatment plant. 40 million gallons of water that was fresh drinkable water goes to the water treatment plant to be filtered and cleaned and then dumped into the Santa Cruz.
I also learned that there are more surface water in Tucson than I thought there was; such as the Santa Cruz, Sweet Water Wetlands, and Marshall Gulch . And in those water sources were so many animals that I would not of thought would live in the streams and rivers of the Tucson area. But what is saddening is the amount of pollution, and drainage that has affected the animals that live in these rare oasis’s.
What I plan to do to and am already doing to be a leader for a shared planet is to replace my brothers shower with a shower head with an efficient shower head that only uses one gallon per minuet. But my main priority is to purchase my cloths at thrift stores instead of just some clothing. I already have taken action in buying my Earth Camp shirt for Amy to print on from a local thrift store.
And wile I am doing all this I will try to also do just little things like only turn on the water only when I rinse my plate after washing it in the sink, try to volunteer to help clean water, and tell my friends how easy it is to just do little things like that, plus encourage them to take action with me and be a leader for a shared planet.