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Water for Life and Health (Video)

By Yanna Darilis
 
The United Nations Staff Recreational Council, Sales Wellness Network, held a panel discussion with Professionals and experts on the topic of Water for our health and for life. The Salus Wellness Network President, Susana Bastarrica and her Board, organize these panels to help raise awareness about important issues that are impacting the planet and humanity.

I was honored to moderate the distinguished panel on the topic of Water that included; Aquanaut, Oceanographic Explorer, Fabien Cousteu, Ocean scientist Dr. Gregory Stone, Sustainable and Biomimicry architect Janus Welton, Co-founder and CEO of Plastic Pollution Coalition, Diane Cohen, and award winning filmmaker, Greg Reitman.

Climate is changing faster than scientists predicted in the last decade that is having great consequences in our oceans. The discussion focused around how the earth and humans are facing challenges in our Oceans and drinking water, mainly in part due to the industrial revolution and industrial waste.

Oceans are 70% of our earth surface and produce over 50% of our oxygen. The bottom line is that scientists have proven that the earths climate is in danger as temperatures rise as a result of the Green house affect mainly due to fossil fuel emissions, trapping heat radiated from the sun and causing an increase in Carbon Dioxide. The consequences from the increase in Co2 in our atmosphere is causing an increase in temperature in the oceans, in turn increasing ocean acidity that calcifies marine species, killing our Coral Reefs and thus putting the ocean food network at risk by disturbing the ocean's ecosystem and biodiversity in great proportions. Another alarming fact is that the sea levels are rising, oceans are swelling and ice and glaciers are melting, filling the oceans and causing floods in costal regions. All of these disturbances are causing extreme weather conditions.

Fabien Cousteau believes there is more to explore in our oceans and the depths of the sea have a greater story to tell. He stresses that the climate change has shown great evidence of harm in our oceans and the concern grows annually.

Seawater is also an electrical conductor and interacts with the earths magnetic field. Many other disruptions within the oceans are causing various other imbalances that are also affecting marine life including beaching of whales, shark's loss of ability to sense food and the extinction of many marine life species.

Our industries are not helping, 10 countries control world sea catch, they catch and throw back fish, dead or alive. Shark fin is popular in Asia, whaling in Japan, and Sea turtles are vulnerable and on the danger list. Albatrosses are also endangered by fishing, 300,000 sea birds are dying each year caught by fishing lines and eating fish lines. Elephant seals are also in decline. We need to help stop overfishing and to protect breeding grounds for marine life.

Although the earth has been adopting to natural evolutionary factors throughout time, we cannot dismiss factors caused by humans that can be avoided to reverse these effects. Dr. Greg Stone works to find ways for humanity and the ocean to co-exist and support each other in the modern world. He stated that we need more marine sanctuaries, less fishing, more awareness and respect of our natural environment.

The oceans are also polluted due to toxic chemicals discarded in our oceans and drinking water trickling down to our soil and food chain. Marine life and Birds are also in danger due to the consumption of toxins and plastic pollution. The harmful plastic materials have proven to cause an imbalance in hormones and have been linked to causing cancer in both males and females. Annually people discard enough plastic to circle the earth 4 times and the oceans contain 6 times more plastic than life. It takes approximately 450-1000 years to biodegrade plastic and 500 years for Styrofoam.

Diane Cohen of the Plastic Pollution Coalition is working toward a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals, and the environment. She is the wife of musician Jackson Brown and an LA based visual Artist who uses plastic in her artwork to make a visual and social impact. She believes we must find ways to stop using harmful plastic material and keep our environment clean of it.

It has been reported that wastes are dumped untreated into waters, polluting the usable water supply. More than 80% of sewage in developing countries is discarded untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas. According to many reports, our water supply that includes drinking water is polluted with traces and small amounts of pharmaceuticals, that include antibiotics, hormones, and other drugs.

Its hard to believe that in our advanced technological modern world we are facing these environmental challenges, and it is important to develop strategies to help decrease the ocean and drinking water health issues and protect our most precious natural resource for our very existence.

The topic of Global water challenges and providing Biomimicry solutions, sustainability and energy efficiency in architecture, was discussed by award winning architect Janus Welton. She believes Biomimicry is the key that will impact in our communities for providing Net Zero Water and Energy in residences and communities and alternative methods against plastic pollution, and water toxicity. Through her designs she has shown effective ways to sustain a healthier and "off grid" life, free of toxins and fossil fuel energy use to live a healthier lifestyle through Biomimicry engineering and architecture.

Overall, the solution is a clean energy economy. The world should be investing in the technology of the future, a more natural alternative. As climate change is beginning to affect us, we are still not giving enough attention to it. We need to change things by being more informed and working together as a whole to help improve our planet and humanities lifestyle for healthier living conditions. Even after all the evidence has been presented by leading scientists, people are still skeptics about climate change and not much is being done by our leaders to help reverse pollution in our natural resources that are affecting our health. There also isn't enough attention given to pollution and toxicity in our oceans and drinking water.

Why doesn't our media give enough attention to all these issues? This is the questions we should be asking ourselves. Many filmmakers are doing just that to help people realize what's happening to our earth and to ourselves. Greg Reitman is a director, producer and writer producing content that impacts our world with his company Blue Water Entertainment.Greg is spreading information through his award winning films and working with the new generation to produce more documentaries to help raise awareness.

The facts are all there, and despite the dispute of the reasons for the causes of climate change, skeptics and not, we still need to come to the realization about the consequences we are facing and fast approaching each year and address pollution & toxic waste in our water and food chain endangering all forms of life.
To make our lives easier the industrial revolution has now caused a path of destruction for humanity, what can we do to reverse or lessen the consequences and help people to have a toxic free life? This is the question that should concern us as Global citizens.

Well, we can begin with ourselves and by sharing information, make leaders out of our new generation, look out for and take care of our earth and each other. Let's move on by paying attention, finding solutions to clean our environment, save our marine species, our animals and ourselves.

 
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