Patrick Jones Approximately 150 words
INTD 105-19
October 26, 2016
Response to “Land Divided, Coast United”
In her award winning article, “Land Divided, Coast United”, Josie Glausiusz opens the eyes of the public to the pollution “bomb” in the Gaza Strip. This small area of land is home to 1.8 million people and produces 150,000 cubic meters of sewage a day. Treatment plants like the Gaza City Wastewater treatment plant are at max capacity, causing floods that let polluted water enter the river banks and the Mediterranean Sea. Palestinians in Gaza know this is a problem, but don’t have the resources and power source to update of create new treatment plants.
This is an area where the pollution is causing illness and deaths, and there are still people who don’t consider pollution to be a problem in the modern world. I’ve never encountered such levels of pollution, but living near Lake Ontario I can see a similar effect. The lake’s state has been deteriorating for the last century, and there are still people who don’t feel we need to be altering are live styles to reduce pollution.
Pollution seems to be a major problem that not many people care about. This is possibly because it isn’t killing them yet, so they wish to deal with more immediate threats. However, if we don’t deal with the problem soon it will be too late and too much. Good post.
Good connection between the article and your own life with Lake Ontario. I wonder, if you choose to write your essay on the topic of pollution, if you could use the Lake as a focus. You could compare and contrast your own experiences with what is happening in Gaza, while considering the what the events in both locations say about environmental protection.