Transcriber: Youssef Rochdane Reviewer: Arthur Alves
I'm a Californian, at least one of my favorite places to go,
and I've gone there as long as I can remember,
one of my favorite places in California is Hollywood,
and it’s wonderful reservoir.
Here’s a picture of me there about 10 years ago.
I'm the taller and cuter one.
One thing that I've noticed every time that I've come back to that reservoir
is that it's lower every time.
Hello, my name is Ethan Wolski,
and I'm here to talk to you about our problem of water scarcity.
Now, I didn't really notice it much when I was younger.
After all, Southern California is situated in the middle of a desert.
But I noticed it more now.
If you’ve ever been in California, you may have seen ads for lawyers.
What is we looking, guy?
Or you may have seen posters advocating for water conservation.
It’s because it’s a problem,
but it's not a California problem.
Now, before I move on, let me give you some statistics.
We all know that the Earth is mostly water.
In fact, 70 percent of the Earth's surface is water. Of that 70 percent.
onlyabout 2.5 percent of it is fresh water.
And of that, 2.5 percent, only about one percent of it
accessible for us to use right now.
That is like saying zero point zero zero seven percent of all
the Earth’s water is ready for us to use right now.
That is not a lot.
In fact, the BBC reported that there is
a projected 55 percent increase in water consumption between 2000 and 2050.
Meanwhile, Professor Benjamin School of Our Host University stated that there
will be no water by 2040 if we keep doing what we're doing today.
Now, take a second to look at that quote and think, how does that make you feel?
It may be easier to say 2040.
That’s a long time away with some simple calculations. 2040 minus 2022.
Not very long, specifically 18 years.
You're a person born today could do before they turn 18.
They could get a driver's license. They could graduate high school.
A person born today would witness the world run out of fresh,
drinkable water before they could drink alcohol. Now that is a lost.
Moving on, something historic happened in Colorado back in August of 2021.
The federal government announced that it would introduce water cuts
on the amount of water that flowed down the Colorado River.
This is alarming, as the Colorado River is a major water source.
It flows down into Lake Mead.
This leak is crucial as it supplies water to 25 million people in California,
Nevada, Arizona and Mexico.
This leak is already suffering from the drought that is forcing
the water cuts on the Colorado River.
In fact, this picture I’m showing you is actually from 2000.
This is what it looks like 20 years, or maybe not.
That’s an alarming difference. There’s a big difference, I promise.
Moving on, let's take a quick trip across the globe to
the wonderful city of Cape Town.
This is not an American problem, as we can see, because of day zero,
the day when water completely runs out in an area such as Cape Town.
Back in 2020, Cape Town experienced its worst drought on record,
forcing all citizens to ration their water consumption to no more than 50
litres per day per person.
For senior citizens to go uphill both ways to collect water from public spouts
and carry them away in jugs, as in the picture behind.
Fifty leaders may sound like a lot of water until you consider that
the average American consumes 350 liters of water per day.
That is a lot of water.
Now, take a second to think, Oh, now look at this map about water.
Water scarcity in countries. And think, what do you notice?
This issue is worldwide. In fact, as this map shows,
more than half of the world is a medium to high risk
of a water crisis right now.
Now, take a second to think about what aspect of your day uses the most water.
This might shock you. It's what you eat.
The process of growing and feeding an animal takes up large amounts of water.
Even your fruits and vegetables take a lot of water to cultivate.
Seventy percent of the Earth's water freshwater is used
for agricultural purposes.
With all the food and water and care that an animal takes,
a lot of water is consumed.
If you look at this chart behind me, you may observe a couple of foods.
We have steak two thousand five hundred and fifty liters of water for one hundred
and seventy grams of steak. 85 grams of pork takes 500 litres of water to me.
Meanwhile, one solid take 75 litres.
If you used all the water it takes to make one hundred
and seventy grams of steak, you can make 30 for salads.
We also use water in other ways, sometimes quite wisely as well. Have you.
Do you remember in elementary school
when your teacher told you to brush your teeth
and turn off the faucet while you were brushing,
if you brush your teeth for one minute? That's 7.5 litres of water.
Doesn't sound like much, but now look at the population of ISB with teachers.
That's over 2000 people. Assuming everyone brush their teeth twice a day.
That’s 30000 litres of water saved each day,
or 11 million 53000 litres of water saved each year.
That is a lot of water.
Now, I'm not saying you have to star on world's biggest cheapskates
because you reuse your shower and bath water to flush your toilet
and you ration one cup of coffee over a week.
That’s ridiculous.
What I'm saying is minimal changes can make a difference.
Here are three things I want you to take away from this. First, reduce.
Reduce the amount of water that you consume.
Be conscious about how you consume water.
Turn off your tap while brushing your teeth or when you’re shaving.
Secondly, substitute try and find ways to reduce
the amount of water you consume through your diet.
Maybe every other day trying avoid eating me and choose
a meat substitute like cauliflower, which is a great meat substitute.
And lastly, menial changes don't make
a difference when just one person does it.
But, when a group like a school of 2000 people can band together and make
a change, it provides an example to everyone that they can make change to.
Changes in happen when just one person does it.
It happens when people come together to make change together.
Now I hope the one day I'll be able to go and see
a statistic saying water demand projected to decrease across the next,
however many years.
I hope that one day I’ll be able to go back to that Hollywood reservoir
and say, “Well, look, it’s fuller.”
I hope that one day I'll realize this is not a California problem.
This is not an America problem.
This is a world solution where people come together and make change together.
Thank you and have a good night.