It is a proven fact that two-thirds of the world is covered by water. The majority of the world relies on that water supply in order to stay hydrated and sustain life. Unfortunately, over time the water supply has increased in mass, and also in pollution.

Water pollution has many contributors. A growing problem that is not only hurting us physically, but economically, is oil spills. Oil spills occur every single year, numerous times. In addition to these spills of supertankers, off-shore drilling operations contributes on a large scale to the pollution. Over 100 million gallons of U.S. oil, our oil that supplies the majority of the equipment we use, has been spilled in large areas of open water. One major oil spill was the Exxon Valdez incident, which took place March 23, 1989 at Prince William Sound in Alaska. Why this happened was because of the laziness of the drivers. They had noticed some icebergs in the route they had originally planned out, and instead of just going around all of this, they decided to take a whole new route and hit some shallow land, thus causing a crack in the boat, and creating an oil spill the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Oil spills suffocate plants and wildlife, and also harm the water we use and drink everyday in our homes.

There are also many other factors that contribute to water pollution. Unfortunately they occur on a daily basis: using pesticides, and fertilizers, littering in all its forms, poaching and the slaughtering of whales and sharks for their fins. It is up to the general public whether or not they want to continue to harm the environment.

There are many ways people can help stop the pollution. For example, when oil spills occur, instead of people sitting and watching in shock of what has just happened and is being reported on their television sets, more people can help out by volunteering their time to get the oil out of our drinking water and off the skins of suffering animals. Uranium and Thorium mining and refining could be outlawed or strictly regulated all over the world. People could also try to be more careful when fertilizing their yards. They could watch the weather channel and be aware of when it rains so that the left over fertilizers aren't washed into river and lakes.

Clean water is crucial to our world. With all the pollution that is occurring everyday, pretty soon the amount of clean water will be scarce, and then we will have to rely on other resources to keep us hydrated. Do the world and yourself a favor and take action to help in you community.

Works cited:
Krantz,David, and Brad Kifferstein. Water Pollution and Society. University of Michigan. 21 Feb. 2008 .

"Oil Spills." Protecting the Home We Live In: Environmental Issues. 2002. Novi Meadows ES. 21 Feb. 2008