Event 2: Do Our Rivers Have a Chance?

The second event I went to this quarter was at the Billy Wilde Theatre at the Hammer Museum, and is called "Do our rivers have a chance?". This was presentation consisting of a lecture and then Q&A session, and involves the pollution problems in our rivers, and what can be done to ensure that the planet's rivers remain clean in the future. Below is me with my ticket to prove that I went to the event, and also setup of the presentation. Unfortunately, phones and pictures were not allowed during the presentation, so I took the picture before the event started.

Since I am studying chemical engineering, I have learned a lot about water quality issues and technical solutions to solve the crisis. This presentation confirmed what I learned, that the water quality problem is very pressing and will define future generations. I was actually very surprised how shocked the audience was when pictures of dirty rivers were shown, or statistics of how many of our rivers and lakes have been polluted were shown. It made me realize that the public is generally unaware of how critical this issue is, and how important it is to have presentations like this to educate the public. Below is a picture of a dirty river in India, which is one of the pictures that really shocked the audience.

Dirty river in India.

One issued discussed was the nutrient runoff problem caused by agriculture and urban runoff. It was discussed how agriculture uses and outputs many nutrients, and these nutrients end up in water. The same occurs when trash and compost end up in urban water sources. These nutrient runoffs can cause algae blooms in the rivers (see picture below). These are also called dead-zones, because the algae consumes most of the oxygen in the water, thus destroying the ecosystem for fish and other organisms.

Algae bloom in Florida.

I recommend students going to this event in the future, especially if they are unaware or want to learn more about water quality issues. There will actually be future events this year at the Hammer discussing water quality, but they will be different from the river problem. We all need to make strides in solving this issue, and the first step in doing so is making sure that everybody is educated about this issue.