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pillar of salt

 

            Pillar of Sand, written by Sandra Postel, illustrates the crisis that out modern irrigation age is facing. Our society is now one based on consumption. Meaning that the more that you consume the better and more powerful one is. The only problem is that on of our more important resources, water, is not meeting today's needs. There is simply more life on earth than out limited supply can sustain.
             Robert T. Malthus is well known for his essay, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), which illustrates his theory on overpopulation and the consumption of natural resources. His theory states that population grows at a faster rate that available resources do, and at the current rate of growth in population there will not be enough resources to satisfy the demands, and that by the world population will suffer from widespread famine as well as several other crisis states. Though because of new advances in technology though, the date that he predicted was incorrect, but now, years later we find ourselves in a similar situation that he spoke of. Pillar of Sand clearly illustrates this with the irrigation issues that the world now faces. Freshwater is one of the natural resources that is the most vital to civilization today. We rely on it for many things including producing food, drinking, bathing, and other activities that are often performed on a daily basis. The earth's population is increasing at a rate that far surpasses any other time in the history of man. Because of modern technology we have been able to gain access to sources of water that was previously unattainable. Mankind has been able to use this water to irrigate immense amounts of land that are that of our ancestors could never have possible have imagined. The problem that we now face is that our growing population is growing much faster than our fresh water supplies. The growth of the world population is increasing so fast that we are consuming the water much faster than it is being replenish.


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