Category Archives: Troubled Water

Dedicated to Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 – 1913)

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1911

In “The World of Life” Alfred Russel Wallace wrote:

“To pollute a spring or a river, to exterminate a bird or beast, should be treated as moral offences and as social crimes; … Yet during the past century, which has seen those great advances in the knowledge of Nature of which we are so proud, there has been no corresponding development of a love or reverence for her works; so that never before has there been such widespread ravage of the earth’s surface by destruction of native vegetation and with it of much animal life, and such wholesale defacement of the earth by mineral workings and by pouring into our streams and rivers the refuse of manufactories and of cities; and this has been done by all the greatest nations claiming the first place for civilisation and religion!

 

Today

Wallace foretold today’s situation, in which unique animals face extinction. He wrote that we have it within our power to save these creatures, and not let them, as he put it, “perish irrecoverably from the face of the earth, uncared for and unknown.“

Museum of Water

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At first, the Museum of Water may appear to be a large collection of waters, each sampled by individuals who have a very special connection with their donated exhibit.

The range of bottles and other containers is it itself, fascinating, but the most beautiful and telling parts of the collection are the stories attached to each exhibit.

It’s a touring exhibition but you can check out its web site now.

There are some very different ‘troubled waters’ in our Water Footprint Museum  and many act as time capsules containing a wide range of pollutants. They are being collected to preserve a historical record of environmental damage  for future researchers.

One of our cleaner waters is this one, ‘Sterile Water for Irrigation’ but not of an agricultural nature:

“Next time you are beside a river, stream, pond, lake, well, sea, canal, aquaduct, reservoir, pond or drain,  be on the look out for water and waterlife in trouble.  For waterlife, it’s their home and they can’t escape it and they haven’t got a water treatment plant to keep it clean.”

References:
WoW H20bservatory Project
WoW River Watch Campaign