We all live downstream (and upstream)

Excerpt

Most U.S. citizens would respond positively to the question “Are you concerned about having a healthy environment in which to live?” The proportion of positive responses grows smaller as the questions shift to “Are you responsible for the quality of the environment in which you live? OR “Are you willing to change your behaviors in order to achieve a healthy environment?” The realization that many of our actions affect not only our immediate environment but also environments far away from the source of the offending pollutant is not a commonly held understanding. In many ways, we ALL live downstream from the polluting nature of our fellow world co-inhabitants and upstream of our inputs.

Acid rain falling on the northeastern United States and Canadian lakes and forests has its origin hundreds of miles upstream (as the crow flies) at the coal-and fossil-fuel burning plants of the Ohio River Valley. As much as 10 to 40 percent of the loading of nitrogen to estuarine and coastal waters around the world comes from atmospheric deposition—Baltic Sea, Kiel Bight, North Sea, Long Island Sound, New York Bight, Chesapeake Bay, Pamlico …