MMUUS Earth Day Service The Water

Earth

Day

Water

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MMUUS Earth Day Service     The Water

Every year in September at our homecoming service here at May Memorial we celebrate

chapters in our lives using water as a universal element. It connects us together with a

common bond. Some religions have what call Holy Water, which is water that has been

blessed by a member of a clergy or religious figure. Water is considered a purifier in

most religions. Faiths that incorporate ritual washing include Christianity, Hinduism,

Islam, Judaism, the Rastafari movement, Shinto, Taoism, and Wicca. Immersion of a

person in water is a central sacrament of Christianity, where it is called baptism. It’s also

a part of the practice of other religions, such as Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. In addition,

a ritual bath in pure water is performed for the dead in many religions including Islam

and Judaism. In Islam, the five daily prayers must only be done after washing the face,

hands and feet using clean water, or sand if water is unavailable. In Shinto, water is used

in almost all rituals to cleanse a person or an area.

As with air, water is taken for granted in our society. When we turn on the faucet to

bathe, wash, use the toilet or cook, water comes out which we take for granted is potable.

But in reality what we have just done is start a journey of water from 20 or 40 miles

away, Skaneateles Lake or Lake Ontario, though an elaborate system of pipes, electric

pumps, filters, treatment systems with chlorine or ultra violet light added to kill

pathogens and fluoride added to reduce tooth decay and then maybe to a local storage

reservoir high enough above where we live to create enough pressure to operate our

fixtures and even our garden hose.

Without that water, we could only survive about two weeks. Not only that, but all of our

food—in grain, vegetable or meat form—also must have fresh water to survive and grow.

We have only to open up Google Earth on our computers and spin the earth around to see

that vast portions of our land masses, including this country, are brown or yellow

meaning they devoid of a supply of sustainable water. At least from the air. But then

often to one's surprise flying in an airplane bright green patches will occur in the midst of

the yellow and brown--irrigated fields from diverted river water or electrically powered

pumps from deep aquifers in the ground.

We are fortunate in central New York not only to have some of the purest lakes in the

world, but also to receive about 34 inches of rain every year; while more than a fifth of

the world's seven billion people live in areas of water

scarity, where there is not enough

water for sanitation and agriculture. Global warming will only make that worse.

Our plentiful supply of rainfall and moderate climate may become even more important

to central New York in the future. More than half of all the fruits, vegetables and nuts

grown in the United States come from California. But California’s climate is changing

with climate change and they are facing a multi year drought in which 82% of the state is

in extreme or exceptional drought.

Our ample rain--and interestingly enough, the Internet--has allowed Community

Supported Agriculture, CSAs, to flourish in central New York. For example, there is one

called Early Morning Farms--that’s their web address also--which for about $20 a week

delivers a half-bushel of fresh vegetables to 40 locations in central New York for pick up

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for 23 weeks of the year. And our Farmers Markets and home based growing has

expanded. The Farmers Market at the Regional Market gets an average of 39,000 people

on Saturdays in the summer.

We are finally recovering from having the most polluted lake in the country, Onondaga

Lake, after Honeywell—under a federal EPA mandate---spent a half billion dollars

cleaning it up. And Onondaga County has instituted a remarkable plan called “Save the

Rain” to reduce storm water runoff into our combined sewers. Hopefully, some time in

the not too distant future, Onondaga Lake, which is sacred to the Onondaga tribe, will be

fishable again and even suitable for swimming.

And here’s an interesting idea to contemplate. We could free ourselves from water and

sewer connections here completely if we really wanted to for non process water users like

residences and even May Memorial if we had a rainwater collection and storage system,

composting toilets and a grey water treatment and recycling system. Of course in rural

areas people have been utility free for centuries using wells and septic systems. Food for

thought.

We

give

thanks

for

and

celebrate

our

pure,

fresh

water

that

sustains

us.