A Water What?

In the course of an instructional video I learned the depressing fact that 60% of adults polled in a survey conducted by the USFS did not know what a watershed is. 10% of those who didn't know thought that watershed is a synonym for a waterworks. Ironically 65% of people boil or filter their tap water. This means that more people are concerned about the health of their water than know where their water comes from. In a way this is a good thing because it means that these people might want to know what they can do to protect their water and themselves.

The more I learn about water issues the more passionate I become about watershed heath. Many of the Pacific Northwest natives recognize water as the first food, the most sacred gift. Without water we are going nowhere fast. 

Soon my online class will be over and I'll have a few weeks to dedicate to my thesis. This information about watersheds couldn't have come at a better time.  

Edith Wharton in talking about her character Lily Bart said: "a frivolous society can acquire dramatic significance only through what its frivolity destroys. Its tragic implication lies in its power of debasing people and ideals". If Wharton was interested in illustrating the tragedy of how frivolity destroys I find that she was enormously successful, and the ecological implications of this are what I intend to locate in her works and describe in my thesis.