The three issue that I have chosen for the issue exploration assignment are food, water, and access to education. I have chosen these three issues because I have personal experience with being born in Peru and living there for half of my life, not a third world country but still less fortunate and harder living conditions compared to the US. Saying that I’m not solely concentrating on how this issues effect just the US but can affect the lives of people worldwide.
Starting with food, it’s an essential part of keeping humans alive. Without it entirely people would die, but having it and being contaminated or not plentiful can also lead to death. Comparing the three pillars of sustainability between US and Peru when it comes to food can be eye opening. The US overall has a better economy which means that they have the availability to buy and sell organic products which are better for the environment such as it’s not being polluted by pesticides and the animals are not being put under growth hormones. This also means that the US society has more options as to what they want to put in their bodies and how it’s going to affect them. Peru though has a lower population income which limits their availability n what types of food they can provide their population. Although they have less income the process of agriculture and meat industry in Peru is more environmentally safe then in the US because they don’t have the income to use man-made chemicals to speed the process of making food. Although the society has less options their options are better to consume then those from the US in general but the amount of poverty in Peru also keeps some of the population hungry.
Water is a big problem in third world country such as those found in Africa, Central America, and South America. Because the US has the income and availability to provide water all around the country, the society doesn’t have to worry that much about if they’re going to have water available to them and if the water is safe although there are some problems around the US with safe water such as the case in Flint, overall compared to Peru a much better situation. Because the water is safe it’s healthier for the environment in the US because it helps maintain the land fertilize and keeps it from dying because of unknown minerals in the water or feces. In Peru though water is not available to the whole country because of economic issues and to those that it’s available it’s only available for a couple of hours each day. This causes the society to struggle when it comes to hygiene and food because they need water to get those two needs taken care of. Because the water is not available all day people who have the income have to buy big tanks of water so that when the water is available they can store water for the rest of the day and hopefully won’t run out. The shortage of water has to do also with how people in Peru treat their rivers and water sources, a lot of time trash and feces is thrown into the rivers which ruin the environment by drying out the rivers and contaminating the water and also because of the water shortage people wash their clothes in rivers which also contaminates the water with chemicals. In Peru, you must boil water before any kind of usage, drinking tap water is not a thing in Peru like it is in the US.
Access to education in the US is available throughout the nation to all social classes. Due to the government being involved with the nation’s welfare when it comes to education and having the income to support it there’s public school nationwide that accommodate all social classes. Because the nation is able to get an education it raises the standard of living for US citizens compared to those of Peru because of the availability to schools more people are able to get an education. Being educated also can relate to knowing what to do in order to keep the environment more sustainable and alive, such as recycling and what to throw in the rivers. In Peru though there are public school but just a few that it’s on a first come first serve basis for an education. Also because of the amount of poverty in Peru some kids have to opt out from going to school in order to help out their family economically. As a society, nationwide Peru is not the best when it comes to academic scores compared to those to other nations such as the US. Also, the lack of education can correlate as to how Peruvians treat their environment such as their water supply which they throw chemicals into without knowing how much that can affect them in the future as to how bad the water supply is already.
I have decided for the rest of the semester that I’m going to concentrate on the issue of water because of its importance to human life. To get engaged with my issue I will throughoutly research it and go worldwide also. I might stumble upon getting all the right facts and statistics depending on how websites contradict themselves overall and because of the abundance of knowledge I’ll have trouble on deciding what to use and not.