Revelation 8:8-11

8The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,9and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed. 10The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters.11The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.…

Today I want to talk about water. I haven’t always been a Christian, and for many years I pooh poohed all the warnings about Global Warming and Climate Change. I refused to give any credence to the warnings. Then certain things began to come to my attention, that made me take notice. I discovered that Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming all have water laws restricting and governing the use of water. I grew up in Colorado, and it was common to be restricted to only being able to water the lawn on certain days.  I no longer live in Colorado, but I now understand that Colorado has much stricter laws. After 911, Colorado, as well as many others, passed a law that all water that is inside their states boundary belongs to the state. It is illegal to collect rainwater, because that water also belongs to the state. Kind of hard for me to wrap my head around that, how the state can come in and claim ownership of something so basic as rainwater.  While in other areas of the United States, people collect rainwater, and think nothing of it.

Add drought and pollution to the mix, and the availability of water shrinks even more. Just recently Investigators from the Silent Spring Institute “found 27 unregulated contaminants, including a dozen different pharmaceuticals, a variety of chemicals used in non-stick coatings, flame retardants, and an artificial sweetener. It also found Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic used to treat urinary tract infections, and carbamazepine, a drug used to treat seizures, nerve pain, and bipolar disorder, when testing private wells in Cape Cod.1

Additionally, More than 1,400 wastewater treatment plants in the United States and Canada discharge 4.8 billion gallons of treated effluent into the Great Lakes basin every day. After 10 years of study, a report found that only about half of the prescription drugs and other newly emerging contaminants in sewage are removed by treatment plants.  Six chemicals were detected frequently and had a low rate of removal in treated effluent: an herbicide, an anti-seizure drug, two antibiotic drugs, an antibacterial drug and an anti-inflammatory drug.  The wastewater plants had a low removal rate (less than 25 percent chance of removing 75 percent or more) for 11 of the 42 chemicals that were found.2  In all, more than 165 individual pharmaceuticals and personal care products have been identified in water samples.

The immediate concern is for the fish that live in these waters. Intersex fish are particularly prevalent downstream from wastewater plants, but  I find it rather alarming that researchers have discovered intersex fish in Protected Waters. Scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey studied fish in 19 national wildlife refuges in the U.S. Northeast, including Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge near the US-Canada border, which is among the most pristine wetland ecosystems in the Northeast.3 They found that 60 to 100 percent of all male smallmouth bass they examined had female egg cells growing in their testes. This interferes with their ability to reproduce and thereby threatens fish populations. And it is not just fish that are affected. Amphibians are also being affected, as are otters.4  The culprit? It was long thought that these changes were caused by birth control pills. While birth control may play a huge part, more research indicates that metformin, a drug for treating Type II diabetes, also plays a large role.  Metformin was "found in almost every sample, and in the highest concentrations compared to other emerging contaminants"6 Since birth control pills and metformin both are taken worldwide, this has become a global problem.

And lastly, let’s talk about China. I think everyone knows how polluted China is. Sixteen of the twenty cities on the World Banks list of “worst air cities” belong to China. In an interview with the head of the Communist Party of a village, Wang Lincheng told the New York Times, ''All the water we drink around here is polluted,'' Wang said. ''You can taste it. It's acrid and bitter. Now the victims are starting to come out, people dying of cancer and tumors and unusual causes.'' A 64 year old fisherman in Yumin, Song Dexi, tells us, 'If I had wanted to, I could have gone on the river and filled a boat with dead fish. It was smelly, like toilet water. All our fish and shrimp died. We don't have anything to live on now.''  There is no scientific evidence to prove that pollution is causing cancer rates to rise, but Dr. Zhao Meiqin, chief of radiology at the county hospital, said cancer cases in the area rose sharply after heavy industry arrived in the 1980s and '90s. Before, the area had about 10 cases a year. ''Now, in a year, there are hundreds of cases,'' she said, putting the number as high as 400, mostly stomach and intestinal tumors. ''Originally, most of the patients were in their 50s and 60s. But now it tends to strike earlier. I've even treated one patient who is only 7.''5

Jeremiah 8:14

Why are we sitting still? Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities And let us perish there, Because the LORD our God has doomed us And given us poisoned water to drink, For we have sinned against the LORD.