Close your eyes, now imagine this: you wake up to the birds chirping outside, it’s 93°F outside and you feel all sweaty and sticky, turning on the AC this early would be too expensive so you decide to go take a shower. But wait! It’s the middle of summer, intense droughts are amongst us and you can’t go take a quick dip in your community pool since the worst public health emergency of the 21st century is occurring. What if this wasn’t just a fictional story, but rather your day-to-day life?
This summer Puerto Ricans not only had to worry about the rapidly increasing COVID-19 cases but also an island-wide drought that affected over half the island. Some were forced to go days without showering due to their fear of running out of water. Others had to deal with drinking clearly contaminated water and risk their health for the sole purpose of hydration. However, everyone just accepted this. “Just another typical summer here in Puerto Rico,” they said. “It’ll probably get worse next year, ‘así que prepárate’, prepare yourself.” But no, this shouldn’t just be something we accept. This is not normal. It is not okay that we have to go without showering, we shouldn’t have to worry about how much water we can drink in order to have enough for the next day. Every year climate change significantly worsens the impact these droughts have across the globe. Increasingly warm temperatures heighten the chance of evaporation from soil, making these months with already low-precipitation rates even drier than they should be.
Droughts not only cause discomfort to us but they also negatively impact agriculture and water transportation, which in turn directly affect our economy. As a society, we should accept the role we play when it comes to climate change. There are so many online resources we can use to educate ourselves and so many simple solutions to lessen our carbon footprint. It is important that we speak up about these issues that affect our community and the planet we live in. Environmental issues like droughts that are clearly being worsened by us humans should not be considered normal.
By Andrea Ávila, YCAC LATAM
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