Pollution in Action

Pollution, what is pollution?

Everyday the media informs us that our fresh underground water is becoming polluted. How does this affect us and other living things?

Here is an experiment you can try at home.

What you will need:

• A stick of celery with leaves on it
• Some red or blue food coloring
• A glass of water

1. Cut off the bottom part of the celery
2. Fill a glass with water and add a couple drops of food coloring into the glass. Watch the color spread out into the glass until all the water turns the same color. The food coloring represents pollution and shows us how pollution spreads.
3. Place the celery in the glass. The celery represents our trees, plants, vegetables or even a person who drinks the water from a polluted water source. Let the celery sit in the glass for a few hours.
4. After a couple of hours. Check the celery stalk. Remove the stalk and cut the celery in half and you'll see how the "polluted" (colored water) has moved up through the celery stalk.

By polluting our water sources, we also pollute our food sources, ourselves, and all other living things. Every living thing that gets their water from the ground is exposed to pollution. Since we can't avoid it, we have to prevent it.

Did you know?

• More than half the people in the U.S. get their water from ground water. 90% of all the water on Earth that human beings can drink comes from underground reservoirs!
• It's so easy to pollute ground water. Example: A spilled gallon of gasoline can pollute 750,000 gallons of water, a lake. Insecticides that gardeners and farmers spray on plants to kill bugs can also soak into the ground and pollute our water!

• Be careful about what you spill on the earth. Don't dump harmful liquids onto the ground on purpose.
• If you have oil, paint or gas to dispose of, don't throw it in the garbage! Call your nearest "toxic waste collection." Check with your City garbage company for the number.

Whatever we do, affects our streams, lakes, rivers and oceans. Where ever we live, our actions influence what happens to them and the animal and plant life that depends on them. If we start right now to change the way we think and act, we can begin to repair the damage that has already been done. Save lives Don't pollute!