Water

My first real job was in the US Geological Survey's Water Resources Division. I was happy to have a job, of course, but it was especially nice to have a job where I felt I was doing something useful and for the good of the country. Water Resources was tasked with gathering information about the location, amount and condition of the water in our nation. That group doesn't specifically protect the water but it provides the information needed by the people who do protect the water we need and use. So, it's nice that in my present job, we make equipment used by groups like the Water Resources Division and its equivalents in the states, regions and cities. The big project I was taking about in my post "Take a Deep Breath and Start Again" produced a new dissolved oxygen data logger. We make the device itself as well as the software needed to control it. It allows people to program the device to take readings of dissolved oxygen in water at a regular time interval, store that data and, when the device is brought back to their lab, read out the data and plot it and put it in tabular form for use in other programs. This way, you get a continuous record of what is happening in the water instead of needing to send a field worker to the site once in a while to get a sample of the water. Dissolved oxygen is very important because if there isn't enough oxygen dissolved in the water, animals and plants that live in the water cannot breathe. This is just one of many data loggers that we make that can be used to monitor important resources.

A very interesting visualization of just how limited the water on Earth is can be found in this link at the USGS. Please click on that link and look at the image. There are also some interesting links to follow to get more information. The thing to keep in mind when you look at this image is that the small sphere of water contains all the water on the world. It's not just the water in the United States. It's not just the fresh water that we can use. It includes the water from all the oceans, lakes and rivers. It includes all the ice and snow at the poles and all the water in all the living things on this world. It is a limited resource and it's not something we can make. All the water we have now is all the water we'll ever have. It makes sense to take care of it. God made us stewards of this world. Can you imagine having a guest in your home who used up everything you had? What if they came into your home and threw garbage everywhere? God gave us this world to live in but it is not ours. He told us, in Genesis (after he created mankind),

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:28 NIV

He told us to subdue the earth (in other words, bring it under our control), not to destroy the earth. He told us to rule over the animals. It's a poor ruler who destroys his subjects. It's a good steward who leaves his charge in better shape than he found it.