Cassie Humphreys WRT160 Prof. Burkett 6, January 2012 Is life more important than improving luxuries? As Ms.

Earle stated in her many speeches about the ocean, we are all connected to the water. Whether its fresh, salty, big, or small, we are all connected. Its also true with travel connectivity and research about whats out there in space. But the big difference between improving Luxuries that we have and our water is life. If we cut the funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or (NOAA), it would be like cutting ourselves away from the ocean; and killing us along with it. It may seem unimportant to those who dont rely heavily on water for their economy, but its very important. We use water every day: water our gardens, wash our cars, drink, wash, even indirectly like fish, rain, ships etc. if water were somehow cut off from us, because of how polluted it is, how would we live? This doom may be seen as a problem for the far future, but in reality, its happening now in other parts of the world. Countries such as New Guinea have pollution in their water because foreign companies need oil, and the government thought it would benefit the country. Both thought they would experience no trouble in this deal. However, New Guineas people suffered greatly. Oil companies used the water routes to get rid of the wastes that getting oil produces, which kill the villagers that need the water to survive. In America, we have the luxury of protection from harmful pollution, but it wont last long. If the NOAAs budget is cut, the research and action to save lives is cut. The National Debt for America is at ~7 billion and to save money, our government has decided to cut programs such as NASA, FAA and now NOAA. In understanding of the national debt that we face, I understand the reason why these three were cut: NASA is the study of space, a luxury item for our need to survive. FAA is research on flight travel, a luxury as well. But by cutting the NOAA, our lives become at stake. For many years we have abused it by dumping pollution into bays, lakes, rivers and streams; not only in America, but in other countries as well. The NOAA prevents deaths of human, animal and ecosystems all across the globe. The NOAA helps keep our waters clean and protects them from further harm. If funding to this organization is cut, our water resources will become polluted as well. So, is the research of saving lives more important than flight and space research? Yes it is.