James Norton

On April 7th, Mr. James Norton. came to Proctor and talked about Ganges River and its impact with relation to climate change. On the opening, he said, "If there is magic in this world it is contained in water. “ At first I was full of doubt regarding that statement, but his presentation completely changed my point of view, water is indeed magical. 

"Water gives life but it can also strip it away. “ This is the second quote coming from Mr.James, "It turns rock into sand, turns bone into dust.” As he said these things I started to imagine the image of rock being slowly crashing into the sand and a pile of bone vanishes into dust. It is such a powerful image that really exhibit the power of water. 

Mr. James said that we never have the right amount of water, it is either way too much to become fluid or we don’t have enough. He went on to give some examples of water-related issues in third world countries: Rather than going to school, a kid spends an hour or so walking back and forth between the nearest safe water drinking tap. for 860 million people around the world. 

Then he introduced Ganges River.Ganges River is the most iconic river in the world. There was a lore regarding the birth of this river, someone was looking to place the remains of his ancestors, and he found the Ganges River. 

Mr. James said he wants to know a lot about Ganges river, it starts out from mount Himalayas and all the way to India. Different from all the other gigantic river, Ganges river did not start with small streams but rather a pile of water rushing out between the mountains. He even set out a journey to find the origins of the Ganges river. 

The Himalayas collectively are the biggest chunk of ice except for the two poles, those ice and snow give birth to some of the most impactful rivers in the world and supports the most people in the world. 

He led a team that does the water test to all the source of water in the world. There are plenty Himalayas floods happening around the area, he went on to show some pictures of the flood and other water destructions. He follows the Ganges river to go downstream and witness the huge dam that is the first man-made obstacle of Ganges River. 

Ganges River also resembles an very important spiritual value to the Indians, including the resemblance of life and death. He went on to play a video of the spiritual practice people do around Ganges River. 

He pointed out that most people in Indian don’t see the pollution that is happening to Ganges River. And numerous Indian people explained to him that because the River is mother to them, their cloth and dirt won’t affect her since she will always be pure. However, there are also people that are trying hard to resolve this issue locally. 

There are a lot of diseases living in Ganges River that can easily spread to humans through food, clothing etc. It has affected 20 million people already. 

He then plays several video to exhibit the changes that is happening to India and Ganges River. And the result from water test shows pollution in everywhere, to Himalayas to the down stream. 

Ganges River is a river that has been revered by so many people for such a long time, even though it is being polluted and damaged by humans and non-human factors, it still supports so many people today. Fortunately, there are people working today to save the Ganges.