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tagged w/ Water Is Life
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What's your water footprint?
Water conservation can begin with your dinner plate. Sure, it looks like merely a hamburger with cheese, a baked potato and a cup of coffee.
But look at it in terms of water: ● It took about 464 gallons of water to produce that quarter pound of beef, ● 108 gallons to produce a potato, ● 37 gallons to make 1 ounce of cheese ● and 37 gallons of water to create your 8-ounce cup of coffee.
This concept of calculating how much water goes into the production of food or other items is called "virtual water." Instead of seeing only the item in front of you — say, a ribeye steak — you look at where it came from, how the cattle was raised, how many gallons of water were used in irrigation to produce the feed the cattle ate, how many gallons of water were used to create the fertilizer and pesticides used in raising the feed corn, how much water was consumed by the actual animal, how many resources went into getting that animal from the ranch to the slaughter house to the packing plant to the store to you.
As food and energy costs continue to rise, and concern about the effects of global warming increases, many consumers are looking at choices differently. Our community consolidates car trips to save gas and plans meals based on coupons and sales instead of convenience.
Water is a prized resource in our part of the world and we face huge policy questions as communities in Arizona continue to grow in size and population. We must come to terms with how we use this priceless and limited commodity.
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"I think people at the global level are talking about this with global trading in food, but it's only now becoming a local issue," said Pat Gober, the co-director of the Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University. "If somebody in Phoenix consumes a hamburger it's not consuming much of Phoenix's water, but it's consuming Brazil's water, or wherever the beef was raised. It's the globalization of our food supply.
"Food as a way of conserving water," said Gober. "I think it's an important thing to think about."
How much water do you really use?
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When adding up all of the water you use in just one day to shower, drink, cook, clean, eat, prepare food, and for sanitation, not to mention recreation, pools, sprinklers, watering lawns, washing cars, washing clothes, etc., it is astounding to see the total. And the impacts of that use are felt globally.
http://www.waterfootprint.org can help you calculate your water footprint and give you information about how to bring it down. It is only when we begin to look beyond the dinner plate and the tangible items to see what goes into them that we become more aware and more enpowered in our choices. And that can have a positive global effect, especially now as not only 45 % of our country is in some stage of drought, but much of our world.Water conservation can begin with your dinner plate. Sure, it looks like merely a... more-
- JanforGore
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- 3 years ago
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Bringing clean water to Ethiopians
Photographs of Water First and Water Action bringing clean running water to a village in Southern Ethiopia for the first time. This is what we are on this Earth for.Photographs of Water First and Water Action bringing clean running water to a village... more-
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- 3 years ago
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Acidification from fossil fuels is killing our oceans
In a Hobart laboratory a few weeks ago, a young marine biologist placed the shell of a tiny sea snail on a weighing scale and held her breath. Donna Roberts's critical experiment rested on getting the exact weight of this fragile specimen; any movement in the room could instantly throw off the delicate scale, so sensitive it is called a microbalance.
Roberts had been weighing 100 of these shells, stripped from snails that had been collected from the depths of the great Southern Ocean half way between Tasmania and Antarctica.
The snails, known to biologists as pteropods, swim through the sea like butterflies. They are as abundant as krill and help feed the ocean's huge schools of fish.
The shell specimens dated back to 1996 and the earlier ones had weighed in at 20 micrograms. But Roberts observed that as the specimens became more recent, the weight of the shells had fallen. When her last specimen, from 2005, weighed in at just 10 micrograms, Roberts barely dared to breathe.
"Wow, what is going on?" she asked herself. A halving of shell weight in just one decade was a real worry.
Roberts's still unpublished research is just one reason why her collaborator, Dr Will Howard, from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, this week convened an extraordinary meeting of Australia's leading marine scientists in Hobart.
For three days, the 50 scientists, along with colleagues from America and New Zealand, focused their collective minds on a threat that has emerged, it seems, from out of the blue: the growing acidification of our oceans.
These scientists now know that burning fossil fuels and massive land clearing are not just warming the planet and raising sea temperatures, they are also changing the chemical make up of the oceans. A vast amount of the carbon dioxide humans have pumped into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution has been absorbed by oceans.
A new report by the Antarctic research centre, released at the Hobart meeting, says that about half the fossil fuel carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humans has now dissolved into the oceans. If we keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at the current projections, by 2100 the ocean acidification will be three times that experienced at the end of the glacial period, 15,000 years ago.
The chemistry is basic. The ocean is a weakly alkaline solution. When carbon dioxide sucked in from the atmosphere dissolves in sea water, it forms a weak acid, making the ocean more acidic. For sea life with fragile shells, corals and countless other sea creatures, a more acidic ocean could be disastrous and have unknown impacts right up the marine food chain.
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Our oceans have absorbed so much CO2 they will one day no longer be able to sustain life if we continue on the path we are on. What we do to other species we do to ourselves.
In a Hobart laboratory a few weeks ago, a young marine biologist placed the shell of a... more-
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- 3 years ago
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Congress to hear global warming woes of the Colorado River
Federal scientists and Western water managers will call Congress' attention Friday to the potentially devastating effects of climate change on the Colorado River, warning that an expected warming trend would reduce the amount of water in the river.
All told, the Colorado is a water source for more than 25 million people in seven states and Mexico. The volume of the river is particularly critical for southern Nevada because the Colorado feeds Lake Mead, which supplies 90 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's water.
At Friday's congressional briefing, research scientist Gregory McCabe will present a study that shows even a 1.5-degree increase in the overall temperature of the Southwest will decrease the river's flow. It will also increase the likelihood that it will fall short of the amount needed to meet the annual allocations upon which Nevada and the other members of the Colorado River Compact rely.
"I live in the West. I worry about water supply," McCabe said. "We have lived in an anomalously wet century. A shift to a much drier climate coupled with additional warming spells trouble for the future."
"Because the water usage is so large in the (Great) Basin, it is very sensitive to even small warmings," McCabe said.
McCabe's study estimated the effects of 0.86-degree Celsius warming, which is 1.548 degrees Fahrenheit -- the same amount as the climate has changed in the past century -- and the 2-degree Celsius, or 3.6-degree Fahrenheit, warming of the climate that scientists say is possible in the next century.
He analyzed these changes against the backdrop of tree ring records used to estimate river flows going back more than 500 years, as well as more than 100 years of data from the river.
Friday's hearing comes on the heels of a recent release of a report detailing effects of warming on fish, forests, rangelands and arid lands. The U.S. Agriculture Department report predicts dwindling rivers, an increase in extreme weather -- droughts and floods -- and the death of plant life.
Federal scientists and Western water managers will call Congress' attention... more-
- JanforGore
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Drought declared In California
The dryness continued this past week for the entire Southwest and most of California. This was somewhat tempered by cooler-than-normal temperatures that occurred across the Great Basin, Arizona, and California as well. New Mexico saw an expansion of D2 to the west across the extreme southern counties of the state. Precipitation has been pretty dismal for most time frames out to the Water Year (October 1), with only 25-50% of normal being reported in that period.
In California, many locations recorded a record or near-record dry spring. In fact, on June 4, Governor Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought. On the heels of last winter’s low totals, the water strain has been increased after a disappointing finish to this winter. Final snow water content levels statewide were only around 67% of average and thus streamflow runoff forecasts are only calling for a little more than 50% of normal. As a result of the past 90 days, D0 and D1 have pushed north up the valley and along the coast north of Santa Barbara up to Eureka.
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If you consolidate all of the areas that are colored on this map together, that constitutes approximately 45 to 50% of the land mass of this country being in some state of drought. For those who think this only happens in Africa or some place else on the other side of the world, it doesn't. Drought can strike anywhere water has been wasted, mismanaged, and where the effects of climate change and overpopulation are making themselves felt the worst.
According to the IPCC, the Southwest US is one of the areas predicted to be experiencing severe drought due to climate change. And yet, our Congress plays games regarding this crisis as if we have time to continue to squabble over whether it even exists. With water tables in rivers throughout America falling, including and predominantly The Great Lakes, The Colorado River, and Lake Mead which serves Nevada and this area in drought, people must wake up to what their wasteful practices are doing to the environment.
Population increases in this area without proper water management have also led to this stage. We either conserve now, or we will see just how much taking this resource for granted can do to change not only our way of life, but life as we know it.The dryness continued this past week for the entire Southwest and most of California.... more-
- JanforGore
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- 3 years ago
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Spain's Pervasive Drought A Crisis
And once again we are seeing the truth about human nature which knows no nationality, race, creed, or political persuasion: We don't understand the urgency of the situation we are creating by our behavior until it begins to affect our lives. Are we then truly incapable as human beings of conserving freshwater? Of doing the right thing for our future? Of caring for those who live a world away? Has our society worldwide become so consumptive, selfish, and greedy, that even in the face of repercussions that threaten our very lives we will not change?
We are wasting the very substance that sustains our lives as if it will always be there. It won't. And if we as a species are going to ever survive this challenge, we must wake up to the reality surrounding our behavior that is contributing to the global water crisis.
And it will require:
Education. Education. Education.
Moral strength.
Moral will.
Moral conviction.
Then after that:
Global cooperation with water scarcity and waste being one of the main issues covered in any new global climate treaty that also prohibits making water a commodity to be sold at the expense of the right of humans to access to it. To commoditize it will only exacerbate inequality in its distribution which will lead to war.
Finally considering population in the developing world as one of the chief factors in any water policy and looking to educate people about family planning.
Effective water management being mandatory and enforced with particular emphasis on water footprints of nations being used to determine policy much like carbon caps.
Effective water catchement and conservation techniques being taught to people in countries experiencing the worst droughts.
Agricultural methods such as drip irrigation that allow for the least amount of water to be used to grow crops without waste, with an emphasis on less water intensive crops being planted in areas with more severe conditions so that at least those who farm will still have an income to rely on.
Standing up to corporations that continue to privatize water for a profit, especially in poor countries in Africa, South America, and Asia.
Mandatory clean up of rivers and other waterways required with penalties assessed for those who do not comply. *Corporations must be made accountable for their actions.* Willfully polluting a river or other freshwater resource to save money knowing that such resources sustain humans and other species should be seen as an act of negligence punishable by law.
***All of us coming together to mitigate the amount of greenhouse gases we spew into the atmosphere that are making the conditions that cause drought.***
Declaring access to potable water a human right that is not to be commoditized at the expense of the weak and the poor, with an emphasis on holding companies like Coca Cola, Nestle, and private companies like Thames Water, American Water, Suez , Vivendi and other companies being held to stringent standards regarding price and quality. There must also be the threat of penalty for gouging customers or using the climate crisis as a vehicle to raise prices beyond what is needed to maintain water infrastructure.
However, can we do this? Are we capable as a species of coming together to do what needs to be done to ensure our continued survival? Is greed truly an overriding quality of human nature that cannot be overcome for the good of us and this planet?
Only through education and action will we know the answer to those questions and they must be answered because time is running out while we continue to look the other way while taking our most precious resource for granted.
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Read the news story about the Drought in Spain and more information on the global water crisis at:
http://water-is-life.blogspot.com
Water Is Life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~And once again we are seeing the truth about human nature which knows no nationality,... more-
- JanforGore
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- 4 years ago
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Drought Threatens The Lives of Millions In Ethiopia
This is heartbreaking. Not only because this is happening to children, but because it is totally preventable. There are no longer any words to express my outrage at what is going on in this world. I cannot fathom the total lack of tolerance, intelligence, and planning on the part of governments. I cannot tolerate the absolute disregard for human beings by other human beings, and the conditions we exacerbate still knowing full well what is causing them with the ability to stop them. How does one who cares so deeply for the children of this world read something like this and not feel helpless?
These poor people are kept in total poverty for the benefit of organizations like The World Bank, and yes, even the UN, and I find it appalling. For all of the talk we hear year after year after year about eradicating poverty, famine, and water scarcity and pollution which are causing the diseases plaguing the developing world, we get little to no results in addressing it. For all of the money thrown at it we get little to no results.
This is simply so pervasive and so overwhelming in scope that it is beyond human comprehension. We as a species will never be able to live down what we have done to despoil not only this planet but our own species and those that have no voice. And the children... the innocent children who have known nothing but hunger, disease, and despair. What of them? Where is their hope? Where is their food? Where is their water? Where is the education to show them how to plant and build a life for themselves instead of depending on The World Bank and other bloodsucking organizations that loan them money they can never repay back thus keeping the cycle of poverty and inequality going round? Are they to now only be the focus of the media just to get ratings?
All I can say is, thanks to organizations like Doctors Without Borders these children will at least have a chance to get proper medical care and food. I have come to conclusion however, that governments around this world for all their talk are simply too corrupt, selfish, and inadequate to address the crises we face adequately with the moral fortitude necessary to conquer them.
NO CHILD IN THIS WORLD SHOULD GO HUNGRY OR THIRSTY. And to think we have all we need to make sure that doesn't happen but yet it still does is a shameful reflection on all of us.
More at http://water-is-life.blogspot.com
WATER IS LIFE.This is heartbreaking. Not only because this is happening to children, but because it... more-
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- 4 years ago
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Interview With Fred Pearce: When The Rivers Run Dry
Fred Pearce is an environment and development consultant whose latest book is When the Rivers Run Dry : Water–The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century.
Our list of things to worry about – global warming, oil shortages, bird flu, terrorism, etc. – seems to grow every year. Why do you say water is the “defining crisis of the twenty-first century?”
Oh, there are plenty of things to worry about. Most of them arise from Homo sapiens having to work out how to live together in ever greater numbers on the one planet. Right now we seem to be good at finding technical and organizational fixes (none of the above are really insuperable problems), but rather poor at finding ways of making them happen. In truth, I’d put water up there with global warming at top of the agenda. Many climate scientists think that our big problems with global warming will come less from the warming itself and more from the big changes in hydrology that it causes – droughts and floods, dried out soils and ecosystems, empty rivers, and maybe the worst, the sheer unpredictability of where and when we will have water.But water also defines quite well our problems in moving from a world of apparently plentiful resources – a world in which if we screw up we can move on – to a world of finite resources, where we have to manage carefully to get by. We still often see water as an essentially free and unlimited resource. But it isn’t. The public policy response to water shortages is still to build a new dam or sink a new well, with little regard for the thought that there may be no more water in the river to be captured, or underground to be pumped.
Apart from the air we breathe, water is the most basic, most urgent, need that we all have. We can survive for a while without food, but not without water. We can survive forever without oil – but not without water. Water has no substitute. The good news, though, is that it is a constantly renewed resource. The natural water cycle of evaporation and rainfall constantly cleans and recycles it. We will never “run out” of water in the way we might run out of oil. So the trick, as we find local and sometimes regional reserves running out, is to realise that fact, and to manage our use of water in a way that meshes with the natural cycle.
From that perspective, managing water is a model (and, because of its urgency and universality, the defining model) of how we deal with nature. Not as a force to be confronted, but as a force to be nurtured and to be worked with. That notion holds in every sphere from using “soft engineering” in order to manage floods, to harvesting the rains and to preserving wetlands.
The short answer to the question, therefore, is that meeting water needs (and managing our water demand to fit water availability) is both a major challenge in itself for the 21st century and will define more widely our ability to coexist with nature and make good use of the planet’s fast diminishing “natural capital.” And my belief is that if we can get water right we will be able to get most things right.
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This is an informative and important view about the one resource we cannot live without: water. And along with mismanagement, waste, overconsumption, population increases, broken infrastructure, corporatization, and now climate change entering the mix, our rivers are drying up. This is a crucial issue that I truly wish more people knew about and felt an urgency about. As Mr. Pearce stated in this first question, if we can get water right we will be able to get most things right. But we have to act now.Fred Pearce is an environment and development consultant whose latest book is When the... more-
- JanforGore
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- 4 years ago
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Our Water Future
Since I began posting to this blog almost two years ago, we have seen much happen in the world of water. We have seen the steady decline of water safety and democracy worldwide with glacier melt threatening the water supplies of millions becoming more prevalent. Drought is an affliction that has now enveloped close to 40% of our planet. We have seen the effects of ethanol production as it now is revealed to be nothing more than a corporate/political scam set upon us to deplete our food and water sources which has caused riots in many developing areas of the world. Corporatization of our public trust is increasing, with political power looking to gain control over world water resources as they did oil. The outlook after seeing all of this may seem bleak.
However, we have seen some positive things come about as well. More people than ever are becoming aware of the global water crisis and water justice movement. More are standing up to the bottled water interests and demanding not only accountability but boycotting the bottle and they are feeling the pinch. The effects of citizen activism are being felt worldwide as information and truth seeps its way across the Internet to the hearts and minds of people who are now more awakened and empowered to take action to preserve this planet and our precious resources.
And that must continue, for the task before us is monumental. For times are bleak across much of the world particularly in Africa and Asia where water resources become scarcer due to corruption, mismanagement, climate change, and pollution, and where the ability to speak out against it is but a dream. Therefore, caring about water and its future is a global duty.
It is incumbant upon all of us as citizens of the world to ask questions, research, demand accountability, and work for water justice. That includes clean, safe, healthy sources that seek to bring not only health but peace to areas of the world where running water is the greatest gift they could have to sustain their bodies, their minds and their souls, which is true freedom.
So while I look out on the landscape of the planet and see an encroaching crisis, I also see an unprecedented opportunity for the human race to find within itself the will and courage to save itself. And the continued flow of information, truth, and opportunity will surely aid in that goal.
We must not relent in seeing an international convention on water declaring it a human right and setting the standards for addressing this right and fulfilling the goals and obligations that will lead to true water justice.
As Maude Barlow states here, "the right to water is an idea whose time has come."
UN ConventionTo The Right To Water
That time is now.Since I began posting to this blog almost two years ago, we have seen much happen in... more-
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How much do you know about the world water crisis?
Take the quiz and find out.-
- JanforGore
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- 4 years ago
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Melting Glaciers In Peru
A harbinger of global climate change that is happening too rapidly all across this world to be just natural. But will the cause really matter should the millions of people who depend on these glaciers for water to survive no longer have it because the world was too busy debating instead of doing something to address it?A harbinger of global climate change that is happening too rapidly all across this... more-
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- 4 years ago
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Give The Gift of Water and Save A Life
This is my passion, and seeing those who need water happy because they now have it truly uplifts me. I hope it does you too. At this season please consider a gift to the organization I linked in this entry. They truly do magnificent and miraculous work in giving people the basic element of life.This is my passion, and seeing those who need water happy because they now have it... more-
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