“As I became aware of the mounting global water crisis, I realized that it represented a clash of cultures – between a culture that values water as a shared sacred source of all life and a corporate culture that regards water as a commodity to be bought and sold.”

Quote from Shalini Kantayya, director of A Drop of Life – a futuristic sci-fi flick about the mounting water crisis winning Best Short Film at Palm Beach International as well as the Audience Choice Award at the IUOW Film competition. Will check it out some time (two years late anyway).

“Who controls water controls life”

Photo credit: Marshall Astor – Food Pornographer

Kathy Freston, a “self-help author and personal growth and spirituality counselor”, has posted an interesting article over at the Huffington Post about the consequences of eating meat. Or in this case if we didn’t:

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

• 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;
• 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;
• 70 million gallons of gas–enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;
• 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;
• 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:

• Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;
• 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;
• 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;
• Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

The meat industry is a big burden for our climate as it is responsible for about one fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions, in the world. That means they currently pollutes more than the whole transport sector. The cattle release CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases. They also use a lot of land areas, around 25% of the earths total land area. And about one third of all farm areas are used to grow food for the cattle. And by year 2050 the meat production is expected to increase with 50%.

So just like Rajendra Pachauri, who currently chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2002 and who recently won the Nobel Peace Price along with Al Gore, said “that among options for mitigating climate change, changing diets is something one should consider.”

When household and industrial wastes are disposed into the water, they increase the quantity of germs in it. Germs threaten the health of the organisms living in the water, drinking it or feeding on organisms that live in it. Moreover, huge quantities of nitric and phosphoric salts enter the ecosystem. Phytoplankton, the tiniest sea organisms that can photosynthesize and depend highly on those salts, start to grow in population at top speed, consuming oxygen. As a result, zooplankton which feeds on phytoplankton starts to increase in numbers, again consuming oxygen and producing carbon dioxide.

After some time, during which those small organisms continue to consume oxygen and produce larger amounts of carbon dioxide, there is not enough oxygen to sustain bigger organisms, like fish, who actually die of suffocation.

Lakes are the most usual ecosystems harmed by eutrophication. Oxygen cannot be easily diminished in the sea, and the movement of the water in rivers transfer the salts else where. The most common sign of eutrophication is the waters having a deep green colour. And as human wastes increase, ecosystems become more fragile and their living organisms more vulnerable to suffocation.

Consequently, one of our first priorities, as far as those ecosystems is concerned, is to find alternative ways of removing our industrial and household waste, so that it doesn’t end up in the water. The top priority, needless to say, is to reduce those wastes.

A currently running advertising campaign from Brita, a German company that specializes in water filtration products, says in its ad slogan that “last year 16 million gallons of oil were consumed to make plastic water bottles.”

Brita wants you to stop using water bottles and instead use their water filters to clean their water. While you can ask yourself what use the water filters will do, when the majority of the developed countries have an excellent quality on their water, the advertising campaign highlights one of the most pointless waste products in our society today.

Americans send about 38 billion water bottles a year to landfills. Considering the 1.5 million barrels of oil needed to make those bottles, the environmental impact of plastic bottle waste is truly staggering.

You can check out their site over at FilterForGood.com. While you at it you might also want to check out TakeBackTheFilter.org.

The full images from the ad campaign can be found below:

The graphic comes from UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme.

Older entries:
- A Picture is Worth… Gasoline Consumption Per Day
- A Picture is Worth… Albatross Carcass
- A Picture is Worth… Car, bus or bicycle?

Do you like to take long, and especially hot, showers regularly? Besides making your skin dryer you will also waste money and water (30% of all home water consumption is in the shower) on those long hot showers.

But fear not! Technology in form of “high-tech” sandglass timers is here to help you.

When buying a shower timer you should look for a four minute timer. Don’t forget that the timer should also be waterproof!

But why four minutes and not just invest in a water-efficient showerhead and shower as much as you like? Because by using a brand new water-efficient showerhead for 15 minutes will still waste more water than a 4 minute shower under an old showerhead.

The sandglass timers from the image above come in six different waterproof designs and the price starts at $3 for the most basic one.

Did you know that it takes 15 000 litres of water to produce one kilo meat from an animal who is being feed with grains. 150 litres of water is needed to produce one kilo of grains.