WATER

When you fill up a glass of water at the sink, do you know how it got to you? What about when you flush the toilet or wash the dishes? Out of sight, out of mind? Living more sustainability means thinking about all of the inputs and outputs that we use in daily living- from brewing your morning coffee to flipping on the TV at night- food, electricity- water- they all come from somewhere and have a social and environmental impact on their journeys to and from you. In this section, we will be examining water in particular.

A water frenzy

The average American family uses more than 300 gallons of water per DAY. A quarter of that water goes to flushing the toilet! About 20 percent go to the shower, the faucet, and your washing machine. 12 percent is wasted through leaks! Let’s put this into context, because individuals are often blamed for environmental problems which are systemic- much larger scale. Household use accounts for only 12 percent of overall water use in the US. The rest is used for commercial, industrial, agricultural and electricity-related purposes. Thermoelectric Power uses almost half of US freshwater withdrawals- see this report from the Union of Concerned Scientists if you want to dive deeper. Irrigation is the second-biggest user, and large-scale farms use over 60 percent of applied irrigation water while only making up around 10 percent of all farms.

The water supply

The abundance and ready accessibility of water in American homes can understandability lead us to take water for granted- I never wonder if the water will turn on when I go to brush my teeth. However, water supplies in the US are increasingly under threat, especially in the drier parts of the country, and increasingly so because of climate change.

Solutions

In this section (WATER), we will be presenting a variety of solutions to our direct and indirect consumption of water. These solutions- as with everything we advocate- focus on grassroots, DIY approaches. We'll take a look at three different ways of doing this: