Sustaining Us

One of my more hopeful pursuits is a place in the minds of my (few) readers; to facilitate our ability to challenge the unconscious, the status quo, and lift the veil hovering over the wealth of unknown possibilities. Water conservation is a good choice for such a goal. Water is unique in its own right.

First, water has a slightly negative, slightly positive charge making it versatile. Water’s allure includes its dirt busting abilities in the kitchen sink and it’s ever so fragile surface-tension, allowing water to rise over the lip of a glass or an insect to walk across a pond. Second, water’s density decreases as it gets cooler, a peculiar trait in the word of physics. Ice is genius! If ever anyone had a reason to believe in divine intervention ice is evidence. Ice floats in our beverages combatting the heat conveyor (heat rises, see convection). Water’s quirkiness is nothing short of miraculous. Without such an abundance we wouldn’t be here.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, wrote, “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” Singularly, this quote embodies the dilemma we face in the near future, a water conundrum. We’ve polluted our fresh water sources and drained the remaining potable reserves. In most municipalities, our water use is beyond what is naturally replaced. Seven states reached a landmark agreement to split what’s left of the Colorado River and its dam-born reservoirs. Once a river that stretched from the Rockeis to the Pacific, the river no longer reaches the ocean shore.

I have tremendous faith in America’s ingenuity, ingenuity that will be forced to unlock the secrets of desalinization (removing salt) if we wish to solve our water demand without compromise. In the near term, it’s important to live within our means. We mustn’t depend on tomorrow’s discoveries to save our butts today. Water conservation is a sore subject for many. We envision shorter showers(at least I do), annoying water-saving sinks, and drought-induced prohibitions. Although those measures are often most tangible and easily captured, they aren’t the only ones. Bottled water is an excellent example. Wikipedia mentions that in order to manufacture one liter of bottled water, three to five liters are used in processing (much less is used to clean it every few days in a dishwasher). A standard reusable water bottle can save plenty of water in the long term. Using recycled paper anyone? Synthesizing new paper requires more water than recylced, think 7,000 gallons more per ton. By reducing your waste, you can limit the amount of water needed to move the manufacturing process. There are even more interesting solutions like dual flush and flushless urinals aimed(pun intended) to reduce waste, water waste that is. So challenge the way you consume and you’ll find that you can reduce your water use.

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