EVERYWHERE
But not a drop to drink...?
So lets just talk about how much water is on the earth. How much? Well just as we are about 70% water as humans, the earth is about the same. We keep hearing that the next war will be over water, which surprises some people, maybe not locally as many communities have droughts, but from a global perspective it appears we have plenty of water!
Fact:
- 97.5% of our water is SALT
- for the math whizz's this means only 2.5% of our water is FRESH
- 68.7% of that is snow and ice (yes this means those massive glaciers!)
- 30.8% groundwater + 0.4% lakes, rivers ect... = our source of fresh water
- NOTE: this is less than 1% of all the water on EARTH
With that in perspective, lets think about everything we could possible use water for...
The Obvious: showers, washing dishes, drinking, flushing toilets, washing car, watering lawns, washing laundry, watering plants... to name a few
The Not-So Obvious (Virtual Water):
- How much water on average does it take to produce...
- a car = 40,000 gallons
- 1 pound of plastic = 25 gallons
- pair of jeans = 900 gallons
- 1 pound of wool/cotton = 100 gallons
- refine a barrel of crude oil = 1,900 gallons
- 1 pound of cheese = 900 gallons (milk) + 600 gallons
- pair of leather shoes = 2,000 gallons
- 1 pound of roasted coffee = 2,500 gallons
- one latte = 50 gallons
I love that.. "virtual water..." haha
ReplyDeleteAnd as much as I love my cows, either alive or in my belly, they also require a lot water.
Perhaps more so if they are grain fed, seeing that that requires the specific production of grain to feed/fatten them. More 'natural/organic' farms, that graze their cattle, essentially use water that is already there from the grass rather than adding more 'water' to their diet.
[besides... cows are biologically meant to graze, not eat grain. Grazed cows are actually good for you, where as grain fed are just fatty and not as nutritious!]
It works for me, though. Finding jeans in my size are pain as it is, so I can't help but not buy a lot!
And, this year, particularly, I've been doing a lot of "1 pair of jeans/week."
Cuts down on my laundry because denim took up so much space last year that I was forced to do three loads so things actually got washed :/
And even then.. our "fresh water" isn't necessarily that fresh...
Research the amount of water it takes to generate electricity. Also, I'm expecting a great post on energy in the near future. It better include the energy return on investment of our remaining energy sources and how we use them.
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