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If you think you use less water than the average American, National Geographic's Water Footprint Calculator may prove to be an eye-opener. The simple interface asks users to answer a few questions about their lifestyle: how many three-ounce servings of beef do you eat in a week? How much do you spend on clothing? Do you flush after you pee? (Yes!) Answer honestly and you're presented with a readout of how many gallons a week you use, and how it stacks up against the average. The real fun (and real point of the calculator) comes now, as you play with the readouts to see if you can save at least 20 percent a week. Eat less pork (576 gallons of water to produce one pound)? Drink less milk (880 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk)? Leave out a few showers a week?
The infographic on foods and how much water they require to produce is particularly interesting. We've all heard how ridiculously wasteful beef is to produce; what'll really blow your mind is how water-guzzling coffee, tea, cheese, and chocolate are.
Just sign me: If it's yellow, let it mellow.
Image source: Flickr member Snapr under Creative Commons
The real problems are that there are too many people where the water isn't,
and also that there are too many people on the planet, period.
Whatever happened to Zero Population Growth?
Chris
Nertz to you all. I live in Michigan. Water Wonderland. I'll let the water run just for the hell of it without any guilt whatsover. It rains here, and snows here--it's the price you pay to be in the ecosystem that supports abundant fresh water--but we have WATER. And LOTS of it. Damn close to infinite amounts of it.
If you want to really truly treat water as the scarce and valuable resource...+READ
Nertz to you all. I live in Michigan. Water Wonderland. I'll let the water run just for the hell of it without any guilt whatsover. It rains here, and snows here--it's the price you pay to be in the ecosystem that supports abundant fresh water--but we have WATER. And LOTS of it. Damn close to infinite amounts of it.
If you want to really truly treat water as the scarce and valuable resource that it is, STOP LIVING IN THE DESERT AND TRYING TO MAKE IT GREEN. No lawns, no pools. Frankly, avoid living where humans weren't meant to live (who would live in Arizona or Florida if AC hadn't been invented?). And lose the factory farms.
Don't encourage population growth in areas where fresh water doesn't naturally occur.-COLLAPSE
Hear, hear, junescook. My thoughts exactly. Bait the public with non sequitur to make them feel guilty about a political agenda. (It sounds like our moms went to the same school of vicarious nutrition.)
I've been off red meat for 30 years but make no value judgments about those who indulge. My dad was a food chemist/bacteriologist who consulted worldwide to numerous corporations. Water is...+READ
Hear, hear, junescook. My thoughts exactly. Bait the public with non sequitur to make them feel guilty about a political agenda. (It sounds like our moms went to the same school of vicarious nutrition.)
I've been off red meat for 30 years but make no value judgments about those who indulge. My dad was a food chemist/bacteriologist who consulted worldwide to numerous corporations. Water is needed in voluminous amounts to process all foods - whether its washing potatoes for potato chips, cleansing spinach or sustaining livestock. Hey Joyce Slayton...why not go after the olive industry that requires 35 gallons of water to put out one can of olives? They should have their hands slapped as well, and all olive eaters rethinking their wasteful habits.
CP-COLLAPSE
This somehow smacks of the same specious reasoning that when you were little, and didn't want to eat everything on your plate, your mother would say: just think of the starving children in China (or Africa or wherever). It was not as though my eating it would make them more nourished.
Neither will my taking a ten minute v a five minute shower do anything for people in a third world country....+READ
This somehow smacks of the same specious reasoning that when you were little, and didn't want to eat everything on your plate, your mother would say: just think of the starving children in China (or Africa or wherever). It was not as though my eating it would make them more nourished.
Neither will my taking a ten minute v a five minute shower do anything for people in a third world country. Where we live, we recycle our waste water, through our septic tank and back through layers of earth and rock to the wells below. Water used to care for animals does not disappear. It goes through that same cycle, or evaporates and gets condensed out as rain. The ambiant earth temperatures may have an impact on the rain cycle, but ten cows in one place = one cow in ten places.-COLLAPSE
This headline is misleading! It refers to COMMERCIAL FACTORY FARMED PORK PRODUCTION, not naturally raised pastured heritage breed pork. So perhaps change it to it "switch to heritage breeds for better flavour and better practices!"
I don't know how they're calculating things, but there's nothing in the calculations for vegetarians. I'm mostly vegetarian and I came out way low on water consumption, but you can't tell me there's no water cost involved in growing and transporting vegetables and fruits because I know there is. And since much of our vegetables and fruits are grown in California and other points west, the cost of...+READ
I don't know how they're calculating things, but there's nothing in the calculations for vegetarians. I'm mostly vegetarian and I came out way low on water consumption, but you can't tell me there's no water cost involved in growing and transporting vegetables and fruits because I know there is. And since much of our vegetables and fruits are grown in California and other points west, the cost of irrigation (in terms of water usage) is significant. Not to mention transporting the produce across the country.-COLLAPSE
Many angry negative thoughts went through my head when I read this. I'm gonna go with one positive word instead. BACON.
I wonder how they calculate this. Is it the amount it takes farmers to raise the animal or the amount the animal needs to live regardless? If it's the former then does that mean a deer you hunt is equal to zero gallons of water?
If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down.
Navy showers! (aka camping showers) save hundreds of gallons a week per household member. I live in an area dependant on wells, and whose water table is now offically in overdraft. It's really no big deal to save water. Have been through rationing before in the 70's and it was no fun.
It's cool to conserve, and it's not about guilt. I'd rather "spend" the water in my veg garden.
Water ON--Wet...+READ
Navy showers! (aka camping showers) save hundreds of gallons a week per household member. I live in an area dependant on wells, and whose water table is now offically in overdraft. It's really no big deal to save water. Have been through rationing before in the 70's and it was no fun.
It's cool to conserve, and it's not about guilt. I'd rather "spend" the water in my veg garden.
Water ON--Wet down
Water OFF--soap and shampoo
Water ON--rinse quickly
Dry off. PDS.-COLLAPSE
And flush the toilet PLEASE!!!
@Rick: Well, hey... let's look it up:
Water Inputs in California Food Production http://bit.ly/dvn9AM (PDF), pg 5:
1 lb. Hamburger Beef = 2463 gallons of water
1lb. Soybean Tofu = 219 gallons of water
It's an order of magnitude less. In fact, you'd save more water by abstaining from one pound of California beef than you would by not showering for an entire year. (John Robbins, The Food...+READ
@Rick: Well, hey... let's look it up:
Water Inputs in California Food Production http://bit.ly/dvn9AM (PDF), pg 5:
1 lb. Hamburger Beef = 2463 gallons of water
1lb. Soybean Tofu = 219 gallons of water
It's an order of magnitude less. In fact, you'd save more water by abstaining from one pound of California beef than you would by not showering for an entire year. (John Robbins, The Food Revolution p.237)-COLLAPSE
Would be very interesting to hear how much water is used for Tofu, soy beans and their products, but I suspect it is alot less than meat...
Enough Already is right! GET A REAL LIFE! PLEEEASE! Just dotn be wasteful thats all! I was taught that by my parents and gradnapresnts 50 years ago! WE DONT NEED THE BIG BROTHER IS watching --- to tell us how to live either! 8^/
Just another example of "Green-Guilting" Political correctness. how many millions of gallons of water to grow your precious soy beans or make your Tofu?
enough already
--Rick
Please, don't leave out ANY showers.