Plug for Sustainability
So I can't stop reading today, it would seem. I'm just cracking into my backlog of Discover Magazines and I've found a great article in the June 2008 edition which focuses on Virtual Water.
We're brought up in a consumer-based society, and I think the majority of Americans can get what they need or want simply through the exchange of money. In other words, Americans think about the things they have purely on a monetary basis; they have never thought about what it takes to get those goods (and services) to the consumer stage.
To really make changes with this, it's evident that we need 2 things from most Americans:
1) We need to start valuing the things that we have. We place a lot of value (at least superficially) on our freedom, so why not value pineapple in the grocery store, or even a frozen pizza? Americans (and perhaps people in general) have a tendency of neglecting the importance or convenience of things until they are no longer available.
2) We need to accept that we are members of this world. Isolationist policies can no longer apply because the world is too small for us to hide in our corner (even if we actually WERE hiding - yes, that's a reference to our military involvements overseas.) We need to get past cultural barriers to see the importance of all people and how they live. Because how China handles their waste DEFINITELY has an effect on OUR health. The world is one big system.
The Discover article (Better Planet, Virtual Water - a smarter way to think about how much H2O you use by Thomas M. Kostigen) focuses mainly on coffee. According to the article, "one-third of the tap water used for drinking in North America is actually used to brew our daily cups of joe - and if each of us avoided wasting just one cupful of coffee a day, we could save enough water over the course of a year to provide two gallons to every one of the more than 1.1 billion people who don't have access to freshwater at all." But it then highlights that the amount of water used in coffee is not the only water needed to get the coffee into our hands. What about the water used in PRODUCING the coffee? How much does it take to grow the beans? and transport it to your coffee shop or kitchen? To produce one cup of coffee, 37 gallons of water are needed - before it even gets in your hand. And THAT is the called "virtual water."
Everything we consume has a virtual water "footprint." And the globe, with its ever-expanding population, is facing a water crisis. This is where it would be beautiful if people from the Great Lakes area, where water crisis usually don't happen, could put a little more thought into the people who DO face water crisis (It happens in America, btw. You don't have to look overseas to see people in need.) Very quickly one can see that by recycling or not wasting as much, we can save a lot of the energy that goes into all of our goods and services.
And water isn't the only thing needed to heighten our security in obtaining food. Think about the PEOPLE needed to plant, tend, and harvest all the ingredients of the things we buy. If you break down that frozen pizza into all its constituent parts (tomatoes, wheat, onions, plastics, and cardboard), all of those products come from somewhere before they are concocted into a pizza in the factory- all of those pieces in building the pizza, each stage, uses energy, water, electricity or gas. It's a bit staggering when you start to see the world like this. Because it's not limited just to our food or drink. This laptop I'm typing on has a pretty big water footprint itself, not to mention all the labor required to get all the pieces together and then to me. According to the article, a sheet of paper requires 3 gallons of virtual water and a pair of leather shoes takes 4,400 gallons!
What am I asking you to do? Think. Just think about all the things that you use. And think about ways to not waste them. Because if you throw away a half cup of coffee, you're throwing away all the energy it took to make it, you're throwing away water that someone else could have used, and you're also creating more work and energy consumption down the line (if you disposed of it in a sink.) Don't get paranoid about it, because we all have to leave some footprints to get through life, but just think about ways, simple ways to minimize your impact.
One of the things that still drives me nuts is the shabby recycling in the US. In Germany nearly EVERYTHING was recycled. I've started taking my backpack to the grocery store and the baggers don't seem to mind filling it up with my groceries. It's how they do it in Europe, and my apartment quite frankly can't keep up with the quantity of bags coming in.
If you are curious about more virtual water statistics, or want to calculate the amount of water required for various products, see http://www.waterfootprint.org .
We're brought up in a consumer-based society, and I think the majority of Americans can get what they need or want simply through the exchange of money. In other words, Americans think about the things they have purely on a monetary basis; they have never thought about what it takes to get those goods (and services) to the consumer stage.
To really make changes with this, it's evident that we need 2 things from most Americans:
1) We need to start valuing the things that we have. We place a lot of value (at least superficially) on our freedom, so why not value pineapple in the grocery store, or even a frozen pizza? Americans (and perhaps people in general) have a tendency of neglecting the importance or convenience of things until they are no longer available.
2) We need to accept that we are members of this world. Isolationist policies can no longer apply because the world is too small for us to hide in our corner (even if we actually WERE hiding - yes, that's a reference to our military involvements overseas.) We need to get past cultural barriers to see the importance of all people and how they live. Because how China handles their waste DEFINITELY has an effect on OUR health. The world is one big system.
The Discover article (Better Planet, Virtual Water - a smarter way to think about how much H2O you use by Thomas M. Kostigen) focuses mainly on coffee. According to the article, "one-third of the tap water used for drinking in North America is actually used to brew our daily cups of joe - and if each of us avoided wasting just one cupful of coffee a day, we could save enough water over the course of a year to provide two gallons to every one of the more than 1.1 billion people who don't have access to freshwater at all." But it then highlights that the amount of water used in coffee is not the only water needed to get the coffee into our hands. What about the water used in PRODUCING the coffee? How much does it take to grow the beans? and transport it to your coffee shop or kitchen? To produce one cup of coffee, 37 gallons of water are needed - before it even gets in your hand. And THAT is the called "virtual water."
Everything we consume has a virtual water "footprint." And the globe, with its ever-expanding population, is facing a water crisis. This is where it would be beautiful if people from the Great Lakes area, where water crisis usually don't happen, could put a little more thought into the people who DO face water crisis (It happens in America, btw. You don't have to look overseas to see people in need.) Very quickly one can see that by recycling or not wasting as much, we can save a lot of the energy that goes into all of our goods and services.
And water isn't the only thing needed to heighten our security in obtaining food. Think about the PEOPLE needed to plant, tend, and harvest all the ingredients of the things we buy. If you break down that frozen pizza into all its constituent parts (tomatoes, wheat, onions, plastics, and cardboard), all of those products come from somewhere before they are concocted into a pizza in the factory- all of those pieces in building the pizza, each stage, uses energy, water, electricity or gas. It's a bit staggering when you start to see the world like this. Because it's not limited just to our food or drink. This laptop I'm typing on has a pretty big water footprint itself, not to mention all the labor required to get all the pieces together and then to me. According to the article, a sheet of paper requires 3 gallons of virtual water and a pair of leather shoes takes 4,400 gallons!
What am I asking you to do? Think. Just think about all the things that you use. And think about ways to not waste them. Because if you throw away a half cup of coffee, you're throwing away all the energy it took to make it, you're throwing away water that someone else could have used, and you're also creating more work and energy consumption down the line (if you disposed of it in a sink.) Don't get paranoid about it, because we all have to leave some footprints to get through life, but just think about ways, simple ways to minimize your impact.
One of the things that still drives me nuts is the shabby recycling in the US. In Germany nearly EVERYTHING was recycled. I've started taking my backpack to the grocery store and the baggers don't seem to mind filling it up with my groceries. It's how they do it in Europe, and my apartment quite frankly can't keep up with the quantity of bags coming in.
If you are curious about more virtual water statistics, or want to calculate the amount of water required for various products, see http://www.waterfootprint.org .