Water: The Fabric of Our Lives

Courtesy of researchnews.osu.edu/archive/nanocrptpix.htm.

Well I guess it's not technically a fabric, but water is essential to our existence on this (or any other) planet. We often forget how important clean water actually is. Second only to air, water is the most critical element to our lives. Our very fabric is sewn with threads of water.
In western societies, and more increasingly around the world, water is made to seem so common and abundant that no thought is put into conservation. It's like saving air -- why would you? Most people don't know that the amount of potable water on Earth is a mere 1%. Of all the millions and billions of gallons of water moving, floating, falling, rushing, flowing and freezing, only %1 is usable by people. In almost any action related to our body, water is consumed. Taking a shower, drinking, eating, brushing your teeth, washing your hands, peeing, sleeping...

Water is made to seem so abundant, that we piss and crap in drinking water. Imagine that! Are we that arrogant? "I'm so rich, I'm gonna take a shit here in this bowl of water." I don't know where this idea came from , but it seems very backward to me. Yet it is so ingrained into our culture (myself included), that I feel awkward mentioning this fact to others. They may think I'm strange for entertaining such an outlandish concept.

With the green movement however, along with the all too common quotes and trivia spouted about CO2, comes an awareness of our other environmental mistreatments, water being one of them. Integrated designs for reusing or reclaiming used water (greywater or blackwater) for other uses. Living machines are alternatives to typical sewage treatment systems. This is a biological method of cleansing water. Instead of using chemicals and inorganic methods to clean water, you use living organisms such as bacteria, plants, and fish, to filter water to varying quality levels. This in turn, allows us to use the water again, giving us a 100% increase in our resource use. We can water the lawn, feed our plants, or redirect the water to be used in toilets, or depending on quality, drink, cook or shower with. This is called closing the resource loop, a fundamental concept of permaculture.

Water is so important, but we treat it like shit.

We should think of water more as a life-sustaining element, rather than a means of transporting our turds. Let us use less water or reuse the water we consume. A perfect opportunity for another challenge.


Challenge #2: Measure your shower. Then shorten it.

1. Measure your flow rate. Get a bucket, preferably with volume lines, and a watch. Turn on your water to the flow you usually use, simultaneously starting your watch. Time for 1 minute. Measure how much water is in your bucket. This will give you your gallons (liters)/minute. Let's say you measure a rate of 4gallons/min.

2. Time the duration of shower. Then multiply your shower (in minutes) by the gallons. This will give you your total water usage and duration of your shower. In our example, your shower ends up being 10 minutes.

Your total water usage will be (4gal x 10min) 40gal. for a 10min. shower.

3. See if you can reduce your water usage by 25% or more. That would turn the above 10min shower into a 7min 30sec. shower.

You would save 10gal. of water. A drop in the bucket you might say. But if everyone does a little, together we can do a lot.

Going "Ghetto" Green!

Going green is the latest trend everywhere! From big biz to small mom and pop shops, becoming environmentally friendly is the way to go. But to every trend is an ugly, kept in the closet, don't let the deformed half-brother out of the basement, side. Even with it's so-called "clean" reputation, going green has its dark side. I intend to expose it and allow you do decide how clean this movement really is. The following are methods that you can use to make your life green, depending on how far you're willing to go. This is the list the goodie greenies don't want you to see.

Water Conservation
1. Take cold showers.
2. Take less showers.
3. Don't take showers.
4. Kill two birds with one stone, drink your pee. (Neither flush nor tap water!)
5. Don’t wash your hands (or your dishes). Strengthen your immune system.
6. Defecate outside, in a bucket or in the garden. Use it for fertilizer.

Energy
7. Turn off your lights when you're not using them, or
8. Wait until the power is cut off to pay your bill. Remember to use your home computer.
9. When it's cold, bundle up and sleep with your sister/brother.
10. When it’s hot, take off your clothes and sleep with your sister/brother.
11. Move into a smaller house (you guessed it), with your sister/brother.
12. Don’t use a refrigerator. Move somewhere cold and put perishables outside. Also see tip #9.
13. Watching TV is a waste of time anyway so don’t own one. The same for washing machines, dryers, microwaves, and toothbrushes.

Money
14. Cook Top Ramen for dinner.
15. Don't cook.
16. Don't eat meat.
17. Don't eat.
18. Don't buy appliances. Borrow or share with your neighbors.
19. Don’t buy furniture or worthless stuff. Sit on the floor.
20. Don’t invite anyone over for a cold one or a warm one or whatever. In fact, invite yourself to their place.
21. Steal. Actually this would be unethical. Borrow with the intent of “indefinite return.”

Transportation
22. Don’t own a car.
23. Carpool and freeload.
24. Use the bus or public transportation.
25. Ride a bike.
26. Better yet, ride a stolen one. Sorry, a "borrowed" one.


There it is. But this list is far from complete. There are many of you that may be pros in the art of Ghetto Green. Please leave your tips for me and we can build a compilation!