“Water has no substitute. Share it wisely”

     So yesterday I went on a jeremiad about why we need to save our environment. (LOOK! vocab!). Well in that rant I touched upon the topic of water conservation (I also posted a short video about it). Well I came across some nifty things on the National Geographic website in regards to water. This awesome link will take you to a webpage that shows you the “Hidden Water We Use.” It gives us a more in depth look on how much hidden water our food industry uses by showing the amount of water that cows, chicken, goats and other food products really use.
     By going to this link you can actually calculate how much water you use (it’s actually pretty fun). It is truly surprising how much water you can save by just not eating meat. If you click on view tip, you can learn more on why that particular action uses water etc. Something interesting to be noted is the fact that, "only five percent [of water]—runs through toilets, taps, and garden hoses at home. Nearly 95 percent of your water footprint is hidden in the food you eat, energy you use, products you buy, and services you rely on."    
     And for 10 quick and easy tips to conserve water, read this short article.

     And finally, some information on how long it takes for items to decompose…pretty much a testament on why we need to recycle and compost! And oh yeah, have I mentioned getting rid of Styrofoam?

• Banana Peel: 3-4 weeks
• Paper Bag: 1 month
• Cardboard: 2 months
• Wool Sock : 1 year
• Tinned Steel Can: 50 years
• Aluminum Can: 200-500 years (But if recycled, it can be reused within 6 weeks!)
• Disposable Diapers: 550 years
• Plastic Bags : 20-1000 years
• Plastic Jug: 1 million years
• Glass : 1-2 million years
• Styrofoam: 1+ million years


     Now multiply this by the number of people in the world who throw away these products on a daily basis, and sometimes more than once a day (think of all the diapers that just one baby uses!) and you get….drum roll please….an environmental disaster.