GREEN THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Water is life,” said Tammy Boyd, as she placed a bottle of water on the altar during Maundy Thursday worship with the El Salvador Spirit Build team. In many villages in El Salvador and for that matter around the world, water is not available to people in their own homes or if it is, it is unsafe to drink. Forty-six percent of people on earth do not have water piped to their homes; women in developing countries walk an average of 3.7 miles to get water.
Americans use about 100 gallons of water at home each day. Millions of the world’s poorest subsist on fewer than 5 gallons. In 15 years, 1.8 billion people will live in regions of severe water scarcity. Nearly 70% of the world’s fresh water is locked in ice. Most of the rest is in aquifers that we’re draining much more quickly than the natural recharge rate. Global warming is aggravating water problems: whether too little as more areas face drought, or too much as others face flood or hurricanes or rising sea levels. (All data in this article are from National Geographic, April 2010, special issue on WATER.)
Water “is the gold standard of biological currency, and the good news is that we can conserve it in countless ways. ..We are not important to water. It’s the other way around. Our task is to work out reason able ways to survive inside its boundaries.” (Barbara Kingsolver, National Geographic Essay, April 2010)
GREEN ACTION IDEAS: (1) Educate yourself about global water issues. For example, see GLOBALWATERINITIATIVE.COM to learn more about how a coalition of international organizations are working to provide long-term access to clean water and sanitation in some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities. (2) Educate yourself about local water issues. Your local water utility is one good source of information and there are many others. Preview: The Green Team will provide information about water in our county as we ask you to “TAKE A STAKE IN THE LAKES.” (3) Save water yourself at home and elsewhere. Use less, waste less, and pollute less. What does this mean? A lot of every-day choices like shortening your shower time, landscaping with plants adapted to our climate, or upgrading your faucets and toilets and other fixtures to be efficient. See www.enactwi.org for more information on what you can choose to do.
