Read three other student water consumption blogs and compare how you and you classmates use water.
I found that in my own water use, greatest consumption came from coffee and milk to put in that coffee, among other food items. Other classmates also acknowledged that their dogs use almost as much water as some of the most water poor people in the world, especially so on days they get a bath. We don't eat much meat in our house, in fact, we only eat meat when we're at a friend's house or maybe eating out, so I saw a significant rise in water use for those who are regular meat consumers. While some accounted for the clothing they wore, one classmate pointed out that you should divide the number of gallons needed to produce a shirt by the number of times you've worn it; this should encourage less consumption of new cotton goods and making existing clothes last. It was interesting to see how far some people took their analysis, and how shallow others took it. I tried to go pretty deep, but if you really wanted to, you could spend days counting gallons for one day of use.
Contemplate geography in water use.
I, like many of my peers, grew up in the Willamette Valley, where rain is considered a nuisance, not a gift from the gods. Even within that confined region however, there was variation in water availability. Out in the country where I grew up we had a well and gutters with huge barrels for collecting the rainwater. When it was cold we hauled buckets of water from the creek to be able to flush the toilet, because the pipes in the house would freeze. In town though, infrastructure was developed and advanced enough to allow for nearly year round use of water, without having to life a finger, or dig a new well, for that matter. Most kids growing up in the valley didn't think much about how much water we had in our region, because we had so much of it. The kids growing up over here though, in the desert, probably thought about it a little bit more. Even so, they lived in a developed country with advanced technology used to provide clean water year round, even though they lived in a desert. Worldwide this seems to be a growing trend; people are living in places more and more often that would otherwise not be suitable for life, had we not the technology, infrastructure, and monetary resources that made bring water into arid environments possible. Consider the Colorado River and the millions who depend on it, and are in turn depleting it, because they are living somewhere that is not meant to support so much life. Geography is not only important while contemplating water use because there are different amounts of water in different places geographically. It is also important to consider where the money is allocated geographically, because where the money goes, the water will follow.
Any thoughts about direct consumption or the hidden water in your product consumption patterns?
One thing is clear, we could all eat less meat and the planet would thank us for it.
On another note, it's a shame that so much of the water we consume is not done so directly, because so many of us don't even drink the recommended 8 cups a day, but we're all utilizing upwards of 4-5,000 gallons every day between the food we eat and the lifestyles we live.
I could better do my part by cutting back on coffee...I wonder what the daily American coffee habit uses in terms of water...between growing the beans, transporting them, cleaning them, grinding them, steaming the milk, the milk!, washing the cups, growing the trees to make all the paper cups, boiling the water, growing the sugar, etc, etc. The one thing I noticed about this whole process was how it could just go on forever. Now everywhere I look, I see water!
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