Earth Day 2023: Invest in Our Planet

I got my new best buddy Bard (AI from Google) to help with two blogs: World Water Day 2023: Accelerating Change in March and Earth Day 2023: Invest in our Planet in April (this blog post).

The world's population is growing rapidly -- blasting through the 8 billion humans on the planet last year -- and the demands on the resources of Earth are likewise increasing. So, I got together (via the Internet) with my buddy Bard to see what he/she/it had to say related to a few questions I had related to Earth Day 2023.

Q: Earth Day 2023

Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2023 is Invest In Our Planet.

World Water Day 2021 in Review

 World Water Day 2021 (in the rear-view mirror): Valuing Water.

World Water Day (March 22, 2021) is past (www.WorldWaterDay.org)...   By now you should have taken the Water Day Quiz at SustainZine. It’s been about 10 years since I developed such a quiz. I had to work to improve and update the original quiz… It is still tricky to get good answers to some of these water-critical issues. Often the water usage is available to the homeowner, but gets confusing as the data is aggregated for the state and for the nation. The more abstract uses of water, like virtual water, are erratic and imprecise. Important concepts, but the answers are fuzzy.

World Water Day 2021 Quiz

World Water Day 2021 (March 22) Quiz    Name/Team: ____________ 

(See SustainZine blog post related to this quiz and World Water Day.)

1.      Approximately what percentage of the adult human body is water (H2O)?

a.       10-15%

b.      20-30%

c.       40-50%

d.      55-65%

Lagoon faces unprecedented peril | News-JournalOnline.com

Lagoon faces unprecedented peril | News-JournalOnline.com:

Henderson does a great job of addressing the issues, the sources of the problems and various solutions.

Volusia County is not alone in dealing with these problems. Tampa Bay, St Lucy and more have similar problems. Lawns and septic tanks are mentioned. Many people have their lawns on automatic, so it gets irrigated, rain or shine, winter or summer. They want to have beautiful green lawns year round in Florida. Especially in the rainy season, the fertilizer washes off so they add even more.

Fertilizing at the right time, and careful water management is critical to avoiding all of the runoff of fertilizer. Systems are starting to get really smart, in fact, by sensing the moisture in the ground and checking weather forecasts. No need to water if it is likely to rain tomorrow.

But what do you do with people who won't be proactive in water management. In Florida, you have snow birds who are gone a lot. Renters who are less attentive and vacant houses.

Septic is another issue. Passing a law that everyone has to have it pumped and inspected every couple years is overkill. Probe tests are ineffective, the last I heard, so opening it and pumping it, is the only sure way. And moving to a mandatory municipal service has lots of problems.

In most of these areas, it seems that a combination of carrot and stick must be used.

And that's just two of the sources. There's Ag, industrial, traffic, boating and other sources of pollutants.

At the source types of remedies are always easiest. Identifying the biggest issues and concentrating on those big issues and are actionable is a critical place to start.

Imagine that almost every community everywhere (Flint, Michigan) is have medium to major water issues. Droughts, floods, contaminants, and aging water systems.

There are some good sources on the topic(s):

• Out of water: From abundance to scarcity and how to solve the world's water problems by Chartres and Varma (2011).
• Aqua Shock: The water crisis in America by Marks (2009)
• World Water Day (at UN): http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday 

'via Blog this'

World Water Day Quiz?

All,

World water day slipped by without a splash! http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/ 

Check the blog here on the topic: World Water Day 2014 blog post.

Most people don't realize the Nexus of water and energy.

Most people don't realize the Nexus of water and energy and plastics.
Most people don't realize the Nexus of water and energy and paper.
Most people don't realize the Nexus of water and energy and trash.
Most people don't realize the Nexus of water and energy and clothes (say cotton pants).
Most people don't realize the Nexus of water and energy and food... (virtual water).

Quick quiz:

1. How much of the earth's water is available fresh water (like rivers, streams and fresh lakes)?
2. What percentage of the bottled water we drink is from a municipal water source (i.e., fine Miami tap-water)?
3. How many gallons of water (typically) does it take to power a light bulb per year (in the US, based on 12 hrs per day, 60w incandescent)?
4. How many gallons of water does it take to make a serving of cereal? of beef? of cotton clothes?
5. How many gallons of water does the average (per capita) American use per day? All things considered, how much water per day?

Go here to find most of the answers to these questions: http://sustainzine.blogspot.com/search?q=world+water+quiz 

Key: Out of about 100% correct, where do you stand?

• 5% right? Low average. You probably should know a little more about our earth systems.
• 10% right? About average. You probably should know a little more about our earth systems.
• 20% right? Above average. Pretty good! You probably should know a little more about our earth systems.
• 30% right? You read too much or you are a closet environmentalist.
• 40% right? Genius and a full fledged environmentalist. You probably should be blogging about sustainability issues.
• 50% or more right? No... You cheated! You looked up the answers and were actually lucky enough to find sources that were accurate/right!

World Water Day 2014 -- March 22

Welcome to the World Water Day of 2014: This year’s theme is Water & Energy.

By the Way: Earth Day is coming in a month, April 22!!!
Look for Seminar information.

See the 2011 SustainZine post related to World Water Day. Some info is borrowed here.

World Water Day

The 44^th World Water Day (March 22, 2014): http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/

  World Water Day can easily flooded past us without most of us hearing a drop about it.!:-(  And why is that, you may be wondering? Or not… The problem with this, and most things sustainability related, is where to start.  And how do we put the critical sustainability issue of water onto our daily radar screen.

Water, Water, Everywhere…

  Water, so critical to life can be devastating in its absence. It can be devastating in abundance. Australia, plagued with decades of drought, finally got rain in 2011: it had an area flooded the size of Germany and France combined!  This was followed in February with Cyclone Yasi in the northeast. (A cyclone is the Pacific version of a hurricane… and, yes, they went through the alphabet to get to Y.) We know a lot about hurricanes for two years starting in 2004 giving us in Florida 3 or 4 per year including Katrina that also hit New Orleans.

  Then in the Winter of 2013-2014 we got snow, and more snow (let’s call that a polar vortex). In the meantime Europe (England) got drowned in rain.

But the quiet pain associated with water is very easily preventable with very little money. More than 1 billion of our world’s 6.9B population have inadequate drinking water with an additional 1B having inadequate sanitation. The result is that more than 3.5 million people die each year because of easily preventable water-related diseases (World Health Organization at www.WHO.int).  Approximately half of the world’s hospital beds are taken by water and hygiene-related diseases (http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/).  [This should be updated, it has improved since 2011.]

The Nexus of Energy with Water, Paper, Plastic and Transportation.

  Few people realize how much water it takes to produce energy. How much water to power a light bulb, for example? To power a 60 watt bulb 12 hours per day for a year? How about 3,000 to 6,000, depending on the power source, it could be more or less. See here.

  The water doesn't go away, per se. Water might be taken in upstream, used to produce steam and power turbines and then released downstream.  Give a look at the Nexus sections in the outline on the last page of Climate Changes and Sustainability, a WikiBook: http://tinyurl.com/SustainYBook

Power and the Nexus of Energy, Water, Paper, Plastic, etc. are discussed in Wikipdedia:

Electricity generation

Water

Water-energy nexus

Plastic

World Water Day

  World Water Day was initiated to try to solve health and wellness problems around the world where people have poor water and sanitation. The UN has a 10 year program to attempt to overcome the pain and death associated with inadequate water by 2015. Progress has been made, but it is slow.

WATER STATS: Most of the earth’s surface (70%+) is water. Yet only about 2.5% is freshwater. (The salt in oceans and some lakes make it unusable for drinking, agriculture, etc. without expensive desalinization processing.) Of the world’s freshwater 68.7% is in ice caps and glaciers, 30.1% is underground, ~1% is other, and barely 0.3% is fresh surface water! That’s about 0.009% of our total is fresh surface water. Freshwater is lakes (87%), swamps (11%) and rivers (2%). So as we divert and consume the fresh water available to us – taking from rivers and aquifers – the impacts become ever greater as rivers dry and ancient aquifers are depleted.

This year the theme is Water & Energy. Most people don’t realize the Nexus of Water and Energy.

The Water Bubble and Water Wars

  The water bubble may be coming faster than we originally thought... Water sources, especially the invisible underwater aquifers are being depleted.  This will show in increased prices for water, water shortages and food shortages/prices (Marks, 2009). “We're fast draining the fresh water resources our farms rely on, warns Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute” (George, 2011). Our own Ogallala Aquifer in the high plans of the US (underground aquifer from Texas through Wyoming) will be depleted in about 25 years. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer.).

  Water wars and water conflicts are expected to increase dramatically. Counties (and states) that are at the headwaters of rivers can take all the water and leave nothing for the cities, farmers and fishermen below. 

  Worst case, and a horrible example, is the Aral Sea. What used to be the world’s 4^th largest lake is now mostly dry, highly salty and toxically polluted. Russia has been consuming the water that would have run downstream (and through) the former USSR state of Kazakhstan. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea and the following news video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8b0svfuO_k at Russia Today.)

  The truth of the matter is... that water matters!  …

  Even in Florida where we are surrounded by H2O.

What can we do?

  Basically, we need to become more informed about the sustainability impact of all we say and do. We need to become more informed consumers of water. Maybe compute our water footprint. Please fill out the H2O Footprint calculator. We need to start conserving more water, more energy and more resource. (Recycling actually saves huge amounts of energy and water.)

 1)      Compute your water footprint (and take actions to reduce it):

a.       H2O Footprint: http://www.h2oconserve.org (Water footprint calculator.)

b.      At National Geographic: http://www.fooducate.com/blog/2010/03/22/eight-interesting-facts-on-world-water-day/

c.       Water footprint of food, products, etc.: http://www.waterfootprint.org

2)      The average American uses 2,000 gallons per day, more than twice the global average when all things are considered. (Most of the statistics will show only about 1,000 gpd, but they don’t include food, energy, etc.)

3)      For Florida-centric details & water-saving tips, please visit: www.WaterMatters.org and www.savewaterfl.com.

4)      References and links below.

Look for information about Earth Day 2014 coming up on Tuesday April 22.

Thanks for listening, reading, and thinking about sustainability.

Let’s be good stewards of our God-given resources: water and more.

Some References

George, L. (2011, Feb. 2) Earth economist: The food bubble is about to burst . New Scientist. Retrieved from:  http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927986.400-earth-economist-the-food-bubble-is-about-to-burst.html

Marks, S. J. (2009). Aqua shock: The water crisis in America. NY, NY: Bloomberg Press.

Some Links:

·         Official site: http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/

·         http://www.UNWater.org

·         http://www.Water.org

·         http://worldwater.org/

World Water Day... March 22... Cooperation ... Whatcha gonna do?

World Water Day is upcoming on March 22...
Most of us don't realize, or don't think about it much, the nexus of water, energy and food. It takes a lot of water to make energy; it takes a lot of water to make food... It takes even more water to make food that is higher on the food chain (beef vs. corn). It takes a lot of water to make clothes.
One day per year we all pause to contemplate water. International year of water cooperation at www.UNWater.org.
What are you gonna do to save water? (and/or energy and/or food and/or plastics and/or clothes)?
Water Foot Print calc.

World Water Day Past... Earth Day Coming...

Earth Day 2011 is Coming Next Week!!!
Earth Day is on Friday 22nd this year (that’s Good Friday).

BUT, this newsletter is actually devoted to water…

World Water Day

World Water Day flooded past us Tuesday March 22 without most of us hearing a drop about it.!:-(

The 41st World Water Day (March 22, 2011): UN World Water Day.
A Prayer for Japan

As we give thanks for water and all it does to sustain our lives and wellbeing, let’s pause to give respect and prayer to the people of Japan who have been so devastated by the March 11 earthquake and the massive tsunami wall-of-water that fell upon them a month ago…

Our prayers go out to Japan and to the heroic people working to get cooling water on run-away nuclear reactors… (The role that water plays in the making of energy is another story.)
The Worst Case, Could be a Lot Worse
As bad as it is, and nuclear reactor issues aside, it could have been worse. Imagine if this earthquake had been on the other side of Japan? Actually between Japan and Asia?! The tsunami in 2004 killed almost 10 times as many people (230,000+) in several Asian countries.
Water, Water, Everywhere…
Water, so critical to life can be devastating in its absence. It can be devastating in abundance. Australia, plagued with decades of drought, finally got rain: it had an area flooded the size of Germany and France combined! This was followed in February with Cyclone Yasi in the northeast. (A cyclone is the Pacific version of a hurricane… and, yes, they went through the alphabet to get to Y.) We know a lot about hurricanes for two years starting in 2004 giving us in Florida 3 or 4 per year including Katrina that also hit New Orleans.
But the quiet pain associated with water is very easily preventable with very little money. More than 1 billion of our world’s 6.9B population have inadequate drinking water with an additional 1B having inadequate sanitation. The result is that more than 3.5 million people die each year because of easily preventable water-related diseases (World Health Organization). Approximately half of the world’s hospital beds are taken by water and hygiene-related diseases (http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/).
World Water Day
World Water Day was initiated to try to solve health and wellness problems around the world where people have poor water and sanitation. The UN has a 10 year program to attempt to overcome the pain and death associated with inadequate water by 2015. Progress has been made, but it is slow.
WATER STATS: Most of the earth’s surface (70%+) is water. Yet only about 2.5% is freshwater. (The salt in oceans and some lakes make it unusable for drinking, agriculture, etc. without expensive desalinization processing.) Of the world’s freshwater 68.7% is in ice caps and glaciers, 30.1% is underground, ~1% is other, and barely 0.3% is fresh surface water! That’s about 0.009% of our total is fresh surface water. Freshwater is lakes (87%), swamps (11%) and rivers (2%). So as we divert and consume the fresh water available to us – taking from rivers and aquifers – the impacts become ever greater as rivers dry and ancient aquifers are depleted.
This year the theme is Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge. Cities everywhere are running out of fresh water.
The Water Bubble and Water Wars
The water bubble may be coming faster than we originally thought... Water sources, especially the invisible underwater aquifers are being depleted. This will show in increased prices for water, water shortages and food shortages/prices (Marks, 2009). “We're fast draining the fresh water resources our farms rely on, warns Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute” (George, 2011). Our own Ogallala Aquifer in the high plans of the US (underground aquifer from Texas through Wyoming) will be depleted in about 25 years. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer.).
Water wars and water conflicts are expected to increase dramatically. Counties (and states) that are at the headwaters of rivers can take all the water and leave nothing for the cities, farmers and fishermen below. Worst case, and a horrible example, is the Aral Sea. What used to be the world’s 4th largest lake is now mostly dry, highly salty and toxically polluted. Russia has been consuming the water that would have run downstream (and through) the former USSR state of Kazakhstan. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea and the following news video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8b0svfuO_k at Russia Today.)
The truth of the matter is... that water matters! …
Even in Florida where we are surrounded by H2O.
What can we do?
Basically, we need to become more informed about the sustainability impact of all we say and do. We need to become more informed consumers of water. Maybe compute our water footprint.
1) Compute your water footprint (and take actions to reduce it):
  a. H2O Footprint: (Water footprint calculator.)
  b. Facts at National Geographic

  c. Water footprint of food, products, etc.: http://www.waterfootprint.org/

2) The average American uses 1,800 to 2,000 gallons per day, more than twice the global average.
3) For Florida-centric details & water-saving tips, please visit: www.WaterMatters.org and www.savewaterfl.com.
4) References and links below.
Thanks for listening, reading, and thinking about sustainability.

Let’s be good stewards of our God-given resources.

Some References

George, L. (2011, Feb. 2) Earth economist: The food bubble is about to burst . New Scientist. Retrieved from: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927986.400-earth-economist-the-food-bubble-is-about-to-burst.html

Marks, S. J. (2009). Aqua shock: The water crisis in America. NY, NY: Bloomberg Press.
Some Links:

  Official site: http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/ 

  http://www.unwater.org/

  http://www.water.org/

  http://worldwater.org/