Is There Water Waste In Your Kitchen?
Most Americans waste water as if it will never run out.
We leave it running to do our dishes, brush our teeth, and empty glasses of drinking water right into the sink.
One individual can waste as much as 30 gallons of water per day.
That adds up to 10,950 gallons over one year..
We don't see drought or low water amounts as being an immediate threat.
The average American wastes a lot of water, and in the United States, our water footprint is twice as much as the worldwide average.
Interestingly enough, the bad habits mentioned above aren't even some of the biggest water wasters.
Homes with reverse osmosis water systems waste water, for example - without even being careless.
These systems flush water through their membranes and cartridges to clean out the impurities they have gathered from the water and use more water to push a small amount On the news, we occasionally hear phrases like greenhouse gas emissions, or global warming.
Did you know that these weather pattern changes mean as much effect on water as temperature? One internet site states that According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 36 states might have water shortages by 2013.
Another article by Science Daily outlines a similar issue which makes water shortages and drought a closer threat to the United States than many of us think.
A new study by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Aiguo Dai concludes that warming temperatures associated with climate change will likely create increasingly dry conditions across much of the globe in the next 30 years, and "the United States and many other heavily populated countries face a growing threat of severe and prolonged drought in coming decades.
The detailed analysis includes 22 computer climate models, as well as other scientific studies previously published.
The paper points to the Western Hemisphere and being the region which will see much drier conditions which will lead to various effects on everyday life.
Not worried about drought anytime soon? The study, as mentioned above, follows trends and temperature changes for a number of reasons which show visible and severe changes in temperature, climate, and drought conditions within the next few decades.
The United States is right in the middle of the figures, regardless of what we may think now.
Even with the figures judged on the more severe side of things, scientists still warn that if the drought comes close to predictions, the effects will still be severe and prolonged.
Greenhouse gas emissions play an integral role in the changes leading to such horrifying predictions, and what actually happens in coming decades will depend on many factors, including actual future emissions of greenhouse gases as well as natural climate cycles such as El Niño.
Greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's website, are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.
The principal gases that enter the atmosphere from human activity are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases.
Science Daily included the following quotes in their article, "We are facing the possibility of widespread drought in the coming decades, but this has yet to be fully recognized by both the public and the climate change research community," Dai says.
"If the projections in this study come even close to being realized, the consequences for society worldwide will be enormous.
" The study also states that droughts are quite complex, and are associated with reduced rain or snowfall, dry soil which crops cannot survive in, and reduced levels of water in reservoirs or other bodies of water which will reduce drinking water amounts.
The drought and drier conditions will affect a number of aspects of our everyday life - drinking water being the most important.
Drought can create dry soil, temperature changes, changes in precipitation patterns, and less surface water.
Increased evaporation will decrease precipitation as well.
Richard Seager of Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, adds, "The term 'global warming' does not do justice to the climatic changes the world will experience in coming decades.
Some of the worst disruptions we face will involve water, not just temperature.
" This article, nor those mentioned within, is aimed at creating panic.
Instead, I wish to help instill a sense of urgency to make ourselves aware of what we can do to protect our valuable resources like drinking water.
There are many ways we can reduce our water footprint, including switching to a water treatment system other than reverse osmosis, which does waste water.
In fact, according to one consumer site, reverse osmosis systems waste as much as 20 gallons just to produce one gallon of product water.
There are other residential systems which save up to 90% more water than RO, and are still affordable and eco-friendly.
These systems use electricity to operate an ion exchange process that reduces and removes contaminants.
Water coolers and these other treatment systems are efficient, safe, and effective not only for ensuring your family has ample and clean drinking water, but to do your part in saving what water we can now, so that we may reduce our chances of this severe drought causing water shortages.
We leave it running to do our dishes, brush our teeth, and empty glasses of drinking water right into the sink.
One individual can waste as much as 30 gallons of water per day.
That adds up to 10,950 gallons over one year..
We don't see drought or low water amounts as being an immediate threat.
The average American wastes a lot of water, and in the United States, our water footprint is twice as much as the worldwide average.
Interestingly enough, the bad habits mentioned above aren't even some of the biggest water wasters.
Homes with reverse osmosis water systems waste water, for example - without even being careless.
These systems flush water through their membranes and cartridges to clean out the impurities they have gathered from the water and use more water to push a small amount On the news, we occasionally hear phrases like greenhouse gas emissions, or global warming.
Did you know that these weather pattern changes mean as much effect on water as temperature? One internet site states that According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 36 states might have water shortages by 2013.
Another article by Science Daily outlines a similar issue which makes water shortages and drought a closer threat to the United States than many of us think.
A new study by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Aiguo Dai concludes that warming temperatures associated with climate change will likely create increasingly dry conditions across much of the globe in the next 30 years, and "the United States and many other heavily populated countries face a growing threat of severe and prolonged drought in coming decades.
The detailed analysis includes 22 computer climate models, as well as other scientific studies previously published.
The paper points to the Western Hemisphere and being the region which will see much drier conditions which will lead to various effects on everyday life.
Not worried about drought anytime soon? The study, as mentioned above, follows trends and temperature changes for a number of reasons which show visible and severe changes in temperature, climate, and drought conditions within the next few decades.
The United States is right in the middle of the figures, regardless of what we may think now.
Even with the figures judged on the more severe side of things, scientists still warn that if the drought comes close to predictions, the effects will still be severe and prolonged.
Greenhouse gas emissions play an integral role in the changes leading to such horrifying predictions, and what actually happens in coming decades will depend on many factors, including actual future emissions of greenhouse gases as well as natural climate cycles such as El Niño.
Greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's website, are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.
The principal gases that enter the atmosphere from human activity are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases.
Science Daily included the following quotes in their article, "We are facing the possibility of widespread drought in the coming decades, but this has yet to be fully recognized by both the public and the climate change research community," Dai says.
"If the projections in this study come even close to being realized, the consequences for society worldwide will be enormous.
" The study also states that droughts are quite complex, and are associated with reduced rain or snowfall, dry soil which crops cannot survive in, and reduced levels of water in reservoirs or other bodies of water which will reduce drinking water amounts.
The drought and drier conditions will affect a number of aspects of our everyday life - drinking water being the most important.
Drought can create dry soil, temperature changes, changes in precipitation patterns, and less surface water.
Increased evaporation will decrease precipitation as well.
Richard Seager of Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, adds, "The term 'global warming' does not do justice to the climatic changes the world will experience in coming decades.
Some of the worst disruptions we face will involve water, not just temperature.
" This article, nor those mentioned within, is aimed at creating panic.
Instead, I wish to help instill a sense of urgency to make ourselves aware of what we can do to protect our valuable resources like drinking water.
There are many ways we can reduce our water footprint, including switching to a water treatment system other than reverse osmosis, which does waste water.
In fact, according to one consumer site, reverse osmosis systems waste as much as 20 gallons just to produce one gallon of product water.
There are other residential systems which save up to 90% more water than RO, and are still affordable and eco-friendly.
These systems use electricity to operate an ion exchange process that reduces and removes contaminants.
Water coolers and these other treatment systems are efficient, safe, and effective not only for ensuring your family has ample and clean drinking water, but to do your part in saving what water we can now, so that we may reduce our chances of this severe drought causing water shortages.