Mind that water!

$100 oil? Who cares! Everyone is concerned with $100 oil and whether or not there are enough reserves to handle the demand. The media plays this up every day and it is getting old. I am glad it is reaching these levels. I wonder where civilization is headed when I see someone gas up their 80 gallon tank and fork out $200 every week. Seriously, it is disappointing to see someone drive their kid around in a bus-sized SUV. It gives me the impression of self-centeredness and inconsideration for everyone else on the road.

Anyway, I digress I think there is a more ominous and imminent threat to life as we know it. That is, the availability of clean water. Consider this, the body is made up of about 70% water and it will not survive more than 3 days without it. Oil? The body doesn't need oil!

One strong reason for concern over clean water supply is the rapidly melting glaciers throughout the globe. And we all know why the glaciers are dwindling. Please take time to watch Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". Before I digress again let's get one with the main point of this post.

The recent drought in the South East US, the 6 year one in Australia, and I'm sure scores more, scare me. We, as in everyone, need to take action now to conserve more of this precious resource. You can start with simple things at home. Here's a short list of 10 things I've been doing:

1. Fill a cup of water while brushing your teeth and only use what's in that cup. Don't let the water run while you're brushing. Assume you take 1 minute to brush your teeth and you've left the water running, you've just lost about 1/2 gallon of water. Also, assume you brush your teeth twice per day. In 30 days you've lost 30 gallons of water. You could use that water to make yourselves 240 16 oz coffees and teas.
2. You can take showers instead of baths. You can use slow flow shower heads, or even better, use one of these:A low-flow showerhead by Real Goods (from treehugger.com). One of my friends has one of these and it is awesome.
3. Don't linger in the shower. If you're all done, get out.
4. If you give your kids baths, don't fill the tub all the way up. Consider filling it up a quarter of the way. I know, it's less fun, but it'll be way less fun when you have no running water.
5. You can do some hand-dish washing instead of using the dish washer (often times you have to rinse the dishes anyway for it to actually get all the grime off). If you hand-dish wash consider using a small dish washing tub filled with soapy water. You can use this tub to soak and wash your dishes
6. When rinsing dishes you don't need to blast the water out, you can turn the faucet on low and still rinse. Yes, it'll take you a little longer, but it is said patience is a virtue.
7. Water your lawn and outdoor plants in the evening. Don't do it in the middle of the day while the sun is in full force. If you don't know why, you need to go back to school. If your area is experiencing severe drought, forget watering your lawn period.
8. Consider flushing your toilet after every other use (Use common sense here, if you went number 2 then most definitely flush). Also, if you have an older toilet consider placing a brick or two in the water tank to reduce the amount of water needed.
9. Consider collecting water from your drain pipes during rains and using the rain water for more coffee or tea.
10. Don't wash your car every week. In fact, don't wash your car period. Does it really make a difference if you have some bird poop on your car?

Feel free to add more! It would be great to expand this list with all sorts of ideas.