Spirit Rover looks for water on Mars (NASA)
We just parked a small car on Mars in spectacular fashion. Everyone has seen the HD footage of the remarkable landing. The arrival of Curiosity – the Volkswagen-sized rover that is sending back snapshots and the ingredients of the Martian surface – is just the latest of dozens of expeditions lobbed at the dead, red planet since the early 1960’s.
The fact that we spend billions of dollars traveling millions of miles to find water should underscore just how precious this resource is here on Mother Earth. Water has been of a particular interest to me ever since we launched the Water – Use It Wisely conservation campaign in 1998 in Mesa, Az. The campaign has become the largest water conservation outreach program of its kind in the world with more than 400 private and public entities using the universal message: “There are a number of ways to save water, and they all start with you.”
Water – Use It Wisely is our proud “Curiosity Mission” at Park&Co, the sustainable marketing firm that I started in Phoenix in 1995 to ignite the growth of people, products, companies and causes that dare to make the world a better place. And what better place is there than the Sonoran Desert from which to create a water conservation campaign now known the world over? Did you know that the average Phoenician uses 136 gallons of water every day? Unbelievable, especially given our climate.
How about you? How much do you use? Or, more importantly, how much do you save? To help, here are 100+ ways we Earthlings can help conserve water every day.
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Welcome to We Hate to Waste, Park!
Glad to have you aboard! Seeing that video from the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, I couldn’t help but thinking: If only we could greet herculean efforts here on Earth to save water with such enthusiasm! We need to celebrate the daily victories, even though they may represent small steps for us little mankinds.
How CAN we celebrate such steps?
I completely agree! My friends and I are constantly talking about all the efforts and money going to finding resources on other planets instead of focusing all that energy on Earth. I can just imagine the things we can accomplish if all of those efforts were focused on improving Earth’s current conditions.
Park, I really like that list of 100+ ways to save water! (I’ll definitely use the rinse water from washing vegetables for watering plants now). It’s funny how you would never think of doing something so simple like that, until you read about it! As far as rewarding those who use water wisely, there has to be a better incentive than just a lower water bill. I think the state of Nevada rewards home owners who switch their grass lawns to vegetation like cacti and other low-maintenance shrubbery. A motivation like this should become more widespread to make Americans aware of the importance of conserving water! Any other ideas?
Michelle,
Do you like to cook? esp make soup? If so, another great use for water, speaking of vegetables, is to save the water left over after steaming vegetables. It makes great stock! Our very own Leftover Queen, Jocelyn Deprez, probably knows alot about this. Let’s try to bring her into this conversation!
Your article, Park, was an eye-opener for me. I did the math on our past year’s water bills and came out with a per diem total way above the average Phoenix resident’s. How can that be? I asked myself. I already follow so many of your 100+ recommendations, and there are only two of us! But as a Floridian homeowner with lawn and garden, I wage a losing battle. Constantly stressing over the landscape sprinkler system, which is the biggest culprit, I had one zone reinstalled with MP sprinkler heads, which supposedly give more even coverage and save water. It’s still too early to notice the difference. Besides, it was very expensive. Replacing our water-guzzling lawn with drought-resistant ground cover would be an option if we didn’t have to deal with inevitable Home Owners Association censorship! (I guess Florida is not as enlightened as Nevada, Michelle!)
I don’t want to discourage the small ways we can conserve water. I will continue my water-saving tricks because I believe they contribute to a community conservation mind-set. But I realize they are a drop in the bucket, so to speak, compared to the massive outlays of water needed to maintain what we have come to expect as the American way of life!
But getting to Jacquie’s suggestion that I weigh in from my kitchen post, yes indeed, always save the cooking water from your veggies! Think soups and sauces. The main use of water in the kitchen, of course, is in wash-up. Follow all those good suggestions on Park’s 100+ list! Put only a fully-loaded dishwasher through. A front-loading clothes washer uses less water than a top-loading one. Installing a valve on the shower head (if you can find one) to turn off when soaping yourself is helpful. The list goes on. The main point is for us to monitor ourselves and keep our eyes and ears open to suggestions. Thanks, Park, for all of yours!
Park, great article and I really appreciate the 100+ ways we can help to conserve water every day. However, what is truly interesting to me is the development of civilizations in water scarce areas, such as deserts and in your case, the American Southwest.
Your article reminded of Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert. Reisner’s work revolves around the environmentally unsustainable methods that allowed millions of people to move to, and live in, the extreme environment that is the desert southwest. The Sunbelt development was fueled by groundwater extractions and air-conditioning but, overall, is development in the desert sustainable? Not really.
In conclusion, sustainable development is possible through the use of rainwater catchment technology, personal water budgets, and with large-scale paradigm shifts, such as the use of the soft path for water. In local communities, rainwater catchment areas would allow for a smaller water food print, as well as for the accumulation of a surplus of water. Similarly, personalized water footprints allow for ownership of water use and accountability.
This is where your 100+ ways become very important. With the use of sustainable technology, and personal water footprint accountability, it is possible to live effectively in the American Southwest. However, there is an underlying problem when you arrive in a place like Phoenix and see all of the green golf courses. But it starts with people, such as you, leading growth to “make the world a better place.”