Water

So, I'm doing a research project with my students--meaning, I write and model and struggle and slog through the process shoulder to shoulder with them. I don't know if it means anything to them, but it keeps me humble.

This term, I'm writing on water. I started out simply on water pollution. I thought about writing an expose on bottled water. I was intrigued by desalination as a solution to drought. I'm now leaning toward water scarcity and the good stewardship of water.

This topic is especially interesting to me, for I grew up on the (somewhat) arid plains of western Kansas, where to have a good yield of anything, one had to irrigate. We had 3000 acres of irrigated property. One of my jobs was to move irrigation pipe from field to field on a regular basis. I also had to change the water, meaning, I'd go to the bottom of the field, note which rows had flooded through, and then go to the top of the field and shut gates for the completers, open new gates as we progressed across the field. I maintained irrigation engines, these being BIG engines that drove powerful wells pulling thousands of gallons from the aquifer beneath us. It was all in the name of high yield, prosperity, and mo' money. Looking back, I realize that was not necessarily the most conservative or responsible way to irrigate. Now they use giant sprinkler systems that deliver just-right doses of water, just in time. Even that is a horrific suck on natural resources, not only of water but also natural gas to power the engines.

Of all the things I'm learning about water, I was most recently shocked by the concept of one's water footprint.

Sources argue that if we are really going to make a difference, then yes, we need to be attentive to issues of global climate change, especially those that may be man-made stimulants to the problem. We must also become sensitized to how simple lifestyle decisions we make--like what we eat and how we flush--also matter to the planet.

Note, for example, the enormous amount of water it takes to raise the food that is then converted to meat. This figure includes the related aqua costs through the whole processing, etc. of cow to beef. (Even at that, it does not acknowledge the tremendous petrol-related expenses in getting that steak to the table!)

In class I brought up the idea that what we pour on our yards, wash our cars with...flush with...is a commodity worth killing for. As it continues to become harder to come by (or at the very least, harder to process for consumption due to pollutants, etc.) we may all some day be astonished at our water practices.

I am becoming more and more attuned to water waste. We have a sink in our building that runs constantly (for six days now, without stopping). I have a dripping facet at home to fix. It rained yesterday, and we could have captured so much water in rain barrels and such for irrigating the yard.

BUT...
Yoda, or someone, once said that knowing is not doing. I know a lot I do nothing about. I don't know why that is or what to do about it. I don't even know what to call it. Perhaps it's laziness or complacency. Maybe it's procrastination. I know I tend to act only when acted upon, which is not only bad form, it's reactive instead of proactive. One thing I'm sure of: it's ugly behavior, to know and yet sit idle.