Apologies to all of you!
I am kicking myself for missing this, but yesterday was World Water Day! And, of course, how appropriate for where we, in this community, currently are. The United Nations is providing us with resources HERE.
We must come together as a community to protect this most precious of resources. The best science tells us that this is NOT an unusual situation, but that this is our new normal. HERE.
It's an interesting thing, though. This drought is increasing the risk of wildfire, and our response to this is really to protect ourselves, and not to protect the climate.
But, reducing our water consumption actually serves both needs. One of the largest consumers of energy - and its carbon emissions - is treating, moving, and disposing of water from buildings.
I had a conversation with a friend a few days ago. This person is a landscape architect; someone who makes her living helping people to install new gardens - with the attendant irrigation system. This person is arguing that we should think differently, and we should be thinking about the most water efficient ways to do everything in this new, dryer era. And, maybe its better to buy our vegetables from the farmers market, than to dump water on our backyards to grow our own produce.
I am not arguing that we should not be gardening; in truth, I don't know if home gardening or local gardening is more water intensive.
What I do know is that we need to be thinking about these questions, and every one us needs to be doing our part to preserve this precious resource - and, in so doing, the energy that would have gone into it, and the money that can then remain in our pockets.
I am kicking myself for missing this, but yesterday was World Water Day! And, of course, how appropriate for where we, in this community, currently are. The United Nations is providing us with resources HERE.
We must come together as a community to protect this most precious of resources. The best science tells us that this is NOT an unusual situation, but that this is our new normal. HERE.
It's an interesting thing, though. This drought is increasing the risk of wildfire, and our response to this is really to protect ourselves, and not to protect the climate.
But, reducing our water consumption actually serves both needs. One of the largest consumers of energy - and its carbon emissions - is treating, moving, and disposing of water from buildings.
I had a conversation with a friend a few days ago. This person is a landscape architect; someone who makes her living helping people to install new gardens - with the attendant irrigation system. This person is arguing that we should think differently, and we should be thinking about the most water efficient ways to do everything in this new, dryer era. And, maybe its better to buy our vegetables from the farmers market, than to dump water on our backyards to grow our own produce.
I am not arguing that we should not be gardening; in truth, I don't know if home gardening or local gardening is more water intensive.
What I do know is that we need to be thinking about these questions, and every one us needs to be doing our part to preserve this precious resource - and, in so doing, the energy that would have gone into it, and the money that can then remain in our pockets.