Archive for December 30, 2011

Water conservation facts and tips

  • Less than 2% of the Earth’s water supply is fresh water.
  • Of all the earth’s water, 97% is salt water found in oceans and seas.
  • Only 1% of the earth’s water is available for drinking water. Two percent is frozen.
  • The human body is about 75% water.
  • A person can survive about a month without food, but only 5 to 7 days without water.
  • Every day in the United States, we drink about 110 million gallons of water.
  • Landscaping accounts for about half the water Californians use at home. Showers account for another 18 percent, while toilets use about 20 percent.
  • Showering and bathing are the largest indoor uses (27%) of water domestically.
  • The average American uses 140-170 gallons of water per day.
  • If every household in America had a faucet that dripped once each second, 928 million gallons of water a day would leak away.
  • There are 7.48 gallons in a cubic foot of water. Therefore, 2000 cubic feet of water is 14,960 gallons.
  • An acre foot of water is about 326,000 gallons. One-half acre foot is enough to meet the needs of a typical family for a year. There are 7.48 gallons in a cubic foot of water. Read more

100 Ways To Conserve

There are a number of ways to save water, and they all start with you.

 

02. When washing dishes by hand, don’t let the water run while rinsing. Fill one sink with wash water and the other with rinse water.

03. Some refrigerators, air conditioners and ice-makers are cooled with wasted flows of water. Consider upgrading with air-cooled appliances for significant water savings.

04. Adjust sprinklers so only your lawn is watered and not the house, sidewalk, or street.

05. Run your clothes washer and dishwasher only when they are full. You can save up to 1,000 gallons a month.

06. Choose shrubs and groundcovers instead of turf for hard-to-water areas such as steep slopes and isolated strips.

07. Install covers on pools and spas and check for leaks around your pumps.

08. Use the garbage disposal sparingly. Compost vegetable food waste instead and save gallons every time.

09. Plant in the fall when conditions are cooler and rainfall is more plentiful. Read more

Water filters compared in terms of annual cost

The Green Guide has published a cost comparison chart detailing the annual cost for operating various water filters such as the Pur and Brita filters. The companies manufacturing these water filters make the majority of their profits on repeated purchases of replaceable filter elements, of course, so the annual cost of operating such water filters is far more important than the up-front cost of buying them.

So what’s the verdict? The Brita pitcher is the least expensive water filter on this chart, with an annual cost of $27. It’s a gravity-fed filter, however, so it’s a slow filtering process. It also requires the use of a separate container that takes up additional counter space. Read more

Rocket fuel from military planes poisoning U.S. water supply

The drinking water supply across the U.S. is being consistently exposed to a rocket fuel chemical known as perchlorate at levels dangerous to public health, according to a new report. As a result of the contamination, thyroid deficiency could be happening in more than 2 million women of childbearing age.

 

According to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), California health officials will consider a proposed standard for perchlorate in drinking water that the EWG found could trigger thyroid deficiency requiring treatment during pregnancy in more than 272,000 California women.  Read more

Recent Discovery Shows Water Has a Memory

Water is absolutely required for health. Water is the beginning of life and without it, we would die very quickly. A French medical doctor, specialising in immunology, has discovered something truly fascinating about water. Dr. Jacques Benveniste has discovered certain scientific properties of water. These properties cannot be explained by conventional physics. He calls this particular brand of science digital biology. And to note: other scientists have duplicated his experiments.

Here are the tenets of his discovery:

1. When a substance is diluted in water, the water can carry the memory of that substance even after it has been so diluted that none of the molecules of the original substance remain; and

2. The molecules of any given substance have a spectrum of frequencies that can be digitally recorded with a computer, then played back into untreated water (using an electronic transducer), and when this is done, the new water will act as if the actual substance were physically present.

Dr. Jacques Benveniste (1935-2004) had proved something quite controversial, which gives concrete evidence to support homeopathy. He reportedly compared himself with Galileo because of his paradigm breaking research findings. He did not win a Nobel Prize but instead won not one, but two, of the satirical “Ignobel” prizes awarded by a gang of Harvard scientists – the 1991 chemistry prize for showing that water has memory, and the 1998 prize for a paper showing that this information can be transmitted over telephone lines and the internet. Read more