WATER CONSERVATION – Mindful Climate Action

Water – let’s start with a few facts

1) Earth’s surface is 71% water.
2) Less than 3% of water on Earth is fresh water,
and two-thirds of that is frozen!
3) Water on Earth is finite, but the human
population is heading toward 9 billion.
4) More than 1 billion people in developing
countries do not have access to safe drinking water.
5) More people have cell phones than piped water,
toilets, or water treatment plants.
6) The average American uses twice as many
gallons of water per day as the average European.
7) Nearly 80% of the world’s water use is for
agriculture.

Changing household behaviors such as taking shorter showers or watering the lawn less often are usually
the first things we think of when trying to conserve water. Taking steps to directly reduce water use is
important, but not nearly as consequential as making changes to our daily diets or purchasing behaviors.
Agriculture and the production of consumer goods require far more water than individuals or households.

The Amazing Water Molecule

To most people, water is that amazing stuff in raindrops, lakes, and rivers. But to a chemist, water (H2O) is a
molecule composed of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. This configuration results in
attractions among neighboring water molecules.

These attractions are the basis for the many unique properties of water such as the surface tension
responsible for spherical raindrops, supercooled liquids, and the fact that ice is lighter than liquid water.
Think about this last fact - if water didn't expand and become lighter when it froze into ice, lakes would
likely freeze from the bottom up, killing all forms of life in northern lakes every winter. Unlike most
substances however, water becomes less dense when it freezes because the water molecules align into an
open crystalline form. If this expansion didn't occur, sea ice would sink in the oceans. Life on Earth would
not be possible.

Water is the only substance that exists naturally on earth as a solid, liquid or gas. Water vapor is the most
abundant greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere (although not the most powerful in terms of heat-
trapping). When water changes phase, energy is exchanged. This energy exchange powers the water cycle.

Global warming intensifies this cycle because a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor, contributing
to an increase in extreme weather events worldwide.

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 Over time,
human processes
have altered the
natural water
cycle, resulting in
global and local
impacts.

Along with causing ‘kinks’ in the natural water cycle, human processes (outlined arrows) have another thing
in common – they require energy. Water has a LARGE carbon footprint - energy is required to extract, treat
and distribute water, AND to collect and treat wastewater.

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Water issues in the United States vary by region, with locations west of the Mississippi River increasingly
dealing with drought and those east of the Mississippi River dealing with heavy rains and flooding. But
regardless of whether you live in a water-rich region or drought-prone area, conserving water makes sense
because it reduces energy use and carbon pollution, which in turn help slow climate change.

Across the planet, water demands are increasing, but our water resources are not. Water is a limited
resource. Food production, electricity production and manufacturing all require water. Agriculture alone
accounts for over 80 percent of the freshwater footprint of humanity.

Different kinds of food require different amounts of water. Meat, especially from livestock with long life
cycles, requires much more water per serving than plant-based foods. Furthermore, the amount of
irrigation water consumed to produce a particular food depends greatly on where it’s grown.

For example, a cow living in California typically eats hay grown with irrigation water, whereas a cow living in
Wisconsin subsists primarily on rain-fed grass. And a grass-fed cow raised on rain-fed grass from a local
sustainable farm has a significantly lower carbon footprint than a cow fed irrigated hay, especially if the hay
and the beef both are transported many miles for consumption.

Clearly, we can reduce our water and carbon footprints through the food we choose to eat. This table
provides examples to illustrate this important point:

Average Water Footprint of a Few Common Foods

Food Item Serving Size Water Footprint

Steak (beef) 6 ounces 674 gallons
Ham (pork) 3 ounces 135 gallons
Coffee 1 cup 34 gallons
Salad 1 (tomato, lettuce & cucumbers) 21 gallons
Eggs 1 52 gallons
Data from The Water Footprint Network.

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A network of scientists from around the world has collaborated to create “Project Drawdown,” ranking the
100 most substantive solutions to addressing climate change. In this list, diet ranks higher than water
conservation, largely because shifting diets to more plant-based foods will waste less energy and water,
needed to produce the plant foods that are fed to animals. Below is a chart showing how the outcomes
prioritized by the Mindful Climate Action project align with Project Drawdown’s list.

Individuals can have a profound impact on conserving water by making changes in their everyday lives.

Mindful Climate Action (MCA) participants will track their household water consumption. Simply check your
water bill, and keep track of your usage. In many cities, you can monitor your water usage on-line. When
you obtain your monthly bill, pay attention to the number of gallons of water used, and start to identify
ways to trim usage:

- shorter showers (perhaps alternate days),

- turning off tap water while washing dishes or brushing teeth,
- opting to wear clothing longer before washing,

While practicing ways to use less water, look for ways to waste less water, such as fixing leaks, flushing
toilets less often, or landscaping your yard to reduce the grass lawn and increase drought-friendly
plants. Better yet, plant a rain garden and help replenish our aquifers!

Share your insights with household members and neighbors.

You can check your next water bill to see how much water you conserved. By the way, saving money is
a co-benefit of using and wasting less water. By reducing household water use you can 1) save money,
2) reduce carbon pollution, and 3) slow climate change.
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Water is essential to good health and water conservation never refers to personal consumption.

However, an important way to reduce water and carbon footprint is to

stop using bottled water and single-use plastics. A considerable amount
of energy (and carbon pollution) is required to produce plastic bottles and
transport bottled water. In fact, the amount of water used to produce the
bottle is nearly three times higher than the actual water in the bottle!

Vast quantities of single-use plastic are ending up in our oceans. In fact, approximately 80% of the
pollution is our oceans is from plastics. And more than 22 million pounds of plastic flow into the Great
Lakes every year. While most of it washes up along the shores, the rest breaks down into smaller and
smaller pieces known as “microplastics.” Researchers have found high amounts of microplastics in all
five of the Great Lakes, in our drinking water, in fish and even in beer.

Plastics not only pollute the oceans or the Great Lakes, but also they pollute our atmosphere due to the
burning of fossil fuels. Producing just 1 pound of polyethylene plastic produces 3 pounds of carbon
pollution. Transporting used plastics to landfills or recycling centers generates even more carbon
emissions. Addressing the plastic issue is ‘low-hanging-fruit’ toward mitigating climate change. Simply
avoid single-use plastics, reuse unavoidable plastic products, and support plastic bans where you live.

Be mindful of plastics in your life and make incremental steps to reduce it.

Finally, be purposeful and mindfully proactive about

protecting lakes, streams & aquifers. Rain gardens are
one way to accomplish this. Keeping leaves and grass
clippings out of the street helps too. In addition, many
communities have volunteer opportunities to care for
our lakeshores in the company of like-minded citizens.

It’s all connected, we’re all connected, and every action we take to ease stresses on water resources
and reduce carbon pollution helps protect our environment for future generations.

Experts agree that climate change is real, human-caused, and harmful to humans - but there’s hope
because we as humans can modify our behaviors to tread more lightly on our planet.

The first step is becoming mindful of our actions and making daily choices that are better for us and
better for the environment.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT https://www.fammed.wisc.edu/mca/

This MCA publication was

developed with funding from
the American Geophysical
Union (AGU) Centennial
grant program.