Blog Action Day! WATER!

Water is everywhere. It sustains life. It makes our planet livable.



We drink it, we cook with it, we swim in it, we sail on it.



But water is endangered! We threaten our own lives, our children and grandchildren, by polluting our water.

Yet there is HOPE!



Five facts about water:

1. Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A. Given that bouquet of bacteria, it's no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week.
2. More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.
3. Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.
4. It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that's just one meal! It would take over 184 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.
5. The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using that same amount to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

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Blog Action Day for the Environment: We hold the earth in our hands

Today is Blog action day for the Environment.

The earth is in our hands, and as individuals, families, communities, states, nations and the world, we need to make wise choices--and are often failing to do so. The current administration is allowing the environment to take second place to big business. These choices could cost us our lives and/or the lives of our children, grandchildren or great grand children. We need to act now to save the world. Write your president, congresspeople. Write your state and community representatives. Driver smaller cars. Throw out less trash--buy less trash. Avoid conspicuous consumption, buy what you truly need. Live simply so that others might simply live. Consider the alternative. If each of us makes small and large changes in our lives and encourages our communities and nations to do the same, we CAN make a difference! Now, before it's too late!

Nadine sent this, too.

I would like to say, without tooting my own horn too much, that I have worked in the environmental field most of my life, as a naturalist and environmental educator. I feel that my work teaching others about the environment is crucial work, because no one can save the world alone, we have to do it together, and for that to happen, we have to know, understand and care.