Operation Goodness: Earth, Starvation, Animals, Recycling etc

[gogirlanime]

Hello all! I've been very active in good causes lately and I thought I'd share what I've learned and bring it to The Vegan Forum. I will continue to update you all on current issues and what you can do to save the planet. I am bringing you a list of things you can do that are the simplest of things, basically deciding whether to do it or not that make a difference in the world. Not much extra effort is needed, maybe it will cost a bit more money, but no more than that. Or you are going to save a lot of money, so in the end everything will equal out!

~~Help Preserve Water - Today's topic
~~Help Preserve Air
~~Help Preserve Energy
~~Help Preserve Wildlife
~~Help Preserve Your Health
~~Help Preserve Resources
~~Help Preserve Earth

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Help Preserve Water

Related links that will totally surprise you (click text)
~~50 Water Facts and Conservation Tips - AMAZING, I would have never thought all these things contribute to so much water waste. "Each can of soda requires 29,000 gallons of water to produce"

What you can do
~~Wash only full loads of laundry and on a warm cycle.
~~Take shorter showers. If you need to cool down, you can cool down even quicker by just getting soaked in cold water, and then standing in front of a fan instead of staying in the shower for 20 minutes
~~install low-flow shower heads to conserve hot water
~~Fill up two large containers with water and bath with just that, I do it everyday because my water is so bad at my house, so I Brita-filter my water. You'd be surprised how you can clean yourself very well with only about 6 gallons of water. The average shower uses 20 gallons of water.
~~Another reason to use less gas, Each gallon of gasoline per week requires 1,000 gallons of water to produce.
~~Another reason to not drink soda (because it only makes you fat or gives you cancer, if that didn't convince you...), Each can of soda requires 29,000 gallons of water to produce.
~~Read news online, Each newspaper requires 66,000 gallons of water to produce.
~~"If it's yellow be mellow, if it's brown flush it down" an old saying my dad taught me. I understand it's gross, but 40% of indoor water is from flushing the toilet. Now, as long as it isn't sitting there all day, if you only peed a little, seriously, wait till you have to go a second time to flush.
~~Turn off the water when washing your hands and brushing your teeth. The average sink uses 1.5 gallons of water per minute and we are taught to brush for 2 minutes = 3 gallons of wasted water.
~~Use less water in all ways, tap water costs between 7-40 cents per gallon in the united states. A 10 minute shower takes 40 gallons, it's costing you between $2.80-$16.00 to take a shower. Take a 5 minute shower
~~When shaving, keep a bowl of water next to you. Soak your legs, add the cream, shave, and rinse your blade in the bowl, shake it around to remove the hair instead of leaving the water on wasting about 1 gallon per minute
~~There are sooooo many more...

Water-saving Petitions you can sign (click text)
~~Keep U.S. Waters Safe and Clean!
~~Tell Congress not to allow drilling off our coasts
~~Enforce the Federal Clean Water Act
~~Help Prevent Oil Spills In Alaska’s Coastal Waters!
Urge your senators to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty
~~Oil & Water Don't Mix: Stop Offshore Oil
Urge your representative to co-sponsor an important ocean protection bill
~~Universal Ratification Of The World Water Organization PetitionAnd there are many more...

[wildcatstrike]

~~"If it's yellow be mellow, if it's brown flush it down" an old saying my dad taught me. I understand it's gross, but 40% of indoor water is from flushing the toilet. Now, as long as it isn't sitting there all day, if you only peed a little, seriously, wait till you have to go a second time to flush.

I so do this. And i'm very water-conscious, but one thing i've been wondering is this -

what actually happens to water that goes down the plughole? Say, like, after you've washed you hands? I assumed it just went back to a water source and became water again? If that's true though, is it really a "waste" if more than you need goes down the sink? Or am i missing something and being really dense?

[Zero]

I so do this. And i'm very water-conscious, but one thing i've been wondering is this -

what actually happens to water that goes down the plughole? Say, like, after you've washed you hands? I assumed it just went back to a water source and became water again? If that's true though, is it really a "waste" if more than you need goes down the sink? Or am i missing something and being really dense?

When you hear about the amount of water we have, they are generally referring to the amount of useable water availiable, i.e. safe to drink/use etc.

The more people you have in an area the less useable water you have, unless you upgrade your water treatment facilities. The more "waste" water you have the more damage you do to the environment as the cleaning process damages the natural world with the waste.

A little light reading:

http://www.macgregoss.eq.edu.au/qldw...er/drainse.htm

http://www.mde.state.md.us/ResearchC...no10/water.asp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2943946.stm <--- see the agriculture usage here.

[wildcatstrike]

Thanks!

[Risker]

~~Another reason to use less gas, Each gallon of gasoline per week requires 1,000 gallons of water to produce.
~~Another reason to not drink soda (because it only makes you fat or gives you cancer, if that didn't convince you...), Each can of soda requires 29,000 gallons of water to produce.
~~Read news online, Each newspaper requires 66,000 gallons of water to produce.

I'd like to see some evidence for these claims because quite honestly they sound ridiculous.

Cans of 'soda' are generally about 440ml I believe and this is claiming that 300,000 times that amount is needed to make it... sorry but I don't believe a word of it. It doesn't help that the claim is made that it 'gives you cancer'.

[eve]

Well I'm saving THOUSANDS of gallons of water simply by living a vegan lifestyle. I really don't appreciate people (not just you) telling me to cut down on this and that because as someone living on the poverty line, I do live frugally. What about telling all the meat and dairy eaters to give up satisfying their tastebuds at the expense of BILLIONS of non-humans who are slaughtered each year?

[harpy]

The newspaper figure is a mistake I think. I had a look and found the same figure on a few websites but not the origin. However this site


http://www.topknotchprint.com/waterless.html

says

"A printer in Switzerland, operating one of the world's first waterless web presses, eliminated the use of approximately 250,000 litres (about 66,000 gallons) of water in one year."
[my italics] ETA:... although I suppose that doesn't take into account the water needed to produce the paper.

This site
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simran..._b_112028.html
says

"According to the Environmental Defense's online "paper calculator," 2,600 Sunday papers (say, to supply a town of 10,000 where one in four residents reads the paper) taxes Planet Earth 16 trees, 54 million energy BTUs (enough to power your home for 6 months), 10,135 pounds of carbon emissions (a year's worth for most cars), 27,562 gallons of water and 3,434 pounds of solid waste."

There is a link to the "paper calculator" which is quite interesting.

[Wilhelmina]

Well I'm saving THOUSANDS of gallons of water simply by living a vegan lifestyle. I really don't appreciate people (not just you) telling me to cut down on this and that because as someone living on the poverty line, I do live frugally. What about telling all the meat and dairy eaters to give up satisfying their tastebuds at the expense of BILLIONS of non-humans who are slaughtered each year?

Alot of us do spread the word to those billions, in our day to day live It's being mentioned here for other vegans that have environmental concerns for the way we a global community live. For me personally, being vegan isn't just about not eating animal products, its about realise how interconnected everything is. I live frugally on a budget as a student, but I make the effort to buy organic produce, I wear hemp or bamboo clothing, I don't buy products with excessive packaging etc etc. I'm also at uni studying base load renewable power, because I've taken the time to do alot of research and are aware of the issues around us. And yes, I tell those around me about these things, it isn't like veganism is taught in primary school, not everyone is aware of the issues in the world today. A little education can go a long way.

Personally, as a vegan it's great to see other like minded folk about, as I said, all of this relates to being vegan.

And if you don't appreciate the friendly advise Eve, you really don't have to be in this thread, I'm offended by your brashness.

[Wilhelmina]

Gogirlanime, what's new in your environmental world of late??