H2O
That’s two molecules of hydrogen bonded to one molecule of oxygen. And there we have the elixir of life. Water. We need it.
But here is the thing.
Since 1999, nearly all parts of the United States have experienced at least some drought. This trend is happening all over the world.
Wouldn’t you think, given the frequency of worldwide droughts, that we might be more careful with water? Well. (No pun intended.). We are not careful with water. Not even close.
Here are some ways that water is used. Some of them might surprise you.
This sounds nutty, but it is true. It takes three gallons of water to produce a single almond.
Oh, I love almonds as much as the next nut. But if you follow the math, those 7,600 almond farms in California, each growing 4,500 pounds of nuts, require about 41,040,000,000 gallons of water. Keep in mind that of all these almonds, 70% are exported. Almonds use 10% of all of California’s water, more than Los Angeles and San Francisco combined.
The truth is, a lot of crops are this way. Even corn uses a lot of water. It takes 110 gallons of water to make one pound of corn. America produced 346 million tons of corn in 2022-2023.
But that is foodstuff.
What about dumb stuff?
I’m sorry, golfers, but here is the deal.
Golf Courses use BILLIONS of gallons of water per day.
It is more than two billion gallons. Each day. That’s not so good on any scorecard when it comes to being green on the greens.
But what about matters closer to home? Way closer.
It takes up to 37 gallons of water to make a single roll of toilet paper.
Here in America, we are hooked on toilet paper. While TP is king in North America, many places elsewhere choose bidets. There is an argument against bidets in that some people assert that they waste water. So which is better? The bidet or the roll.
According to online sources, toilet paper use in America is the equivalent of pulping 15 million trees. Worse, it requires 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to make that paper or about 37 gallons per roll.
They say a bidet would not take up 37 gallons to reach the equivalent cleaning power of one roll of toilet paper. A single bidet use needs about one-eighth of a gallon of water. That would mean about 296 squirts before you reach the water used to make one roll of toilet paper.
But I wonder about drying? You’d either have to use toilet paper, or towels, that require washing, or a drying source, which requires electricity. So. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up my toilet paper just yet.
At the other end of things, let’s switch to bottled water bottles. I have a pet peeve about people always lugging around their store-bought plastic water bottles, with one exception. Individuals who have no access to clean water often need to rely on bottled water. I get that.
Yet. The reality is this. It takes 17 million barrels of oil to make plastic bottled water bottles.
Look at it. About 25% of bottled water is tap water. The company just bottles its own municipal supply. That doesn’t mean it’s poor quality, but it does mean you can save a lot of money just by drinking tap water. Some of the other companies will run that water through some filters. But there’s never been a study suggesting bottled water is healthier, safer, or even cleaner than most tap water.
Behold. Americans bought nearly 16 billion gallons of bottled water in 2022.
Here are a few other morsels for you:
Chocolate requires more water than any other crop.
Hand washing dishes wastes more than five times the water of a dishwasher.
Starbucks wastes six million gallons a day for no good reason (They keep a sink running non-stop as a time saver.)
Cruise ships dump 150,000 gallons of sewage into the ocean each day.
We water our lawns. We fill our pools. We wash our cars. We take long showers.
Believe it or not, leaky plumbing in our homes wastes one trillion gallons of water each year.
I’m as guilty as the next. Except for the bottled water thing. Oh. And golfing. No leaky faucets. But all the others, check, check, check.
Someday soon, all of this will probably catch up to us.
And then what. I wonder.
Where will we be without our water?
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“Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”
– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
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“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” – W. H. Auden
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“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” – Loren Eiseley
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We will be thirsty. And then what?
