Calculate Your Water Footprint
image credit: tanakawho
Kudos to Grist for a great post, which spurred my post today:
We all know about our carbon footprint. But about water footprint? Waterfootprint.org is a site that takes a hard look at water consumption and how it affects our environment. Specifically: the amount of water each of us uses, and its overall effect on the planet.
Here is how they define a water footprint:
The water footprint of a nation shows the total volume of water that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the nation. Since not all goods consumed in one particular country are produced in that country, the water footprint consists of two parts: use of domestic water resources and use of water outside the borders of the country. The water footprint includes both the water withdrawn from surface and groundwater and the use of soil water (in agricultural production).
And if you want to calculate your own water footprint, go here for the quick version or here for the extended survey.
According to the quick calculator, my water footprint = 3709 cubic meter per year, which translates to 979,814 gallons! (I need to try the extended one to see if I can get that back down…)
That is way too much in my book. Especially since I’m a 95% vegetarian who lives very simply. Also, when you consider the following facts:
* The production of one kilogram of beef requires 16 thousand litres of water.
* To produce one cup of coffee we need 140 litres (36 gallons) of water.
* The water footprint of China is about 700 cubic meter per year per capita. Only about 7% of the Chinese water footprint falls outside China.
* Japan with a footprint of 1150 cubic meter (303797 gallons) per year per capita, has about 65% of its total water footprint outside the borders of the country.
* The USA water footprint is 2500 cubic meter (660430 gallons) per year per capita.
Global warming will play a massive role in the future of our water supply. So, in the same way that we conserve energy, rethinking water consumption has to be at the forefront of our mindset.
Check out Waterfootprint.org to get a sense, not only of your own water consumption, but also that of others.
