water conservation

Ask Umbra on sparkling water

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dearest Umbra, We and our colleagues use sparkling water as our substitute for cokes, coffee, beer, etc. We have heard some really bad things about bottled water, and are of course aware of the fact that it is up to 10,000 times more expensive than tap water. But oh […]

Ask Umbra on rinse aids

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dearest Umbra, While pleased as pie to have a new super-efficient dishwasher, I remain curious as to the chemical composition of the required rinse aid. This dishwasher relies on a hot water rinse and its stainless steel tub to somehow dry the dishes — there is no energy-sucking, plastic-melting […]

Ask Umbra on public peeing

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, What, in your opinion, is proper flushing etiquette when using public lavatories? Or, indeed, those belonging to your friends? At home we follow the if-it’s-yellow rule, but only occasionally am I bold enough to do this in a public restroom; in general it feels rather antisocial unless […]

From Doug to Diaz

He would have needed a stage nameBrad’s not the only one who digs green building — his brother’s joining him to support a hometown eco-stadium. The groundbreaking was just the other day … you might say officials Doug a Pitt.  

As reservoirs fall, water prices should rise

Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency and warned of possible mandatory water rationing as the state struggled through its third consecutive year of drought. This well-intentioned response to the latest water crisis should not come as a surprise.

Whenever prolonged droughts take place -- anywhere in the United States -- public officials can be expected to give impassioned speeches, declare emergencies, and impose mandatory restrictions on water use. Citizens are frequently prohibited from watering lawns, and businesses are told to prepare emergency plans to cut their usage. A day after the restrictions are announced, the granting of special exemptions typically begins (as in Maryland a few years ago, when car washes were allowed to remain open even if they were not meeting conservation requirements).

The droughts eventually pass, and when they do, water users go back to business as usual, treating water as if it were not a scarce resource. Water conservation efforts become a thing of the past, until the next drought, until the next unnecessary crisis. Isn't there a better way?

Green mideast peace

Cool video from Current about a nonprofit in Israel that brings kids together across borders to work on water problems:

A review of The Big Necessity

Great non-fiction writing is like great fiction writing: It produces books that are hard to put down, that give you insight into yourself and others, and that change the way you look at the world. A young woman named Rose George has produced a great work of reporting and, for my money, has likely produced […]

How to green your bathroom

No need to go all ape sh*t, greening your bathroom is easy.   Splish splash, I was takin’ a bathLong about a Saturday nightA-rub-dub, just relaxin’ in the tubThinkin’ everything was all right. Poor Bobby Darin — there he was, thinking everything was all right, when he really should have been taking a four-minute shower […]

Greenland ice-loss soars: Bad for you, great for bottled water biz

A new study in Geophysical Research Letters ($ub. req’d) led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory finds … … the ice sheet was losing 110 ± 70 Gt/yr [billion tons/year] in the 1960s, 30 ± 50 Gt/yr or near balance in the 1970s-1980s, and 97 ± 47 Gt/yr in 1996 increasing rapidly to 267 ± 38 […]