Water
Water is the most important resource on the planet, simply because we cannot live without it (being 70% of our body mass). Water is used and misused by humans in many different ways in our society, including for drinking, cooking food, washing our bodies and clothes, to watering plants, and producing our goods, including our energy.
However, due to rampant development, population growth, climate change, clean water is becoming scarce rapidly due to sources drying up and becoming polluted.
Therefore, we must learn how to use water efficiently, reuse water properly, and develop in realistic and effective manners that take issues of water pollution and scarcity very seriously, particularly in American cities out west.
Learn
63% of the houses in the United States live on a one quarter to five acre plot of land. This type of low-density development in turn destroys and pollutes our watersheds at a faster pace due to the the development of roads, buildings and infrastructure then does compact development.
In contrast, one quarter of the world's population lives without access to safe drinking water.
Live
• Monitor your water usage when possible.
• Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth
• Take shorter showers
• Avoid using hot water when you can.
• Heat the water using solar thermal heating devices.
• Pick up your dog poop.
• Build a "living machine"
• Sow and grow plants to soak up and catch the rainwater
• Put a green roof on your house
Lead
• Volunteer to help clean up your local water ways.
• Advocate for infill development
• Help your local communities revitalize what has already been built.
• Help stop the overuse of plastic water bottles
