What’s Your Virtual Water Footprint?
The message of the carbon footprint has become inescapable in today’s world, where concerns for the environment and the way we humans are influencing ecological changes, or not. Even as carbon fumes fill our air and temperatures soar, our water supply is being depleted. Perhaps you’ve pondered your carbon footprint but have you ever wondered what’s your virtual water footprint?
The June 2008 issue of Discover magazine introduced me to the concept of a virtual water footprint and it was quite a thought-provoking introduction indeed. The gallons add up in mind-boggling numbers when virtual water is considered. The magazine describes virtual water as the amount of “water needed for the production of any product from start to finish.”
For example, one pound of wheat needs about 155 gallons of water to reach harvest stage. Therefore, one pound of wheat is equal to 155 gallons of virtual water. One pound of meat requires five to 10 times as much virtual water to reach harvest. Theoretically, vegetarians leave smaller water footprints than carnivores.
Do you turn off the water while you brush your teeth? As much as five gallons of water per minute flows through the standard lavatory faucet. As much as 10 gallons of water could be saved every time you brush your teeth.
Of all the tap water being used for drinking, not brushing, in North America, one-third of it is used to brew coffee. Many of us fill the coffee maker with water without even thinking about what we’re doing. We just fill the pot with the same amount of water we always do, even when there’s leftover coffee every day.
If all of us coffee drinkers in North America reduced the amount of wasted coffee in our lives by just one cup a day, we’d save enough tap water in just one year to provide two gallons of fresh water to the 1.1 billion people in the world who have no access whatsoever to fresh water. And that last cup of coffee, whether we drink it or not, comes at the cost of 37 gallons of virtual water.
The agricultural industry uses about 70% of all the fresh water in the world. In some dry or developing countries, agriculture accounts for as much as 95% of the water used. A single banana has a virtual water footprint of 27 gallons. A slice of bread is 10 gallons. An apple is 19.
Consider these virtual water footprints when deciding how to handle the foods and beverages you consume. According to Daniel Zimmer, the executive director of the World Water Council (WWC), in Marseille, France, 30% to 50% of all the food produced globally is lost to waste, poor storage, and careless handling, all the way from the field to the after-dinner clean-up. It’s not just the food lost when food goes into the garbage. It’s also all the virtual water required to grow, process, and transport it.
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Copyright 2008 by Sandy Hemphill. All rights reserved.