Saturday, 6 March 2010
25 Things You Might Not Know About Water
1. The world is currently in a water crisis. One out of six people worldwide doesn't have access to clean water. Every year, 2 million people die of diseases caused by a lack of clean water.
2. Regions throughout the world are experiencing water shortages, due to both droughts and overuse of water. Rivers all over the world, including the Columbia River, now dry up before reaching their ends.
3. Companies like Nestle are taking communities' water for bottling despite public opposition, in the US and abroad.
4. Bottled water plants don't provide good jobs.
5. Water advocacy does.
6. The international financial institutions (World Bank and IMF) have essentially forced many countries to sell their public water utilities to big water corporations.
7. Communities all over the world have organized, and in some cases shed blood, to regain control of their water resources.
8. Bottled water isn't safer than tap water. Last year, Environmental Working Group did a study that tested popular brands of bottled water for contamination. They found 38 different harmful chemicals, including painkillers, fertilizer and arsenic, in 10 brands of bottled water.
9. The average American's indoor water use is about 69 gallons of water per day.
10. According to the Washington Post in 2005, "Just one flush of a toilet in the West uses more water than most Africans have to perform an entire day's washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking."
11. Worldwide, big investors like T. Boone Pickens are buying up water rights like they have bought up oil. Some have predicted that the next wars will be over water.
12. You can carbonate your own water with a machine like this if you like it fizzy.
13. Plastic bottles can leach chemicals into your water. Lined aluminum or stainless steel bottles are the safest alternative.
14. Industry is pushing technology that makes ocean water into drinking water as a solution to shortages. But really, it's a bad idea.
15. Conservation can get us farther. Check out a whole bunch of conservation tips here.
16. In the US, people who get their water from a privately owned utility pay up to 80 percent more than those who get it from a public utility. Private sewer service can cost twice as much as public.
17. We may be able to conserve water by investing in renewable energy sources. According to Harper's magazine in December 2008, half of all freshwater drawn from U.S. sources each year is used to cool power plants.
18. In Bolivia, nearly one out of every ten children dies before the age of five. Most of those deaths are related to illnesses that come from a lack of clean drinking water. This statistic and others are discussed in the movie FLOW.
19. Every day, an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water leak out of pipes in the US.
20. In 1978, the feds paid for 78 percent of water infrastructure in the US. As of 2008, it was 3%. Many communities don't have the money to make up the difference. You can meet with your legislator to tell them you support the creation of a dedicated source of funding for water infrastructure.
21. Up to 40 percent of bottled water is actually just municipal water that's been packaged.
22. There's a growing movement of college campuses and restaurants who have decided not to sell bottled water. You can join the movement with your school or business.
23. Most funky taste in water can be removed with a filter, such as a Brita. Chlorine taste will go away if you leave the water in an open pitcher overnight.
24. In 2003, the city of Johannesburg, South Africa started to install prepaid water meters, preventing the very poorest from accessing clean water. In 2008, the Johannesburg High Court declared this unconstitutional. This was a victory for the people, but the decision is being appealed, and the struggle continues.
25. The movement needs you. This isn't just for activists–it's for anyone whose body is made up of over 70 percent water.
Food & Water Watch is an organization dedicated to the belief that the public should be able to count on our government to oversee and protect the quality and safety of food and water. For more information, go to www.foodandwaterwatch.org.
By Erica Schuetz, Food and Water Watch
2. Regions throughout the world are experiencing water shortages, due to both droughts and overuse of water. Rivers all over the world, including the Columbia River, now dry up before reaching their ends.
3. Companies like Nestle are taking communities' water for bottling despite public opposition, in the US and abroad.
4. Bottled water plants don't provide good jobs.
5. Water advocacy does.
6. The international financial institutions (World Bank and IMF) have essentially forced many countries to sell their public water utilities to big water corporations.
7. Communities all over the world have organized, and in some cases shed blood, to regain control of their water resources.
8. Bottled water isn't safer than tap water. Last year, Environmental Working Group did a study that tested popular brands of bottled water for contamination. They found 38 different harmful chemicals, including painkillers, fertilizer and arsenic, in 10 brands of bottled water.
9. The average American's indoor water use is about 69 gallons of water per day.
10. According to the Washington Post in 2005, "Just one flush of a toilet in the West uses more water than most Africans have to perform an entire day's washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking."
11. Worldwide, big investors like T. Boone Pickens are buying up water rights like they have bought up oil. Some have predicted that the next wars will be over water.
12. You can carbonate your own water with a machine like this if you like it fizzy.
13. Plastic bottles can leach chemicals into your water. Lined aluminum or stainless steel bottles are the safest alternative.
14. Industry is pushing technology that makes ocean water into drinking water as a solution to shortages. But really, it's a bad idea.
15. Conservation can get us farther. Check out a whole bunch of conservation tips here.
16. In the US, people who get their water from a privately owned utility pay up to 80 percent more than those who get it from a public utility. Private sewer service can cost twice as much as public.
17. We may be able to conserve water by investing in renewable energy sources. According to Harper's magazine in December 2008, half of all freshwater drawn from U.S. sources each year is used to cool power plants.
18. In Bolivia, nearly one out of every ten children dies before the age of five. Most of those deaths are related to illnesses that come from a lack of clean drinking water. This statistic and others are discussed in the movie FLOW.
19. Every day, an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water leak out of pipes in the US.
20. In 1978, the feds paid for 78 percent of water infrastructure in the US. As of 2008, it was 3%. Many communities don't have the money to make up the difference. You can meet with your legislator to tell them you support the creation of a dedicated source of funding for water infrastructure.
21. Up to 40 percent of bottled water is actually just municipal water that's been packaged.
22. There's a growing movement of college campuses and restaurants who have decided not to sell bottled water. You can join the movement with your school or business.
23. Most funky taste in water can be removed with a filter, such as a Brita. Chlorine taste will go away if you leave the water in an open pitcher overnight.
24. In 2003, the city of Johannesburg, South Africa started to install prepaid water meters, preventing the very poorest from accessing clean water. In 2008, the Johannesburg High Court declared this unconstitutional. This was a victory for the people, but the decision is being appealed, and the struggle continues.
25. The movement needs you. This isn't just for activists–it's for anyone whose body is made up of over 70 percent water.
Food & Water Watch is an organization dedicated to the belief that the public should be able to count on our government to oversee and protect the quality and safety of food and water. For more information, go to www.foodandwaterwatch.org.
By Erica Schuetz, Food and Water Watch
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Cahows Recolonize
Cahows settling right in for the first time, birds have been seen pairing up in nests on Nonsuch IslandTim Hall
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Unique success story: a cahow chick on Nonsuch Island. *File photo by Andrew Dobson Bermuda's national bird has begun properly colonizing new land for the first time in at least 400 years. In recent weeks the Cahow, or Bermuda petrel, has returned to Bermuda for its annual breeding season. And for the first time birds have been seen pairing up in nests on Nonsuch Island. Individual birds have previously visited the island and explored its man-made nests, but pairs have never chosen to make Nonsuch home. Hopes are now high one or more of the females will return in January to lay eggs on Nonsuch - the first time since 1609 eggs have been laid anywhere other than three tiny and vulnerable islets in Castle Harbour. The development marks another amazing milestone in the recovery of a species that once tottered on the brink of extinction. Thought extinct for 330 years, and reduced to a meager 18 pairs when the bird was rediscovered in 1951, the hard work of conservationists has swelled the population to almost 90 pairs today. While the number is still small - compared to the estimated 500,000 pairs that greeted the first settlers in Bermuda - its steady recovery is so impressive that the Cahow Recovery Project is now lauded and copied by conservationists throughout the world. Jeremy Madeiros, head of the Cahow project and warden of nature reserve Nonsuch Island, said: "The ironic thing is, the Cahow recovery is probably better known in international conservation circles then they are among Bermudians. "Someone said to me the other day 'yeah, but the Cahow is extinct, isn't it?' It's a shame so few people know about the bird: it's our national bird, and it helped shape the history of the island. If it wasn't for the Cahow scaring away Spanish sailors, Bermuda might have been a Spanish colony and not a British one. Our whole history would be very different." (see fact box below for more on the Cahow history.) David Wingate, who helped rediscover the Cahow when he was just a boy, led the recovery project before handing over the reins to Mr. Madeiros in 2000. Now the species is no longer on the brink of extinction, Mr. Madeiros's focus has been to try to cement the recovery by encouraging the birds to colonize Nonsuch. The 14-acre Castle Harbour island is steep and forested and offers much better protection from storms than the marginal islets the Cahows currently call home. In the past few years, Mr. Madeiros has removed dozens of chicks from the islets and re-housed them on Nonsuch. To help persuade them to return and to breed he and his team have spent thousands of hours building safe concrete nests into the slopes of the island. He has also installed a speaker system that mimics the haunting call of the cahow to attract returning birds.Returning to NonsuchMr. Madeiros said: "What's really exciting this [breeding] season is that some of the chicks we moved are returning to Nonsuch and are pairing up. We hoped the birds would imprint on the island, and that appears to have happened. "We didn't expect them to start coming back and nesting for a couple of years yet so this is quite remarkable. It is the first time in 400 years that these birds have attempted to nest on new ground." Mr. Madeiros is in regular contact with conservationists around the world, including in New Zealand and Australia, where other species of petrel exist and are endangered. E-mail and the Internet and modern air travel allows conservationists to swap and share ideas readily and has greatly accelerated the Cahow project, Mr. Madeiros says. But more often than not it is conservationists elsewhere that are taking inspiration from Bermuda. Mr. Madeiros says: "The Cahow has almost become a symbol, around the world, that with the right level of commitment and hard work you can bring a critically endangered species back from the brink of extinction."
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Unique success story: a cahow chick on Nonsuch Island. *File photo by Andrew Dobson Bermuda's national bird has begun properly colonizing new land for the first time in at least 400 years. In recent weeks the Cahow, or Bermuda petrel, has returned to Bermuda for its annual breeding season. And for the first time birds have been seen pairing up in nests on Nonsuch Island. Individual birds have previously visited the island and explored its man-made nests, but pairs have never chosen to make Nonsuch home. Hopes are now high one or more of the females will return in January to lay eggs on Nonsuch - the first time since 1609 eggs have been laid anywhere other than three tiny and vulnerable islets in Castle Harbour. The development marks another amazing milestone in the recovery of a species that once tottered on the brink of extinction. Thought extinct for 330 years, and reduced to a meager 18 pairs when the bird was rediscovered in 1951, the hard work of conservationists has swelled the population to almost 90 pairs today. While the number is still small - compared to the estimated 500,000 pairs that greeted the first settlers in Bermuda - its steady recovery is so impressive that the Cahow Recovery Project is now lauded and copied by conservationists throughout the world. Jeremy Madeiros, head of the Cahow project and warden of nature reserve Nonsuch Island, said: "The ironic thing is, the Cahow recovery is probably better known in international conservation circles then they are among Bermudians. "Someone said to me the other day 'yeah, but the Cahow is extinct, isn't it?' It's a shame so few people know about the bird: it's our national bird, and it helped shape the history of the island. If it wasn't for the Cahow scaring away Spanish sailors, Bermuda might have been a Spanish colony and not a British one. Our whole history would be very different." (see fact box below for more on the Cahow history.) David Wingate, who helped rediscover the Cahow when he was just a boy, led the recovery project before handing over the reins to Mr. Madeiros in 2000. Now the species is no longer on the brink of extinction, Mr. Madeiros's focus has been to try to cement the recovery by encouraging the birds to colonize Nonsuch. The 14-acre Castle Harbour island is steep and forested and offers much better protection from storms than the marginal islets the Cahows currently call home. In the past few years, Mr. Madeiros has removed dozens of chicks from the islets and re-housed them on Nonsuch. To help persuade them to return and to breed he and his team have spent thousands of hours building safe concrete nests into the slopes of the island. He has also installed a speaker system that mimics the haunting call of the cahow to attract returning birds.Returning to NonsuchMr. Madeiros said: "What's really exciting this [breeding] season is that some of the chicks we moved are returning to Nonsuch and are pairing up. We hoped the birds would imprint on the island, and that appears to have happened. "We didn't expect them to start coming back and nesting for a couple of years yet so this is quite remarkable. It is the first time in 400 years that these birds have attempted to nest on new ground." Mr. Madeiros is in regular contact with conservationists around the world, including in New Zealand and Australia, where other species of petrel exist and are endangered. E-mail and the Internet and modern air travel allows conservationists to swap and share ideas readily and has greatly accelerated the Cahow project, Mr. Madeiros says. But more often than not it is conservationists elsewhere that are taking inspiration from Bermuda. Mr. Madeiros says: "The Cahow has almost become a symbol, around the world, that with the right level of commitment and hard work you can bring a critically endangered species back from the brink of extinction."
Sunday, 14 December 2008
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