Water is the primary medium through which we can gauge the effects of climate change. As the Earth becomes warmer, ice caps and glaciers start to melt, and the availability of water becomes scarcer. Due to increasing cases of drought in many places around the world, and the resulting increasing scarcity of water, incidences of health issues are increasing. Along with health, water scarcity is also affecting agricultural output, that has a direct correlation with the nutrition that many people around the world are getting.
Weather patterns are changing. There is snow in the desert and there are droughts in areas that never experienced their intensity. Rain patterns are changing and the polar ice fields are diminishing. Many rivers around the world are rain or ice-melt fed; many of them are drying up for much of the year. All this is because of the rising temperatures that the world is witnessing.
The oil reserves are dwindling and we have to quickly find alternative energy sources. At the same time, fresh water is either drying up or disappearing. It might not be too far from the truth that wars in the near future will not be over the control of oil fields, but over the control of water resources.
There is only so much water on Earth, and it is a part of the continuing water cycle. The way we are using water, and the sheer growth of global population, the situation is fast becoming unsustainable.
When we talk of plastics, it takes about five litres of water to manufacture a single one litre disposable plastic water bottle. Not only we are depleting an already scare resource, but we are continuing the problem by adding to plastic pollution by disposing off the bottle. It makes eminent sense to use a reusable water bottle, thereby reducing our water footprint.
Here are some stark statistics about the water footprint ... how much water is used to manufacture different items. Think again before using.
|One car||52,000 to 83,000 litres|
|A pair of leather shoes||14,000 litres|
|One smart phone||12,000 litres|
|One cotton bed sheet||11,000 litres|
|A pair of jeans||8.000 litres|
|One cotton T-shirt||2,500 litres|
|One kilo of plastic||170 litres|
|The daily newspaper||13 litres|
|1 kilo of shelled almonds||16,194 litres|
|1 kilo of red meat||15,415 litres|
|1 kilo of chocolate||17,196 litres|
|1 kilo of lettuce||238 litres|
|1 kilo of milk||1,021 litres|
|1 kilo of olive oil||14,430 litres|
|1 kilo of tomatoes||214 litres|
|1 kilo of wheat bread||1,608 litres|
|Refining a litre of petrol||2.50 litres|