Good Morning Watershed Explorers,
During our in-class lessons this year we discussed the importance of water. We talked about what watersheds are, what lives in the water, how we clean dirty water and so many more topics, but everything was connected to water.
The sad part is, no matter how much people talk about water, almost all of us still take it for granted. We take a swim in the summer, or a drink from the faucet and don't really give it a second thought. I want to take a minute to reflect on just how important water is, by sharing some really cool facts about water.
There is a really great book entitled Your Water Footprint by Stephen Leahy that I would highly recommend to anyone that is really interested in learning more about water and the ways in which we use water. Here are just a few of the really interesting facts that come from this book!
It takes 240 gallons of water to produce a cell phone (WHAT??)
Cell phones have a number of pieces that need to be mined, and mining uses a lot of water. In 2014, it was estimated that it would take 1.8 trillion gallons of water to produce enough cell phones to meet buyer demand.
A 10 minute shower uses about 45 gallons of water!
If you can take a 5 minute shower using a water-efficient shower head it will cut your water use in half!
An uncovered swimming pool loses 1,000 gallons of water each month.
In 2014, about 5 million homes had swimming pools. The average swimming pools holds about 13,000 gallons of water. That's a lot of water lost if the pool has no cover. Covering a swimming pool can cut water loss by almost 90%.
It takes 15 billion gallons of water just to create the plastic bottles that bottled water is placed in.
We can combat this by drinking tap water. The only extra water that is used to provide tap water to your home is that which is used to move the water to the tap, and that is a very small amount.
If you have some cool water facts that you would like to share, please email me at cmorissette@narrabay.com
Happy Exploring today Watershed Explorers!
Much love,
Mrs. Morissette
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