Why should you tell your Senator to vote NO on Scott Pruitt for EPA?

Here are the 12 best reasons I’ve come up with. What are yours?

Trump Recap

When Donald Trump attained the presidency, my heart sank. As a woman, mother, and citizen, I feel personally violated by this man and all he represents.

But as someone who has worked to protect the environment for almost four decades, I also was discouraged because I knew what we’d be up against.

Trump has shown total disregard for Nature and the environment in the way he’s run his businesses.

He believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.

And in his first environmental act as president-elect, he’s nominated the worst person possible to head the United States Environmental Protection Agency: Scott Pruitt, the attorney general for the state of Oklahoma.

Pruitt has a long record of suing the very agency he’d be charged with administering and endangering the very environment he’d be charged with protecting.

Rather than enforce the laws and regulations under his purview, he’d strive to dismantle them.

Rather than prioritize our health, the health of our kids, and the health of our planet, he’d protect the industries that jeopardize our health.

Though the president nominates a person to head the EPA, the Senate must confirm the nominee. Last week, as part of Moms Clean Air Force, I met with staff members for Senators who will vote on that confirmation either in the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, or in the full Senate chamber (Here’s a picture of “The Force” at work! I’m in the back row, 3rd from the right, in case you can’t tell).

I gave them 12 reasons why they should vote NO on Scott Pruitt for EPA.

I offer this list to you, as well. Please use the links above or below this post to share it on your social media, with your friends and colleagues, and with your own Senator.

Pruitt has been nominated, but he should not be confirmed.

Why Tell Your Senator to Vote NO on Scott Pruitt for EPA?

Because you want to breathe clean air – Pruitt has sued the EPA to overturn standards to curb mercury and other toxic air pollutants that will prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths and 130,000 asthma attacks per year.  He has sued to void standards to reduce soot and smog pollution projected to prevent up to 15,000 non-fatal heart attacks, 34,000 premature deaths, and 400,000 asthma attacks every year. These lawsuits are bad news for all Americans, but especially the more than 24 million Americans with asthma.

Because you want to drink clean water – Pruitt has sued the EPA to overturn clean water safeguards for more than half the nation’s waterways, including streams that feed into the drinking water supplies of 117 million Americans.  He even sued to block limits on water pollution into the Chesapeake Bay, which has no known connection to Oklahoma.

Because you want to keep your kids safe and healthy – Pruitt refuses to accept research from the American Academy of Pediatrics that mercury, a neurotoxin emitted by power plants when they burn coal, is actually dangerous to developing children or that mercury poses a public health threat. (Here’s the report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and their Committee on Environmental Health if you want to read about mercury in the environment for yourself.)

Because you want to protect Nature and the environment – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency helps protect the natural world by enforcing laws and regulations intended to prevent pollution. A big source of pollution is oil spills, either at the site of an oil operation or from a leaky or ruptured oil pipeline. Since 2002, Pruitt has received more than $300,000 in contributions from the fossil fuel industry. How likely is it that Pruitt would bite the hand that feeds him and rein in the industry that’s been so generous to him? Answer: Not likely at all.

Because you want to protect our national parks – Says the National Parks Conservation Association, “the EPA should not be led by someone who has a history of active opposition to the mission, science and values of the agency it is tasked to uphold…Mr. Pruitt has a long record of …opposition to strong stewardship of these resources.”

Because you want to protect lakes and rivers -As Oklahoma attorney general, reports Moms Clean Air Force, Pruitt shut down his office’s environmental enforcement unit, which investigated issues like water contamination and illegal dumping. That action sent a signal to the most irresponsible elements of industry that there would be few legal consequences for violating clean air and water laws. In place of that enforcement unit, Mr. Pruitt built a multi-million office to crusade against EPA’s public health and environmental safeguards.

Because you want to protect birds, bees and other wildlife – Birds, bees and many other wild animals are threatened by overdevelopment and the excessive use of pesticides. It’s the EPA’s job to keep track of what pesticides are legal to use, and how they’re used. So here’s a chilling fact: Pruitt’s home state of Oklahoma led the nation in pesticide-related illnesses and deaths between 2000 and 2010. As Trump would tweet: Bad! Sad!!

Because you want to eat safe food – Like tuna fish? With or without mercury? If you’re pregnant or have small children, you need to limit how much you eat because mercury pollution from burning coal is falling into our oceans, lakes and rivers and getting concentrated in the bodies of the fish we eat. EPA’s safeguards are actually helping mercury to decline in the Atlantic Bluefin tuna. But Pruitt doesn’t believe mercury poses a threat and in all likelihood would unravel the protections that are making a difference.

Because you want to stop climate change – Pruitt said in his confirmation hearings that he does not believe climate change is a hoax. Nevertheless, as Oklahoma’s attorney general, he sued unsuccessfully to overturn the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases are harmful.  He has also sued to block the EPA from setting any limits on carbon pollution from power plants, the nation’s largest polluter.

By the way:

 More than 97% of scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are due to human activities.

According to a March 2016 Gallup poll, 64% of Americans are worried about climate change.

Also according to Gallup, 65% of Americans believe that human activity is to blame for increases in the Earth’s temperature over the last century.

Because you want to see the U.S. use more solar and wind energy and less coal and oil – The EPA is currently tasked with implementing the Clean Power Plan, which would accelerate America’s transition to renewable, non-polluting energy. Would that transition happen under Pruitt? Hardly. This review in The Guardian calls the attorney general a “staunch advocate for fossil fuels” and “a dream for oil and gas firms…a nightmare for the environment.”

Because you want to live in a country that values people and the planet – No need to explain that one!

Because you want to leave the world a better place for your kids and grandkids – What future do we want for our children, and our children’s children? I believe we want to leave the world a better, safer, healthier place than it is today. That requires not only vigilance to protect the gains we’ve made, but a commitment to do even more to reduce pollution, protect Nature, and link our health and prosperity to a healthy planet. Having an Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency who shares that commitment is essential.

Just Say NO! to Pruitt

One hundred seventy – that’s 170 – environmental organizations have joined together to oppose Pruitt’s nomination to head EPA. In a letter to supporters, the media and Congress, here’s what they conclude about his nomination:

President-elect Trump’s nominee to head the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has actively worked against the mission of the agency
he has been nominated to lead.

He should be rejected by the Senate.

Scott Pruitt’s views and actions run counter to the EPA’s critical mission
to protect our health and the environment.

He is unfit to administer the laws he would be entrusted to enforce.

The Senate should reject his nomination.

Write to your Senator today to urge NO on Pruitt! It’s easy to do on the Moms Clean Air Force website.

The post 12 Best Reasons To Tell Your Senator to Vote NO on Scott Pruitt for EPA appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Before you say, “What’s the big deal?” consider this:

Most Americans, including me, actually consume around four HUNDRED liters of water a day. We don’t think twice when we leave the tap running when we brush our teeth, or take a 20 minute shower, or flush the toilet six or seven times a day. Need to do the laundry? Just throw in a load. Want to water your flowers? Turn on the hose. And never mind the leaky faucet. Save water? What’s that?

Why do we use water in such a willy-nilly way?

Because we can. It’s a simple as that. At least for those of us living in developed countries (U.S., Canada, Europe, I’m talking to you), we have unlimited access to clean water, and at a pretty cheap price. Even in parts of the U.S. where water is scarce, like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix, water still flows out of the tap. And it’s clean and safe to drink.

Globally, that’s far from the case. Almost a billion people worldwide live on the little bit of water that would fill four large soda bottles, nothing more. That means they go for days without bathing. They wash their clothes in rivers or streams because they can’t “spend” water doing laundry. Flush a toilet? What toilet?

I’ve always been an advocate for using water wisely. After all, it’s a natural resource that we can’t afford to waste or pollute. But the notion that water is truly scarce for hundreds of millions of people was brought home to me this week when I attended the Further with Ford Trends Conference, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ford Trends is an annual event the company organizes to shed light on issues that address the intersection between transportation and the automobile industry and consumers, the environment, and design.

Now, truth be told, I’m not one of these folks who lives for the newest, coolest car design. But I do worry about the impact that cars and trucks have on the planet. So when I come to this conference, and this is the third year I’ve come, it’s because I want to see what a company like Ford is saying and doing about sustainability.

Full disclosure, Ford pays my way. And that continually surprises me, since I generally encourage people NOT to buy or use a car. Burning gasoline generates carbon dioxide, a major cause of climate change, as well as a variety of the air pollutants that cause smog and give people respiratory disease. The folks at Ford know that I promote car sharing, biking, using mass transit, telecommuting, and whatever else people can do to drive less.

Still, they invite me to their Trends event! And I come – first and foremost to see what one of the world’s largest companies is doing to address the environmental impacts its industry creates. I also come because Ford has access to research and information I don’t have but that could make me a more knowledgeable and effective advocate for environmental protection.

This year, Ford held a session called Sustainability Blues to focus on water that totally fit the bill.

Why Save Water?

It seemed like a surprising choice, but it shouldn’t have. On average, it takes 4,000 liters of water to make just one car. And Ford cars are being made and sold all over the world. Lack of clean water threatens production in many places where the company has plants. If Ford and other businesses can’t get clean water, they won’t be able to make their products, simple as that.

There are many reasons why water is scarce. Climate change is creating more arid zones. Extreme weather events are wiping out water systems. Even without these conditions, the world’s water supply would be under siege. In the last century, the global population has tripled and water usage per individual has doubled. That’s an unsustainable equation no matter how you look at it. Women and children suffer most, particularly in developing countries, where moms and kids could spend as much as four hours a day trying to find water and then transport it back to their villages.

At the Sustainability Blues session, a panel of experts drove home the point over and over again.

Christoph Gorder, the founder of charity:water, calls water “one of life’s most basic needs.” He was a missionary kid who grew up in Africa with no running water or electricity. Today, his non-profit helps provide clean water by helping to dig wells in some of the most water-scarce regions of the world. “One in nine people don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water,” he said. “We can make a difference.”

Rob Frederick is the director of corporate responsibility for Brown-Forman, an alcohol beverage company whose brands include Jack Daniel’s, Finlandia, and Southern Comfort. If you love Kentucky bourbon or a smooth glass of whiskey, watch out! Both depend on clean water, which is increasingly hard to find in a state like Kentucky where mountain top removal related to coal mining is polluting streams and lakes with toxic run-off.

Tod Walton, Ford’s Manager for Environmental Quality, is based in Shanghai, where he said water quality is as big an issue as the overall lack of water. “My kids need to use bottled water to brush their teeth,” he noted, because the “drinking” water coming out of the tap isn’t actually safe to drink. He reported on Ford’s efforts to improve manufacturing processes in order to recycle 100% of the water used in some plants and overall, and reduce total global water consumption by 62 percent worldwide.

But what about that 4 liters of water a day I personally pledged to live on? I have George McGraw of Dig Deep to thank for that. Dig Deep is a non-profit organization that believes clean water is a human right and thus works to make it available in communities around the world – including the U.S. Believe it or not, tens of thousands of Americans have no access to safe water, which is why Dig Deep is particularly focused on helping relieve what they call “water poverty” on U.S. Indian reservations and elsewhere.

The group is also passionate about educating people like me about how important water really is. They started the 4 Liter Challenge both to raise awareness and to raise money. The idea is to get as many people as possible to take the challenge, and to have others support them by making tax-deductible donations to Dig Deep.

The challenge doesn’t actually begin until October, so I have plenty of time to prepare. I hope you’ll join me – the more we all know about water, the better!

The post I Just Agreed to Live on 4 Liters of Water a Day. Join Me! Save Water. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

This time, the chemical in question is a compound called hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6. If it sounds familiar, it may be because you saw the movie “Erin Brockovich,” starring Julia Roberts. In the film, based on a true story, Roberts as Brockovich campaigns to protect residents of a small California town whose drinking water has been contaminated by hexavalent chromium. In real life, Brockovich, a legal aide, helps the town residents win a $333 million lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric, the company responsible for the contamination.

But that’s not the end of the tale. It turns out, hexavalent chromium persists in drinking water in dozens of American cities, including Bethesda, San Jose, Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, Atlanta, and Salt Lake City (note: If your city is not on the list, it might only mean that the water in your city wasn’t analyzed). The toxic chemical is released when plastics, steel, and paper pulp are manufactured; it’s also discharged by leather-tanning and metal-plating factories. It can pollute water when soil and rock erode as well. It exists in our drinking water for two reasons: because companies can release it into the environment without much legal or financial consequence; and because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not currently impose regulations on municipalities to eliminate chromium 6 in our water — or at least, to reduce it to much safer levels.

You can get more information from the answers to this list of frequently asked questions; you can also read the full report on hexavalent chromium here. But don’t just read the report: take action to protect the water you and your family drink! Here’s how:

1) Don’t buy bottled water. Much bottled water comes straight from the same source as our drinking water. It looks healthier because it sports a fancy label touting how “pure” it is – but unless the label also says the water has been tested and proven to be free of hexavalent chromium and other contaminants, you’ll just be wasting your money. Instead, use your purse power to invest in a reverse osmosis filter (see below).

2) Filter your water at the tap. A reverse osmosis filter uses powerful carbon filters to capture a wide variety of contaminants. Some models sit on your countertop next to the kitchen sink; more expensive, under-the-counter options filter more water over time. Here’s a terrific guide that will help you choose a system for your home. Take a look at these models to get an idea of the choices you have and what they could cost. Keep in mind that the common PUR and Brita filters, which do a pretty good job of filtering out sediment and chlorine, DO NOT capture hexavalent chromium. Whatever system you use, remember to change the filter regularly (you can recycle Brita filters here). And don’t just drink filtered water; cook with it, too.

3) Contact your elected officials. Demand stronger regulations to require companies to contain the toxic chemicals they generate, rather than release them for the rest of us to clean up. And support efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and your local water municipality to eliminate or reduce the presence of these toxins in the water we drink. Start by contacting your member of Congress and ask for hearings on water safety in the U.S.

RELATED POSTS: 

“We’re Drinking the Same Water as Cleopatra. Is it as clean?”

“10 No-Brainer Ways to Use Water Wisely.” 

“Bottled Water Not as Safe as Tap Water, Says GAO.”

The post How to Keep Drinking Water Safe for You and Your Family (Bottled Water is Not the Answer) appeared first on Big Green Purse.

1) Give up bottled water. How many reasons do you need? Toxic plastic is used to contain bottled water. Bottled water generates mountains of trash. Making bottled water and moving it around the globe wastes enormous amounts of energy. Bottled water may not be as safe to drink as tap water.  Here’s the real kicker: bottling water wastes water. Two gallons of water are wasted for every gallon bottled. Stupid, no?

2) Give up the idea that you have to drink water all the time. Where did that notion come from, that somehow, your outfit isn’t complete without a bottle of water by your side? I’ve gotten along just fine drinking from drinking fountains and — believe it or not — going for a couple of hours at a time without drinking water. Try it. You won’t die.

3) Filter your water at home. If you’re concerned about water quality, put a filter on your tap and keep water in your refrigerator or in a closed carafe on your kitchen counter or desk top. You can also buy reusable water bottles that come with their own filter. Cheap, good, and trash-free.

4) Take shorter showers. Get in. Soap up. Get out. I bet you can do it in five minutes; ten, max.

5) Use low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators. They’ll increase the pressure coming out of the tap so you won’t notice you’re actually using a lot less water. Get ’em at your local hardware store. Simple, yes?

6) Get a new toilet.

I recently replaced mine with one that’s Water Sense certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (you can see the water sense logo on my toilet tank if you look closely!); if I’d had time to wait a week for a special delivery, I could have gotten a dual-flush toilet that’s even more water-efficient. I loved this water-saving toilet I saw in Australia.

7) Replace your lawn. Grass is weird; in fact, it’s not even natural – really, where in Nature does a monoculture (i.e., just one plant) grow completely weed-free? Nowhere. Give it up in favor of other groundcovers that use a lot less water and require far less maintenance.

8) Stop the leaks. Inside or outside, faucets drip if they’re not tightened properly.  If tightening a faucet doesn’t stop the drip, you’ll probably have to remove the knob and replace an old washer. If I can do it, you can.

9) Wash full loads. This goes for the dishwasher as well as the clothes washer. If you’re going to use all that water, make it wash as much as the machine can hold. And by the way, washing dishes by hand uses a lot more water than doing them in the dishwasher. You don’t need to rinse in advance – just wipe off the grime with a damp sponge or cloth.

10) Turn the water off. Duhhh…Why people still let faucets run when they’re brushing their teeth is beyond me. You don’t need to let the shower run for ten minutes before you get in, either. And you don’t need to let the kitchen tap run while you’re just clearing the table or off talking on the phone. If you like the sound of running water, get a small fountain that will circulate the same water over and over. Otherwise, just let it be.

Bonus: Buy less, and buy used. Manufacturing uses an enormous amount of water. H2O is used to grow crops, process materials, mine minerals, and clean finished products. Every time you buy something, you’re buying the water used to make that thing. Every time you throw something away, you’re throwing our the water used to make it, as well. Buy less, and buy used. You’ll save money, and save water, too.

The post 10 No-Brainer Ways to Use Water Wisely. Plus, a Bonus… appeared first on Big Green Purse.

One person of every three on the planet today isn’t nearly so fortunate, according to the International Water Management Institute, because they lack reliable access to fresh water. Even here in the U.S., the federal Government Accountability Office reported in 2003 that “water managers in thirty-six states anticipate water shortages locally, regionally, or statewide within the next ten years.”

The rest of the world looks equally thirsty. By 2025, worries the Water Management Institute, all of Africa and the Middle East, and almost all of South and Central America and Asia, will either be running out of water or unable to afford its cost.

Dirty Water Kills Kids

They’ll also be contending with its safety. “Every day more children die from dirty water than HIV-AIDS, malaria, war, and accidents all put together,” says Maude Barlow, co-author of Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water. According to a 2003 survey by the European Environment Agency, nitrates, toxins, heavy metals and/or harmful microorganisms contaminate ground water in nearly every European country and former Soviet republic.

And What About Cleopatra?

There is no “new water.” We are essentially using the same water Cleopatra used 2,000 years ago. But we’re using a lot more of it:

If today is an average day, you’ll probably use about 90 gallons of water just for today – which amounts to about 107,000 gallons for the year: enough to fill your bathtub almost 3,000 times.

We use water to grow lawns, wash dishes, rinse food, shower and shave, and let the tap run when we brush our teeth. About 14 percent leaks down the drain.

Older toilets waste more clean water in a single flush than many Africans use in an entire day.

Only 1 percent of all the world’s water can be used for drinking.

Nearly 97 percent of the world’s water is salty and otherwise undrinkable. The other 2 percent is locked up in the ice caps and glaciers.

What if You’re Pregnant?

In the U.S., we count on our tap water to be safe, and for the most part it is. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets standards for approximately ninety contaminants in drinking water. Outbreaks from microbial contamination — the kind that give you a stomach ache or diarrhea — are rare, given how many people are serviced by the public drinking water system. The bigger issue revolves around chemicals that wastewater treatment facilities weren’t designed to remove. The common fertilizer ingredient nitrate, for example, can seep into drinking water through runoff from lawns, gardens, and agricultural fields, causing “blue baby syndrome” if it depletes a newborn baby’s hemoglobin. Pregnant and nursing women and the elderly should also avoid water that’s high in nitrate content.

Bottled Water is Not the Solution

Bottled water won’t be the solution. Since so much “bottled” water is actually tap water, there’s no guarantee there’ll be enough to go around. And as we’ve discussed here before, bottling water in plastic, throwaway bottles creates a whole host of environmental problems that are better left alone.

All Those Drugs, All Those Weird Fish

Pharmaceuticals — including painkillers, depression medication, and birth control drugs — and endocrine-disrupting chemicals from deodorants, shampoos, body soaps, and lotions are also roiling America’s freshwater supplies. The cumulative effect of trace amounts of these chemicals has the EPA concerned, given their links to behavioral and sexual mutations in fish, amphibians, and birds. Part of the problem is that consumers flush old and unwanted drugs down toilets or drains. Another factor is the sheer volume of pharmaceuticals and personal-care products entering our waterways. In a U.S. Geological Survey/EPA study of 139 streams in 30 states, pharmaceuticals were found in 80 percent of the samples taken.

These aren’t benign elements. According to a 2006 analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey, “previously banned compounds…such as DDT and chlordane, natural and anthropogenic hormones, herbicides, fungicides, industrial chemicals” and other compounds that might act as endocrine disrupters lead to aberrations like both male and female sex organs turning up on the same fish.

Nasty Chemicals in the Water, Learning Disabilities in Kids?

The National Academy of Sciences is worried, too. Its list of “naturally occurring and man-made contaminants in drinking water of concern to all of us” includes arsenic, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel and fireworks), copper, and methylmercury, the scourge of parents anxious about learning disabilities and developmental disorders in their kids.

What About the Oceans?

The ocean’s misfortune is also our own. Twenty percent of coral reefs and 35 percent of mangroves have been lost since 1980, along with their capacity to buffer coastal communities from storms. With nearly half the world’s cities located within 50 kilometers of a coast, people are more vulnerable than ever before to extreme weather events, like Hurricane Katrina, whose impact on New Orleans is pictured at left. Over half of the synthetic nitrogen ever used to fertilize American farmland has been applied in the last two decades. As much as 50 percent of it has run off, creating dead zones in great aquatic cauldrons like the Gulf of Mexico that make short shrift of those shrimp you like to serve for dinner. Does anyone need a reminder about the impact the oil industry has on global H2O? We’ll be learning about the devastating impact of the recent Gulf Oil Disaster for months and years to come.

Is it Hopeless?

It all depends on what we do next. We know the world’s waters are in peril. We also know there’s no way we can make more water. But we also know what to do to keep it safe. Here’s the big picture:

1) Eliminate the use of all toxic chemicals.

2) Immediately implement the water conservation strategies we’ve already invented.

3) Transition as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable resources that don’t contribute to climate change or pollute our rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans.

We know what to do.

Will we? The answer is up to us all.

The post We’re Drinking the Same Water as Cleopatra. Is It as Clean? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

One person of every three on the planet today isn’t nearly so fortunate, according to the International Water Management Institute, given their lack of reliable access to fresh water (or, in the case of some 2.6 billion people by World Health Organization estimates, proper latrines). Even here in the U.S., the federal Government Accountability Office reported in 2003 that “water managers in thirty-six states anticipate water shortages locally, regionally, or statewide within the next ten years.”

The rest of the world looks equally thirsty. By 2025, worries the Water Management Institute, all of Africa and the Middle East, and almost all of South and Central America and Asia, will either be running out of water or unable to afford its cost.

They’ll also be contending with water safety. “Every day more children die from dirty water than HIV-AIDS, malaria, war, and accidents all put together,” says Maude Barlow, national chair of the Council of Canadians, a citizens’ advocacy group, and coauthor of Blue Gold: The Battle to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.

According to a 2003 survey by the European Environmental Agency, nitrates, toxins, heavy metals and/or harmful microorganisms contaminate groundwater in nearly every European country and former Soviet republic.

In the U.S., we count on our tap water to be safe, and for the most part it is. The EPA sets standards for approximately ninety contaminants in drinking water. Outbreaks from microbial contamination — the kind that give you a stomach ache or diarrhea — are rare, given how many people are serviced by the public drinking water system.

The bigger issue may revolve around chemicals that waste water treatment faciities weren’t designed to remove. The common fertilizer ingredient nitrate, for example, can seep into drinking water through runoff from lawns, gardens, and agricultural fields, causing “blue baby syndrome” if it depletes a newborn baby’s hemoglobin. Pregnant and nursing women and the elderly should also avoid water that’s high in nitrate content.

Meanwhile, as more and more pharmaceuticals get flushed down toilets, fish and other aquatic wildlife are feeling the effects. Smallmouth bass in the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have turned up sporting both male and female sex organs … on the same fish.

The National Academy of Sciences is worried. Its list of “naturally occurring and man-made contaminants in drinking water (that) are of concern to all of us” includes arsenic, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel and fireworks), copper and methylmercury, the scourge of parents anxious about learning disabilities and developmental disorders in their kids.

The ocean’s misfortune is also our own, for reasons that have to do with some factors we’ve already discussed, like climate change and chemical pollution. Twenty percent of coral reefs and 35% of mangroves have been lost since 1980, along with their capacity to buffer coastal communities from storms. With nearly half the world’s cities located within 50 kilometers of a coast, people are more vulnerable than ever before to extreme wweather events, like the Asian tsunami and hurricane Katrina. over half of the synthetic nitrogen ever used to fertilize American farmland has been applied in the last two decades. As much as 50% of it has run off, creating dead zones in great aquatic cauldrons like the Gulf of Mexico that make short shrift of those shrimp you like to serve for dinner.

What can you do?

* Take these easy and affordable steps to conserve water

* Use make-up, deodorant, shampoo and other personal care products free of polluting ingredients.

* Garden organically and design your landscape to minimize run-off.

* Buy organic food and clothes made from recycled or organic fibers to minimize chemical applications on land that seep into water.

* Get more ideas from Water. Use it Wisely.

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