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.

Here’s a list of groups that need your help. If you’re already volunteering in person, please let us know where you’re working and what you’re doing.

If you can send money, these groups sure could use it:

Gulf Restoration Network – Sign up to volunteer or donate, and send a message to BP.

Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund – 100 percent of all donations to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund will be granted to organizations working tirelessly in the effected areas. Their specific focus is to help fishermen and their families in the following Louisiana parishes: Plaquemines, St. Bernard, lower Jefferson, Terrebonne, and Lafourche.

Gulf Coast Fund – The Fund is giving grants directly to local environmental and community groups working to clean up the damage and document the impact the disaster is having on wetlands, shore birds, marine life, and the families living in the area.

International Bird Rescue Research Center –  A team of 40 bird rescue specialists (see photo, above) has been deployed to the Gulf Coast disaster site to help rescue seabirds caught in the oil.

Text to Give – Mad Mobile and mGive have partnered to make it easy to donate to The Waterkeepers Alliance and SaveOurGulf.org. Text GULF to 50555 to donate $10; 100 percent of donations will support the efforts these groups are making to reduce the impacts of the oil on wetlands and wildlife.

The post If You Can’t Help the Gulf in Person, Send Money. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

I am thinking about all that wildlife now, as the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico continues seemingly without end. The people whose lives are being affected by the millions of barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf’s waters deserve as much attention as they’re getting. They’ve lost their livelihoods, their neighborhoods, and in some cases, their very lives.

But the animals trying to survive in the water are in some ways even more vulnerable. They have nowhere else to go, and for the most part, no way to remove the oil once it gets on their bodies. At least 25,000 animals appear to have died from the oil spill thus far, including dolphins and sperm whales. Many other fish, like bluefin tuna, are at risk because they’re in the process of returning to their breeding grounds right now – and those breeding grounds happen to lie smack dab in the middle of the oil spill disaster zone. It is not an exaggeration to wonder whether some animals will become extinct as a result of the spill.

Take a look at this list of “The Ten Cutest Animals” threatened by the spill. Sadly, there’s not much we can do to help them in the short-term. Long-term, we must renew our commitment to kick our addiction to oil in favor of safe, clean renewable fuels.

The post What is the Oil Spill Doing to Flipper? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

But how can we cut back if, as President Bush once famously said, “We’re addicted to oil”?

The fearless women behind the Green Moms Carnival tackle the issue head-on this month.

Jen at PuddleJumping in D.C. puts things in perspective with these amazing statistics: The U.S. consumed almost 3 gallons of oil per person per day in 2007, with about 70% of that fueling transportation. Jen compares that to the 1.6 gallons per day per Japanese citizen and 1.2 per person per day in Great Britain. Jen recounts her family’s efforts to travel by foot, bicycle and stroller as much as possible, and makes a strong argument for planning communities that don’t depend on cars.

Lisa of Retro Housewife Goes Green reviews what using oil really costs us. In addition to the 11 human lives already lost in the explosion, all kinds of wildlife and fish are now at risk in the Gulf. Fishermen face a very uncertain future as they wait to see the impact the disaster will have on their industry. And the residents of cities like New Orleans worry that the damage the spill will do to their wetlands will make them even more vulnerable to hurricanes than they’ve been in the past.

As for solutions, Mary at In Women We Trust sets a great example by using the train to cut her commute into Los Angeles in half and get in an hour of productive work time during the ride, rather than gritting her teeth to fight the smoggy LA traffic.

Some moms, like Lynn over at Organic Mania, are in the market for a hybrid car. Kimberly at EcoMom has already taken the plunge with a Nissan Ultima Hybrid, though she’s also a strong advocate for buying local, carpooling, bicycling and shopping online as ways to reduce driving overall. Micaela of MindfulMomma took a different approach by downshifting to become a one-car family. It helps that her husband bikes or takes the bus to work, but even so, it’s been far easier to manage with one car than she’d expected. I’ve joined ZipCar, which has saved me a lot of money and helps supplement my one-car family when needed. I’ve also done a test drive of the Ford Fusion Hybrid, which doesn’t equal my 2001 Prius hybrid in gas mileage but still exceeds most cars on the market.

Other moms are advocates for oil alternatives along with energy conservation. Linda at Citizen Green notes that Indiana has more wind  power developing than any other state and in her Green Moms Carnival posts suggests many ways you can use less gas when you drive. Maryanne at The Not Quite Crunchy Parent is urging her son to think of alternatives, too – though in his case, Maryanne is trying to get him to take the stairs rather than ride the elevator, and walk a lot more rather than drive. Karen at Best of Mother Earth wants to promote biking, even after her son recently found himself and his two wheels caught between an SUV and a taxi cab.

Beth at Fake Plastic Fish is ever vigilant about plastic, even in windshield wipers! Says Beth, “There is a company that is now making fully recyclable silicone windshield wiper blades that are guaranteed for the life of your car and that you can send back to them for recycling into new wiper blades.” Good to know!

By the way, the clean-up effort in the Gulf needs as much help as it can get. One “commodity” in demand right now is human hair and pet fur, two ingredients rescue workers can fashion into emergency booms to help absorb oil out of the water. Don’t miss this post by Lisa of CondoBlues who explains how she cut her hair to help clean up the Gulf. You can find more ways you can pitch in here.

You can get the upcoming schedule of Green Mom Carnivals over at OrganicMania.

The post Green Moms Want Safer, Cleaner Transportation Choices appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Why don’t we ask the eleven people who were killed when the oil rig they were working on exploded last week in the Gulf of Mexico?

Or the fishermen whose livelihoods are about to be destroyed by the oil slick, now bigger than the state of Rhode Island and growing by 42,000 gallons every day, that’s inexorably moving toward land?

Or how about BP, the company running the drilling operation, that can’t figure out how the heck to cap the leaking oil well that once fed the rig because it lies 5,000 feet below the surface of the sea?

Or President Obama, who recently announced his (misquided) support for even more offshore oil drilling?

Maybe we should just ask ourselves. After all, we’re the ones driving the gas-guzzling, oil burning cars and trucks and SUVS that make it easy to turn our heads and look away. We’re the ones who keep voting for politicans who put petroleum before people. We’re the ones who convince ourselves that, if environmental disasters don’t happen in our backyard, they’re not our problem.

Wake up and smell the burning oil fumes. At any given time, oil is either a disaster waiting to happen, or a disaster we’re watching happen. There are over 8100 oil spills of some magnitude in the U.S. every year, more than 22 every day. The amount of air pollution and water pollution and habitat destruction caused by our addiction to petroleum is not just unsustainable. It is shameful.

Yes, we can all “conserve.” We can drive more fuel efficient cars, and carpool, and insulate our homes and office buildings, and pump up our tires…the list goes on.

But that is not enough. It will never be enough because oil is so toxic: one drop can contaminate a gallon of water. Burning it is creating the climate change that has put the entire globe at risk.

No, we can’t just use less oil.

We have to use no oil.

It is time to shut this industry down.

NOW.

The post Oil has got to go. Now! appeared first on Big Green Purse.

This point has been disastrously driven home by accidents of the last few days.  Four separate coal mine disasters in Chinawere followed by an oil tanker crash on the magnificent Great Barrier Reef.Then last week, 29 coal miners were killed when a mine in West Virginia exploded. 

Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virgina said on National Public Radio the day after that accident, “There will always be accidents.”

He is right.  There will always be accidents, and most of the time, they’ll have unacceptable consequences, including lives lost and precious environmental resources destroyed.

President Obama has thrown a lot of support behind developing a renewable energy economy for the U.S. but he is equally supportive of “clean coal,” which many scientists and most environmentalists consider to be a fiction. He also favors expanding offshore oil drilling. And he’s a fan of relaunching the U.S. nuclear power program, despite the potential for catastropic accident on the level of Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.

I believe this is wrong-headed. If any good can come of the recent disasters, it should be a renewed commitment to transition to renewable fuels as quickly as possible, not to expand our non-renewable fuel dependence.

We are throwing good money after bad and unnecessarily endangering human health and the environment with every decision we make to continue to rely on fossil fuels and dangerous energy sources like nuclear power.

The post Exploding Coal Mines, Crashing Oil Tankers Make Clear the Need for New, Renewable Sources of Energy appeared first on Big Green Purse.