To be honest, there are so many "days" in the year it's hard to keep track of all the ones I'm supposed to pay attention to. To be brutally honest, for a long time I hated these special "days" because it made me feel like some issues are more important than others. The cold hard fact of it is, is that some are more important than others.
Today is #WorldWaterDay and while living in Washington I don't feel the imminent threat of unsafe drinking water, I do feel frightened by what will come. Global warming is real and the effects are clear and visible, even from my window. When I look outside I have a glorious view of the Cascade Mountain Range. What's frightening is not the brightly colored smog sky but the complete lack of snow on those mountain tops. We are dependent on the yearly mountain snow not just for winter fun but for our spring water and all that it does for us. I have talked to many people about this but they are more joyful about the lovely winter we're having than snowless mountains.
Let's get to an even more frightening story. California only has a years supply of water left. I knew California was in deep trouble for a while, I mean, even Hilary Duff's "A Cinderella Story" had the plot of a never ending drought. With some of my favorite people living in California, this story hits even harder. The Huffington Post wrote an article about water use (read it here) that brings up a lot of points; one being that a pound of beef is 1,800 to 8,400 gallons of water, the equivalent of not showering for a year.
World Water Day is mainly about the billions of people without access to clean water but as factory farming continues and cash crops become the cultural and business norm we're going to be worrying more and more about having water at all and caring less about if it's clean or not. Israel is depending on the Mediterrean Sea for more than a third of it's drinking water (article). While we applaud the technological innovation of Israel, I am more worried about what else is to come.
For me the easiest decision was to become vegan in response to this crisis but I'm not perfect because I still throw out too much food and love long showers. We can all do our part. Today only, on instagram if you tag your photo with #nofilter the non-profit Waves for Water will make a gallon of clean water accessible via a water filter. Check out their website here: WavesforWater
Today is #WorldWaterDay and while living in Washington I don't feel the imminent threat of unsafe drinking water, I do feel frightened by what will come. Global warming is real and the effects are clear and visible, even from my window. When I look outside I have a glorious view of the Cascade Mountain Range. What's frightening is not the brightly colored smog sky but the complete lack of snow on those mountain tops. We are dependent on the yearly mountain snow not just for winter fun but for our spring water and all that it does for us. I have talked to many people about this but they are more joyful about the lovely winter we're having than snowless mountains.
Let's get to an even more frightening story. California only has a years supply of water left. I knew California was in deep trouble for a while, I mean, even Hilary Duff's "A Cinderella Story" had the plot of a never ending drought. With some of my favorite people living in California, this story hits even harder. The Huffington Post wrote an article about water use (read it here) that brings up a lot of points; one being that a pound of beef is 1,800 to 8,400 gallons of water, the equivalent of not showering for a year.
World Water Day is mainly about the billions of people without access to clean water but as factory farming continues and cash crops become the cultural and business norm we're going to be worrying more and more about having water at all and caring less about if it's clean or not. Israel is depending on the Mediterrean Sea for more than a third of it's drinking water (article). While we applaud the technological innovation of Israel, I am more worried about what else is to come.
For me the easiest decision was to become vegan in response to this crisis but I'm not perfect because I still throw out too much food and love long showers. We can all do our part. Today only, on instagram if you tag your photo with #nofilter the non-profit Waves for Water will make a gallon of clean water accessible via a water filter. Check out their website here: WavesforWater