Water-Wise Living in L.A. Month: Water Calculations

We've heard about our carbon footprint, but part of the footprint we leave on the earth is how much water we consume. And it's pretty staggering how much we depend on water for the most basic daily activities.

We love this water graphic from GOOD that demonstrates just how much H2O goes into our daily shower, daily beverages, and daily bread.:

And it's not just the water we can see we're using--washing our hands, watering our plants. There's a whole hidden world of water behind the things we use; in other words, the water used to make the things we use.

For example (still according to GOOD here):

*Every flush of the loo takes six gallons of water (or 1.3 for a low flow/dual flush), which makes sense.

*But that slice of bread that doesn't conjure any water associations actually took 11 gallons per slice in the making. Wild, right?

*Here's the biggie, and just another environmental reason to limit red meat intake (as livestock production also contributes more to global warming than transportation):

*A hamburger? 634 gallons of water!

*A steak? 1,500!!

See the whole water from morning til night graph.

And, calculate your own daily water use/water footprint at H2O Conserve. It is amazing to see the questions asked, from laundry to gasoline to recycling and the way the gallons really add up!