I’m currently taking a course called ‘Assessing Global Change: Science and the Environment’ instructed by Karen Ing (very good, highly recommend taking a class taught by her if you get the opportunity). It’s a breadth requirement course aka a science course for non-science students just like this one! For a recent assignment we had to calculate our water footprint (mine was far below Canada’s average, woo!). We were given a site that showed the water footprint for different products which was startling to me. I have always known beef used a lot of water but I had no clue about the others! So next time you have a slice of pizza or pint of beer, think about how much water was used in order for you to have it! Or just have a few more pints of beer and you’ll forget it all! (Only if you’re over 19 of course)
Sounds like a great course and a great assignment, Orna. The more we know the roots of the products we use, the better informed we are, and the more likely we are to make more sustainable choices. Your post reminds me of Maud Barlow’s remarks to the United Nations General Assembly in April 2009, here’s an excerpt: “The problem is that we humans have seen the Earth and its water resources as something that exists for our benefit and economic advancement rather than as a living ecological system that needs to be safeguarded if it is to survive. We have polluted, diverted and displaced so much water from where it is needed for a healthy hydrologic cycle to function, that whole parts of the planet are drying up. We are just beginning to understand the devastation of this drying to the ecosystem and other species as we humans continue to rob the Earth of the water it needs for survival. The human water footprint surpasses all others and endangers life on Earth itself.”