Groundwater & You

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The focus of today’s class was to see where you personally intersect with issues relating to groundwater and fresh water shortages.  

What is your personal connection to all of these issues?  You might not be living in Syria or India, or have a solar crop in your backyard – but you use fresh water every day – and probably a lot of it.

We focused on four specific issues relating to Freshwater. 

  1. Domestic Use - What are our own water habits?  How much 'direct use' water do we use every day?  Could we cut back? 
  2. What about our 'Water Footprint' or indirect water use? We talked about how much water is used to make the food and products that we consume on a daily basis.   We also talked about the role of agriculture in water use, and ways that we can think differently about our water consumption through our food choices. 
  3. Groundwater and Disease - is water really life? 
  4. 'Day Zeros' - many megacities in the world are facing 'Day Zeros' - the day when they run out of fresh water.  Which cities are facing these issues?  
  5. Water & Plastic - there is a direct connection the waste of water and our use of plastic - this also links to oil/climate change, but plastic affects our water sources in numerous ways. 
We watched the following video clips about Water: 

We focused specifically on the Case Study of South Africa and it's Day Zero, and discussed the role of agriculture there, in potentially leading this part of South Africa to complete water shortages. 

Something to potentially inspire you, and get you to think different about 'what's possible' in your life...  How I start living a Zero Waste Life - TED talk



We ended class by reflecting on our relationship to water, and how we are thinking about it differently.  What's on your mind?  What actions of yours are 'part of the problem'?

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