Taking on Water Challenge Winner

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve chosen a winner at random for the Taking on Water Challenge! Rebecca Rubin will receive an autographed copy of Taking on Water: How One Water Expert Challenged Her Inner Hypocrite, Reduced Her Water Footprint (Without Sacrificing a Toasty Shower), and Found [...]

Taking on Water Challenge: Wrap Up

This week we are concluding the Taking on Water Challenge! During the month of February, contest participants undertook a new action each week to reduce their water footprints, saving up to 6,054 gallons of water. This week we are asking that you please let us know how this challenge changed the way [...]

Taking on Water Challenge: Week 4 – Fix Leaks

The average home in the U.S. uses more than 144,000 gallons of water each year, 70 percent of which is used inside. Faucets account for approximately 16 percent of indoor water use, or more than 15,000 gallons of water. Even a small, undetected leak in a faucet can add up to big water losses. [...]

Taking on Water Challenge: Week 3 – Conserve Energy

With a carbon footprint comes a water footprint. Every time you turn on the light switch, not only are you consuming energy and adding to your carbon footprint, you are also increasing your water footprint. Electricity production requires tremendous volumes of water to power steam-generated turbines and to cool equipment. In fact, more than [...]

Why Does Water Conservation Matter?

Trends in Water Use in the United States, 1950 to 2005 (http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wateruse-trends.html

This is my second guest blog post for Weather Underground, where I’ll be posting a series on the global water crisis over the next several weeks. Weather Underground is the first internet weather service, committed to delivering the most reliable, accurate [...]

Women & the Future of Water, The Next Women Business Magazine

by Wendy J. Pabich

“We all know that available, clean freshwater is becoming increasing scarce. This is a problem for people, ecosystems, businesses, and communities.

For women around the globe, water stress is especially problematic. Women collectively spend hundreds of millions of hours each day gathering water for domestic use. Girls often [...]

12 Ways to Reduce Your Water Footprint

Water is getting scarce. This year has brought extreme drought, low snow packs, and record low stream flows in a number of river systems. We see Las Vegas waging water war with the open ranch lands to the north, Atlanta in protracted battles with downstream states over its primary water supply at [...]

Taking on Water Book Launch

I’m thrilled to share with you the launch of my new book, Taking on Water: How One Water Expert Challenged Her Inner Hypocrite, Reduced Her Water Footprint (without Sacrificing a Toasty Shower), and Found Nirvana. It will be in bookstores on September 18th, but is available for pre-order from a number [...]

Water Conservation on the Cheap

Estimates of the costs and benefits of water conservation programs range dramatically. Because communities can choose from a toolbox of methods to reduce water use (from subsidizing low-flow toilets to using escalating rate structures to paying “cash for grass”) and water resource problems vary, sometime dramatically, from place to place, comparing the costs [...]

What’s Your New Year’s Resolution?

Mugs. Photo by Bryan Pearson.

I came across an interesting article today by Arif Belgaumi in one of Pakistan’s papers, The Express Tribune. The author reflects on the devastating impacts of environmental degradation in Pakistan, estimated to cost the country nearly 6% of its GDP each year. Not surprisingly, in this ultra-arid [...]