Clipmarks | urbanlife's 'water' clips

Great Lakes Basin Compact: Protect a Natural & National Treasure

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:50:50 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: The Great Lakes are a finite, non-renewable natural treasure - containing a combined total of 6 quadrillion gallons of water — one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. The lakes span 10,900 miles of coastline along the United States and Canada. The surface area of the lakes is larger than the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire combined.

In 1998, there was a Lake Superior-based company in Ontario that proposed to take water by tanker out of Lake Superior to Asia.

This proposal failed and spurred the Great Lakes governors to take action. In 2001, they agreed to a framework to begin negotiating the compact. By 2005, they had a deal to take to their state legislatures...the base for the Great Lakes Basin Compact.

It says clearly that the Great Lakes should not be the long-term water supply answer for any other part of the world or any other part of the country.

Clip Source: www.treehugger.com

Clip Source: www.progressohio.org

Clip Source: mff.dsisd.net

Clip Source: www.minnesotalakes.net

Clip Source: www.npr.org

The eight Great Lakes states are on the verge of sending to Congress an accord that would keep water from being diverted out of the Great Lakes watershed.

The five Great Lakes — Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario — contain about 90 percent of the fresh surface water in the U.S. and about one-fifth of the entire world's supply.

The Great Lakes Water Compact aims to protect the lakes from large-scale water diversions.

Less than 1 percent of these great lakes are renewed every year through rain and snow melt

we have to make sure that the water that we have stays here and doesn't get squandered

In addition to Pennsylvania, the Great Lakes compact has been approved by the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and New York.

The compact, first and foremost, requires those within the Great Lakes basin to take better care of it.

states are required to develop water conservation plans and water quality standards

prohibits large-scale diversions of Great Lakes water

Clip Source: cache.eb.com

Clip Source: sitemaker.umich.edu

Clip Source: www.indianawildlife.org

Clip Source: www.expressmilwaukee.com

Tags: water, environment, natural resource, protect, limited supply, freshwater

12 Ways to Build with a Smaller Carbon Footprint

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:30:19 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: Buildings consume 76% of electricity generated & they create 48% of our greenhouse gases. Main Points:

* Every brick in building required the burning of fossil fuel in its manufacture, every piece of lumber was cut and transported using energy

* Aim for a complete ban of formaldehyde use in building products

* Building demolitions account for 48% of the waste stream (65 million tons a year), renovations account for 44% and renovations account for 8%

* A solar water heater can save $ 450 a year and keep a ton of CO2 emissions out of the air; multiply that by 80 million houses in the USA

* While smaller is better almost every city has minimum floor area requirements

* The losses are higher in AC than in DC because it grounds so easily

* The average 1950’s house was 983 sq feet; by 1970 it was 1500 SF; last year it was 2350 SF

* We can no longer afford to lose agricultural land close to our cities and towns

Clip Source: www.treehugger.com

1. Ban Demolition.

2. Ban Formaldehyde

3. Deconstruct, Don't Demolish

4. Put Solar Hot Water Heaters on Every Roof

5. Get Rid Of Those Radiator Fins

every one of those balconies

is a giant radiator fin, constantly losing heat to the cold

6. Make Natural Ventilation Mandatory

7. Install Gray Water Recovery Everywhere

water coming from bathtubs, showers, lavatories (read sinks), and clothes washers are no longer required to discharge into the sewer main

8. Ban Minimum Floor Areas

"If you stay smaller and simpler, you can come up with a good design at a much lower cost, use fewer resources and minimize your impact on the environment."

9. Change Our Wiring to 12 Volt DC

Edison was right; direct current is better than alternating current

10. Change our Building Codes from Relative to Absolute

Encouraging smaller homes, like smaller cars, would save a lot of energy, but codes applies the same standard across the board.

11. Survival, Not Suburbs

moratorium on any construction on farmland

12. Plant a Tree

Tags: build smart, green, carbon footprint, development, sustainable, future

Peak Everything: Why Are We Running Out Of Everything?

Fri, 30 May 2008 21:29:02 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: Why those basic things that we take for granted--such as water, food, and fuel--are getting expensive and scarce, all at once?

Clip Source: planetgreen.discovery.com

Peak Metal

Demand for products made from metals is exceeding production capacity

Clip Source: planetgreen.discovery.com

Peak Oil

declining and uncertain supply with exploding demand

result is a rapid increase in price, with ripple effects throughout the rest of our society, which is built almost entirely out of cheap oil

Clip Source: planetgreen.discovery.com

Peak Corn

if we are made of corn, corn is made of fossil fuels

When gas prices started going up, so did the price of corn.

Clip Source: planetgreen.discovery.com

Peak Rice

spot shortages appear to be caused by political action, such as export controls, and through waste

Clip Source: planetgreen.discovery.com

Peak Water

There is lots of water in America, it is just grossly mis-allocated and wasted.

Clip Source: planetgreen.discovery.com

Peak Gas

markets are pushing up natural gas in reaction to higher oil prices

Clip Source: planetgreen.discovery.com

Peak Electricity

we still have what Bill Richardson called "a superpower with a third-world electricity grid."

the demand is only going to get higher

Clip Source: planetgreen.discovery.com

Peak Dirt

the world is losing soil 10 to 20 times faster than it is replenishing it

Till it and plant a monoculture like corn on it and that soil gets depleted rapidly

Tags: resources, energy, limited, conserve, protect, future

Manmade Flood in Grand Canyon to Save Colorado River

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:23:09 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: A 60-Hour Flood with more than 300,000 gallons of water released per second.

98 percent of the sediment carried by the Colorado River has been lost since Glen Canyon Dam was built in 1963: this flood should help restore some sediment and revitalize the ecosystem of the river.

Clip Source: www.npr.org

water unleashed from a dam coursed through the Grand Canyon on Wednesday in a flood meant to mimic the natural ones that used to nourish the ecosystem by spreading sediment

More than 300,000 gallons of water per second were released from Lake Powell above the dam near the Arizona-Utah border

high flows of water from the dam to help, in part, to rebuild beaches along the Colorado River that runs through the Grand Canyon

officials hope the water will leave behind sediment and restore sandbars as it goes back to normal levels

Before the dam was built in 1963, the river was warm and muddy, and natural flooding built up sandbars that are essential to native plant and fish species. The river is now cool and clear, its sediment blocked by the dam.

Since Glen Canyon Dam was built, 98 percent of the sediment carried by the Colorado River has been lost

a 60-hour, controlled flood will help revitalize the Colorado River and replenish backwaters for several of the river's endangered species.

Tags: grand canyon, ecosystem, colorado river, manmade flood, restore, revitalize

Eco-Sin Tax? Chicago Fights the 7 Sins of Bottled Water

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:03:39 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: Chicago's 5-cent tax on bottled water took effect on Jan. 2, 2008. The tax is expected to bring an extra $10.5 million annually into the city's coffers while encouraging people to drink tap water and eschew the environmentally suspect bottles.

Illinois residents consumed 270 million gallons of bottled water in 2005, making the state the seventh-biggest bottled water consumer in the United States.

The Earth Policy Institute estimates manufacturers use more than 17 million barrels of oil in making polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles. Only 23 percent of those bottles are is recycled, according to the Container Recycling Institute. The rest are tossed into landfills.

Clip Source: www.thedailygreen.com

Sin taxes have always been the most palatable of fees to voters who hate taxes

Welcome to the era of the eco-sin tax

Chicago is the first major U.S. city to tax bottled water

seven sins of bottled water

are these:

Plastic bottles are made from petroleum

The bottles often go into the trash, rather than the recycle bin (in part because many states don't offer five-cent deposits to encourage recycling, as they do on soda and beer cans and bottles).

water is pumped far from where it is sold, creating needless pollution as trucks and barges transport it across the country

water underground or flowing from natural springs is publicly owned and should not be exploited for profit

Bottled water is rarely as closely monitored as tap water.

Tap water in the United States, when provided by a municipal system, is the most highly monitored and safe supply in the world.

Some of the water sold in little plastic bottles is tap water, but it costs an awful lot more per gallon.

Tags: bottled water, chicago, eco-sin tax

Drought-Proof a Region: Turn Sewage into Drinking Water

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:04:22 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: As a hedge against water shortages and population growth, a $490-million plant will clean effluent to state standards, then inject it into the groundwater basin for further filtration.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Orange County has begun operating the world's largest, most modern reclamation plant

a facility that can turn 70 million gallons of treated sewage into drinking water every day

cost about $490 million and comprises a labyrinth of pipes, filters, holding tanks and pumps across 20 acres

The finished product will be injected into the county's vast groundwater basin

for 2.3 million people

state health officials must certify that the reclaimed water meets drinking water standards

"Our sources from the delta and the Colorado River are becoming unavailable,"

"This will help drought-proof the region and give us a locally controlled source of water."

the facility takes treated sewage, which would have been discharged into the sea, and runs it through an advanced filtration system.

the final product is as clean as distilled water and so pure that lime has to be added to it to keep it from leaching minerals out of concrete pipes

Tags: water, reclamation, orange county, sewage, drought

Power of the Gulf Stream: Energy for Florida

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:33:31 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: Proposals to harness the energy of the Gulf Stream have been around since Thomas Edison became interested in it in the late 19th century.

Clip Source: www.npr.org

In South Florida, researchers are already working to harness the power of one of the ocean's most energy-dense currents — the Gulf Stream

The Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology

"This is actually the closest location of any place on the planet of a major ocean current by a load center that needs the power now,"

underwater turbines moored in the heart of the Gulf Stream

the current — which flows at 8 billion gallons per minute — could yield as much energy as several nuclear plants, providing one-third of Florida's power

envisions a field of turbines moored 1,000 feet below the surface, just off the Florida coast in the heart of the Gulf Stream

researchers hope to begin testing their prototype turbine in January or February

center is beginning to study an even more powerful potential energy source — the large reservoir of cold water deep in the oceans

using the temperature difference between the cold bottom water and the warm surface water to generate electricity

Tags: florida, ocean, energy, green, gulf stream, turbine

Volcano Power? An Ideal Energy Source

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:58:58 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: A taste of what geothermal could do around the globe

Clip Source: www.npr.org

In Iceland

tapping into the Earth's own heat

Volcanoes

hot rocks make an ideal energy source — one that's much cleaner and less expensive than burning fossil fuels

Energy from these hot rocks powers lights in homes and restaurants, and provides the hot water that heats 95 percent of Iceland's homes.

Power plants

channeling free energy from underground

you need to know how to read the geology deep underground in order to tame the power of volcanoes

a world-class geothermal energy business

drilled wells to tap into underground hot water, then built a system of pipes throughout the entire city to circulate this hot water through radiators in homes and offices

it would cost us five times more to heat our homes with oil than it is costing with geothermal

in business to export this technology to other parts of the world

It's good for the climate, since it doesn't involve burning fossil fuels

it could ultimately provide 10 percent of the United States' electricity

Tags: iceland, hot rocks, volcano, geothermal, energy, heat, green

The Water has Run Out in a Tennessee Town

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:02:23 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

ORME, Tenn. — As twilight falls over this Tennessee town, Mayor Tony Reames drives up a dusty dirt road to the community's towering water tank

he releases the tank's meager water supply, and suddenly this sleepy town is alive with activity. Washing machines whir, kitchen sinks fill and showers run.

About three hours later, Reames will return and reverse the process, cutting off water to the town

But Orme, about 40 miles west of Chattanooga

is a town where the worst-case scenario has already come to pass: The water has run out.

Three days a week, the volunteer fire chief

drives a few miles to an Alabama fire hydrant.

about a dozen runs back and forth, hauling about 20,000 gallons of water from the hydrant to Orme's tank.

the crisis in Orme could serve as a warning to other communities to conserve water before it's too late.

"I feel for the folks in Atlanta,"

"We can survive. We're 145 people. You've got 4.5 million people down there. What are they going to do? It's a scary thought."

Tags: water, drought, tennessee, atlanta

What is Xeriscape? - Colorado Water Wise

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:53:13 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife

Clip Source: www.xeriscape.org

Xeriscape promotes creative approaches to water conserving landscapes by helping people improve their landscapes and to reduce the need for water, maintenance and other resources.

Why Xeriscape? For most of the western United States over fifty percent of residential water used is applied to landscape and lawns. Xeriscape can reduce landscape water use by 60% or more.

Efficient water use doesn't mean changing our lifestyle. It means reducing water waste, such as improper irrigation, and finding ways to achieve attractive, comfortable landscapes without excess water use.

Your landscape is an investment in your comfort and in the value of your property. A good Xeriscape will increase your property value by as much as 15%. Xeriscape can also reduce water and maintenance costs by up to 60%.

Xeriscape helps extend water supplies. When water use is restricted, inefficient water-thirsty landscapes suffer first. Protect your landscape investment by drought-proofing it.

Tags: water, sustainable, efficiency, conservation