Each year I comment on Blog Action Day in relationship to something environmental. I give credit to change.org for their visibility worldwide and their passionate gathering of so many ideas and thoughts

With the issue of water I find myself personally overwhelmed. Billions of people in this world do not have safe drinking water.  Billions! I might be a green advocate but I am not leading the way here with regards to water. I am also main stream america. Can I even imagine being without drinking water?

When I was new to my business and new to parenting, I decided to purify my water at the tap. Not filter. Purify. I wanted to remove the flouride, the chlorine and all the many other spooky things found in municipal water. I thought I did this for safety reasons. For the safety of my family

I did this through reverse osmosis, and would probably still be doing it if my counter top gadget didn’t fall apart. I had it for over 15 years and I found that particular choice reassuring!! I will say now that I didn’t realize that my system was actually wasteful, there was a dripping into the drain for the processing.

Now I drink water from the tap. I am ingesting many things I am not interested in ingesting, including for this area at times high nitrates. Yikes!

How will this affect my well being?

No Impact Man professes that our municipal water is fine. He toots that we have the right to clean water for free. At some level I agree. So much worry. I feel at this point I am going to have to make do. I can’t afford a new water purifying system.

How did the water get so polluted in the first place? Ya know??

I have never really bought into the plastic bottled water thing. Convenient? Perhaps. It’s sooooo garbage producing? Scam? It’s polished tap water. I mean seriously folks. To pay for water just makes no sense to me.

I never thought of water as an industry or the harms of manufacturing bottled water. I just simply thought it was another stupid main stream consumerism that for me I was going to personally opt out of.

I ignored it.  I ignored that aisle in the store. Just like I ignore McDonalds, WalMart or other choices I might not make verses the choices the people I know make.

Certainly not a very proactive stance is it??

Then I watched the documentary Flow

In that film they discuss major environmental harm that comes from these mega companies producing bottled water. They shared the idea of water ownership and most alarming the theft of natural sources of water.  Who owns the water that flows in our streams ?? I never thought of that before.

How is it these companies can just take it, bottle it, and sell it for momentary profit, for single use hydration and produce such a large volume of garbage for our landfills too?

They take it !! STEAL. They don’t even pay for it! Or replenish it? Or do anything to leave it as they found it…they just take.  I was so positively stunned by this.

Worst yet, they sell the larger majority of the population on the idea that this water is actually better.

Its just proposterous!

One of my very favorite persons in action and sharing the water story is annie leonard and her video the story of bottled water. To me she appeals to everyday thinking and shares a larger picture.  She helps one see the impact of our need for convenience verses the impact on the environment.  Plus she does it in about 10 minutes flat!!

Another water awareness brought to my attention this year was paying for water.  I now own a home. I’ve been renting for years and years.  Now I pay for my water usage.  I am pretty frugal at many levels but when the bill goes up $16 dollars in one month, that’s because of my habits or my running toilet or the garden I planted.   I don’t shower daily, I do laundry maybe twice a month. I don’t flush every use. I manage a full dishwasher.  I got a rain barrel this summer.

Could I do better?  I think I could.

I  think we all could use a jolt of water usage awareness.

I think if I had to use the 5 gallon a day rule, like crunchy chicken suggested …I’d be shocked at how much water I actually use. I am one person.  Imagine if the 5 gallon rule applied to a family??

We take water for granted.  I know I do.

I don’t have all the solutions, and I still feel overwhelmed.

I can totally advocate getting rain barrels to produce less storm water run off

or showering less, or not buying bottled water.

I can also participate in Blog Action Day and have you discover for yourself how you feel about water.