Google Earth is Becoming Google Water!

Google Earth’s gotten even cooler now, and “just got an upgrade to include oceans. Previously, the space between Earth’s recognizable landmasses had flat blue and, well, not all that educational.”

That’s all good for marine life enthusiasts. Being more of a land girl, I wish Google Earth did not stop there. How about adding yet another upgrade that would allow us to “see” water underneath the Earth’s surface. Can you imagine being able to have a peak into water tables, and water delivery networks, and moisture levels at various depths?  And being able to track changes over time. How amazing would that be?

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IBM Wants to Bring Advanced IT to Global Water Management

Exciting news this morning, on the water front. GreenBiz just published a report on WaterOrg, IBM’s ambitious idea regarding:

“an educational and perhaps advocacy organization focused on establishing the value of applying advanced sensing, information technology and modeling to water management in the USA.”

Peter Williams, Chief Technology Officer of IBM’s Big Green Innovations, and the brain behind WaterOrg, must have heard my earlier call . . . 🙂

I urge you all to read the detailed IBM proposal, and to contribute any ideas you may have on how to take this project to the next level. Personally, I can’t help but see a convergence between WaterOrg, and some of the broader efforts to organize and centralize sustainability solutions, such as discussed in our earlier thread on green wikis.

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Sounding the Alarm Bell on Water

I know, I know, the economy and partisan politics have taken over our conversations, leaving little room for anything else, let alone problems that are still removed from the reality of our lives. Huge global issues such as the water crisis. A chance business meeting with a friend, about to launch a new water efficiency venture, got me thinking about water. Just as with deforestation, and biodiversity loss, I am shocked by the magnitude of the problem, and the corresponding relative inaction to curb it.

The water crisis raises some critical questions about water economics, water ethics, water technology, water efficiency, water conservation, water waste, water inequities, water rights, water laws, water politics, water awareness . . . all of which need to be addressed at the various appropriate levels.

As with other global environmental issues, it is easy to feel lost as an individual citizen.  Yet, there is lots one can do to favorably impact the situation:

• boycott bottled water
• conserve water at home, and other places
• blog about it, and also comment on other blogs
• support watchdog organizations such as Food and Water Watch
• support legislation to encourage water conservation and efficiency
• share problem and possible solutions with friends

You may also want to go see “Flow”,  Irena Salina’s recently released documentary on water,

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In Italy, Thou Shall Drink Bottled Water

‘Acqua naturale o gassata?‘ The waiter asked us with a smile. Our request for tap water was met with another smile, followed by a firm ‘no’. Too thirsty to pass, we gave in and were quickly served a one litter bottle of Italian mineral water.

Ten meals later, and a few more tries along the way, we have learned to no longer bother. We have adopted the Italian custom of drinking bottled water at every meal. 

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3 Ways to Shower

The Art of Navy Showers

Navy Shower anyone? I just found this post in TreeHugger, where the writer advocates that we all take abbreviated showers, just like those guys in the Navy. There is even a method to it. And since we are in America, even the simplest things come with an instruction manual . . . You may go to Wikipedia and find complete instructions for how to take a Navy Shower. In short, you just turn the shower on, just enough to get yourself wet, turn it off, soap yourself, and then turn it back on to quickly rinse.

The Farm Showers of my grandfather

This reminds me of my days back in my grandparents’ farm, when we did not have a shower. My grandfather was the only one to take a full ‘shower’ once a week. I still remember him stripping down to his underwear, and getting into the ‘abreuvoir’, what looked like a big cement bath tub, and was really meant as a drinking station for the cattle. The sight of him almost naked in the cold morning air used to make me shiver. The ‘Farm Shower’ – I just made up that word – consisted of one bucket of cold water poured over his head, quick soaping, and rinsing with a few more buckets of cold water. The women, my grandmother, my mother, and I, were content enough with occasional hand baths, using our ‘gant de toilette’, the French version of washcloth, which literally means toilet mitten. According to American standards of hygiene, we may have been dirty, but our lives did not suffer, and the clean country air did its share to minimize our natural body odors.

I love American Showers

Fast forward fourty years. While I look back on these years on the farm with great nostalgia, I certainly do not miss those hand baths. And I regard the long, hot American showers as a hard won indulgence that I am not willing to give up. I love the gushing of water, the washing away of the impurities of the day, the warm cocoon of the shower, where for a few minutes I can let my body relax. It is my daily version of a cheap massage. A luxury I am taking for granted. Of course, I am well aware it may not last. Water is going to become the new oil, a resource so precious that people may wage wars because of it. For now, I am not hearing, or seeing anywhere in my radar screen, that I am to stop taking long, hot showers.

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