I used to look at my closet and see clothes. These days, whenever I cast my eyes upon the stacks of shoes and hangers of shirts, sweaters and jackets, I see water.
It takes 569 gallons to manufacture a T-shirt, from its start in the cotton fields to its appearance on store shelves. A pair of running shoes? 1,247 gallons.
Until last fall, Id been oblivious to my \ footprint\ which is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce goods and services, according to the Water Footprint Network. The Dutch nonprofit has been working to raise awareness of freshwater scarcity since 2008, but it was through the \ Blue Book\ by Thomas M. Kostigen that I was able to see how my own actions factored in.
I’ve installed gray-water systems to reuse the wastewater from my laundry, machine and bathtub and reroute it to my landscape - systems that save, on average, 50 gallons of water per day. I’ve set up rain barrels and infiltration pits to collect thousands of gallons of storm water cascading from my roof. I’ve even entered the last bastion of green dom -installing a composting toilet.
Suffice to say, I’ve been feeling pretty satisfied with myself for all the drinking water I’ve saved with these big-ticket projects.
Now I realize that my daily consumption choices could have an even larger effect –not only on the local water supply but also globally: 1.1 billion people have no access to freshwater, and, in the future, those who do have access will have less of it.
To see how much virtual water 1 was using, I logged on to the \ Blue Book\ website and used its water footprint calculator, entering my daily consumption habits. Tallying up the water footprint of my breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, as well as my daily dose of over-the-counter uppers and downers - coffee, wine and beer- I’m using 512 gallons of virtual water each day just to feed myself. In a word: alarming.
Even more alarming was how much hidden water I was using to get dressed. I’m hardly a clotheshorse, but the few new items I buy once again trumped the amount of water flowing from my faucets each day. If I’m serious about saving water, I realized I could make some simple lifestyle shifts. Looking more closely at the areas in my life that use the most virtual water, it was food and clothes, specifically meat, coffee and, oddly, blue jeans and leather jackets.
Being a motorcyclist, I own an unusually large amount of leather - boots and jackets in particular. All of it is enormously water intensive. It takes 7,996 gallons to make a leather.jacket, leather being a byproduct of beef. It takes 2,866 gallons of water to make a single pair of blue jeans, because they’re made from water-hogging cotton.
Crunching the numbers for the amount of clothes I buy every year, it lo
oks a lot like my friends swimming pool. My entire closet is borderline Olympic Gulp.
My late resolution is to buy some items used. Underwear and socks are, of course, exempt from this strategy, but 1 have no problem shopping less and also shopping at Goodwill. In fact, Id been doing that for the past year to save money. My clothes outrageous water footprint just reintroduced it for me.
More conscious living and substitution, rather than sacrifice, are the prevailing ideas with the water footprint. Its one I’m trying, and that had an unusual upside. I had a hamburger recently, and I enjoyed it a lot more since it is now an occasional treat rather than a weekly habit.
China's water footprint and water saving strategies
Water footprint is an indicator of fresh water use that looks at both the direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. The idea was first proposed by a Dutch water expert and Professor John Anthony Allan of King's College London won the Stockholm Water Prize for his invention of the concept of Virtual Water which is also a way to calculate the water footprint, in parallel to the carbon footprint.
It is also a way to see water from consumption perspective. For example to produce one kilo wheat needs 100 liter water, but to produce one kilo beef needs 1600 liter water. Therefore, people's eating habits affect the consumption of water. Professor Liu Junguo from Beijing Forestry University conducted a research on China's water footprint which aroused great attention from the World Water Week held in Stockholm on August 16-22.
In an interview with People's Daily Online, Professor Liu said from the food consumption perspective, China's average water footprint in 1961 was about 260 cubic meters of water, but in 2003, the average water footprint increased to 860 cubic meters of water. This change is huge and it shows that the change of people's eating habit, for example eating more beef or lamb affects the water footprint. He also looked at it in specific items such as grain and meat. The footprint of grain consumption didn't change much over the past 40 years, but the consumption of meat showed drastic increase.
However, compared with western countries such as the US, China's water footprint is still low. China's water footprint is only half of that in the US.
Further analysis with low, medium and high perspectives shows that no matter in which situation China's average water footprint will continue to increase till 2030. In 2003, China's total water footprint was 1100 cubic kilometer. It is predicted that by 2030 the total water footprint will increase by 40 to 50%. Currently China has realized that her water quantity is just 100 cubic meters per person, a standard that is much lower than that of Middle East and Northern Africa. Under such circumstances, how can China provide another 50% to produce food? This is a huge challenge for China,
said Professor Liu.
Professor Liu said that China has realized the severity of the problem and began to take a series of measures. From 2000, China has begun to propose the idea of developing a water saving society through water rights and market to efficiently use water resources and achieve harmonious development of water usage and environment protection. In the Amended Water Law issued in 2002, China has clearly put up forward the idea of developing a water saving society. This is a milestone in water management. In 2005, China issued a guideline on water-saving technologies stressing that both industry and agriculture should save water. In the 11th five year plan, China put up forward specific targets for building a water-saving society. That is to cut its water consumption for per unit GDP growth by 20 percent by the end of 2010, or an annual drop of four percent during the 2006-2010 period, increase water use efficiency from 45% to 50% in agriculture and reduce waste of water in urban water pipes by 15%. The policy has resulted in obvious decrease of water use. Beijing has claimed to realize the targets.
However, currently China is still trying to save water just from the blue water perspective which refers to water from rivers and lakes whereas \water's management is not on the agenda yet. Green water refers to rainwater or water that sinks in the soil. In fact, more than 80% of the agricultural use water is from green water.
Professor Liu proposed that to use plastic sheets for agriculture with supplementary irrigation might be a way of effectively manage green water because 65% of the rain water evaporate to the atmosphere through forest, grassland and wetland. Water harvesting and avoidance of runoff should be another method in using the green water.
Another measure is to readjust economic mix and agricultural mix. From the perspective of water footprint, although there is a shortage of water in the north of China, the trade mix shows that virtual water flows to the south more than from south to north. China is a huge country, it is not realistic to rely on imported food, but China can use the virtual water theory inside China to readjust the agricultural mix. The government can also research on water credit system which is used in some European countries to encourage farmers to grow crops that is proper and needed. For example, the government can give little subsidies to farmers in Shandong so that they can continue to grow wheat and corn instead of just growing corn now because of shortage of water.
Professor Liu's research has aroused great response from the World Water Week. Senior scientist Professor Malin Falkenmark, who is also the ‘mother of the concept of green water and blue water' , consultant to Stockholm International Water Institute said that there are some interesting breakthroughs.
\developed in China and the possibility to turn non-productive evaporation into biomass producing transpiration. The study from China shows that much higher productivity could be achieved if one uses supplementary irrigation with plastic sheeting by conventional blue water irrigation,\
Carbon footprint
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). In other words: When you drive a car, the engine burns fuel which creates a certain amount of CO2, depending on its fuel consumption and the driving distance. When you buy food and goods, the production of the food and goods also emitted some quantities of CO2. Even if you heat your house with electricity, the generation of the electrical power may also have emitted a certain amount of CO2.
随着联合国气候变化峰会的召开，关于温室气体排放，碳足迹，以及节能减排的讨论成为各家媒体热议的话题。有关专业机构还设计出一个碳足迹计算器，让每个人都了解自己的行为对环境造成的影响。那么，这个“碳足迹”到底是什么意思呢？我们今天就来说一说。
碳足迹指直接或间接支持人类活动所产生的温室气体总量，通常用产生的二氧化碳吨数来表示。换句话说，你开车的时候，发动机在燃烧汽油的同时会释放出一定量的二氧化碳，这个量由耗油量和行驶里程决定。你购买食物和商品的时候，生产食物和商品的过程也会释放出一定量的二氧化碳。就算你家的房子是用电采暖，电能产生的过程也是释放二氧化碳的。
Your carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of CO2, which were induced by your activities in a given time frame. Usually a carbon footprint is calculated for the time period of a year.
你的碳足迹就是在一定时间段内你的所有活动引起的二氧化碳排放总量。通常情况下，碳足迹是以一年为一个时间段进行计算的。
Carbon tax
Carbon tax, one of the market mechanisms that China is considering adopting, will raise the current energy price from fossil fuel sources, including gasoline, electricity, coal and natural gas.
“碳税”是中国正在考虑要实行的市场机制之一，该机制的实行将提高现有包括汽油、电力、煤炭和天然气等在内的化石能源的价格。
文中的carbon tax就是指“碳税”，是基于市场的主要减排方案之一，根据fossil fuel（化石燃料）燃烧后排放碳量的多少，针对化石燃料的生产、分配或使用来征收税费。而相比之下，使用wind（风力），sunlight（日光），hydropower（水电）等non-combustion
energy sources（非燃烧能源）则更加环保。
Carbon tax是一种针对greenhouse gas（温室气体）中的emissions of carbon dioxide（二氧化碳排放）征收的environmental tax（环境税）。征收carbon tax的目的在于控制climate change（气候变化）和global warming（全球变暖）。此外，人们还常采用carbon capture and storage（碳捕获和存储）等方法来处理emissions of carbon dioxide。