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    Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products
    Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products
    Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products
    Ebook217 pages1 hour

    Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products

    By Stephen Leahy

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The average American lifestyle is kept afloat by about 2,000 gallons of H2O a day.

    The numbers are shocking.

    Your Water Footprint reveals the true cost of our lifestyle. A "water footprint" is the amount of fresh water used to produce the goods and services we consume, including growing, harvesting, packaging, and shipping. From the foods we eat to the clothes we wear to the books we read and the music we listen to, all of it costs more than what we pay at the check-out. The 125 footprint facts in this book show the true cost of our lifestyle and what it is doing to Earth, including draining it dry.

    The "Virtual Water Concept" shows the amount of water used in human activities. Presented in clever, understandable graphics, Your Water Footprint raises readers' awareness of how much water is used to make the things we use, consume and grow.

    What we put on our dinner table has a very high cost. Nearly 95 percent of our water footprint is hidden in the food we eat:

    • One pound of lettuce costs 15 gallons of freshwater; mango 190 gallons; avocado 220 gallons; tofu 244 gallons; rice 403 gallons; olives 522 gallons; pork 1,630 gallons; butter 2,044 gallons; chocolate 2,847 gallons; and beef 2,500 to 5,000 gallons.
    • A slice of bread costs 10 gallons but if you eat it with a slice of cheese, it takes another 13 gallons.
    • One glass of beer takes 20 gallons of water, and just one standard cup of tea costs 120 same-sized cups of water.

    A cotton t-shirt takes almost as much water as beef, a pair of jeans even more. In fact, all aspects of our daily lives require water in some way, shape or form. The saying that "nothing is free" applies more to water than anything else we consume, considering just three percent of the world's water is drinkable and that we are using more of it than ever before. Factor in climate change, population growth and pollution and we have an unsustainable situation. Many experts predict dire water shortages if we continue on our current path.

    Your Water Footprint is riveting. Consumers of all ages will be stunned by what it reveals. It is an excellent reference and an exciting way to introduce the resource-consumption equation to students.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFirefly Books
    Release dateSep 2, 2015
    ISBN9781770857018
    Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products

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    Reviews for Your Water Footprint

    3.5/5

    3 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This book will make you think twice about the water that you use; in the things you buy and the way you drive. An important book that demonstrates that we should be as worried about our water consumption as global warming and that the two are inexorably linked.
    • 3/5
      Concise, and easy to read, with lots of graphs and charts that unfortunately don't always match the text. The work could have gained another star by more closely checking to make sure they didn't contradict themselves. Overall, good information presented in an easy to read format; hopefully, if they come out with another edition, they'll fix the things that are less than informative.
    • 4/5
      The subtitle pretty says what the book is about. The first and last two chapters (the introduction, conclusion and “Water Saving Tips”) are more text, while the rest of the chapters are made up, primarily, of infographics to make it easier to visualize how much water is used on making those everyday products. This was interesting. I think the graphics really help to understand the measurements a bit better than just a giant number in litres or gallons. The chapters that were all text did get a bit bogged down, so parts were a little bit dry. There was just a lot of information, but I think the book (and particularly, the infographics) helps open our eyes to how dire the situation is and may become. The “Water Saving Tips” at the end does help provide suggestions of things we can all do to help.

    Book preview

    Your Water Footprint - Stephen Leahy

    Published by Firefly Books Ltd. 2014 Copyright © 2014 Firefly Books Ltd.

    Introduction and conclusion Copyright © 2014 Stephen Leahy

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright license, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

    Publisher Cataloging-in-Publication Data (U.S.)

    Leahy, Stephen.

    Your water footprint : the shocking facts about how much water we use to make everyday products / Stephen Leahy.

    [144] pages : col. ill., maps ; cm.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    Summary: An analysis of water usage which combines infographics with a narrative in detailing the typical volume of water necessary for common applications, from creating fuel to flushing the toilet.

    ISBN-13: 978-1-77085-295-2 (pbk.)

    1. Water use.  2. Water consumption.  I. Title.

    333.91 dc 23     TD348.L434     2014

    Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

    Leahy, Stephen, 1953–, author

    Your Water Footprint : The Shocking Facts About How Much Water we Use to Make Everyday Products / Stephen Leahy.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 978-1-77085-295-2 (pbk.)

    1. Water use.  2. Water efficiency.  I. Title.

    TD345.L43 2014               333.91               C2014-901161-X

    Infographic research: Andrew Jones

    Infographic illustration concepts: Dan Gustafson

    Cover design: PageWave Graphics Inc.

    eBook: George Walker - Firefly Books Ltd.

    Published in the United States by

    Firefly Books (U.S.) Inc.

    P.O. Box 1338, Ellicott Station

    Buffalo, New York 14205

    Published in Canada by

    Firefly Books Ltd.

    50 Staples Avenue, Unit 1

    Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 0A7

    While the Publisher has made a serious attempt to obtain accurate information, the numbers represented in this book are for illustrative purposes only. Variances between sources and methodologies used for counting water footprints, area, consumption and volume may not be reflected in the text or graphics. Subsequent editions of this book may contain updated values.

    The publisher gratefully acknowledges the financial support of our publishing program by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund as administered by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

    CONTENTS

    Introduction

    The Big Picture

    At Home

    Food

    Manufacturing and Farming

    Conclusion

    Water-saving Tips

    Sources

    References

    Photography Credits

    Acknowledgments

    Introduction

    Do you know you’re wearing water? It takes more than 7,600 liters (2,000 gallons) of water to make a single pair of jeans and another 2,460 liters (650 gallons) to make a T-shirt. And you’re eating water too. That morning cup of coffee required 140 liters (37 gallons) of water before it found its way to your table—water that was used to grow, process and ship the coffee beans. If you include toast, two eggs and some milk in your coffee, the water footprint of your breakfast totals about 700 liters (185 gallons).

    Furniture, houses, cars, roads, buildings—practically everything we make uses water in the manufacturing process. When we spend money on food, clothes, cellphones or even electricity, we are buying water. A lot of water. Generating electricity from coal, oil, gas, and nuclear or hydro power involves the world’s second biggest use of water after food production. Making paper is another very water-intensive process. This book required about 980 liters (260 gallons) of water to produce, or more than your morning breakfast.

    We are surrounded by a hidden world of water. This unseen water is called virtual or embodied water. Even though we don’t see the water it took to make a T-shirt, couch or TV, that water is just as real as the water we drink or shower with. Each of us uses far more virtual water than the regular water we can see, feel and taste.

    According to government statistics, the average American’s direct water use (the regular water) is around 378 liters (100 gallons) every day for showers, toilet use, washing, cooking and drinking. The virtual water in the things we eat, wear and use during a day averages 7,500 liters (1,980 gallons). That means the average American’s water footprint—the total amount of direct plus virtual freshwater use—is about 8,000 liters (2,115 gallons) per day. Since 1 liter weighs 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds), that’s the weight of four cars you have to haul if you get all that water from a well.

    Due to our excessive consumption habits, a North American’s daily water footprint (direct plus virtual water) is more than twice the size of the global average. Think of it as running shoes placed side by side: the global shoe is a size 8, while the North American’s is a size 18. By contrast, the Chinese or Indian water footprint is a tiny size 6.

    The Global Hydrologic Cycle

    Though there is no such thing per se as permanent removal from the global water cycle (as all water molecules take the form of liquid, solid or gaseous water, and the cycle is unending), in this book, the term water consumption indicates removals that are rendered so toxic, or are relocated so far from sources of clean water, that the water is no longer accessible or fit for use.

    Where you are in the world can dictate whether that water comes clean from a tap, from a polluted river or from a street vendor. UNICEF and the World Health Organization’s Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation defines water access outside of piped water into the home as improved or unimproved; improved water sources include a public tap or standpipe, a tube well, a protected spring or rainwater collection. Unimproved water sources are unprotected wells and springs, untreated surface water, water carts or tanker trucks. Southeastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa remain the regions with the highest numbers of people without improved sources of drinking water.

    The Water Footprint of a Bottle of Cola

    To get a better understanding of virtual water and the water footprint concept, let’s take a look at one popular product: a bottle of cola. Cola is almost entirely water, so a half-liter (17-ounce) bottle effectively contains 500 milliliters of water. That’s the direct water input. But cola is not just water in a bottle. It contains sugar, carbon dioxide and syrup for flavoring. Sugar can be made from sugar beets, sugar cane or corn. All those crops need a lot of water to grow and to process into sugar, and the amount of water they need varies depending on where they are grown. If the sugar is made from corn grown in the United States, about 30 liters (7.9 gallons) of water was needed to grow and process the corn to make the sugar for our bottle of cola. The syrup flavoring contains small amounts of vanilla extract and caffeine from coffee beans. Vanilla and coffee require shockingly large amounts of water to grow and process. It takes about 80 liters (21 gallons) to grow and process the vanilla and 53 liters (14 gallons) to grow and process the coffee required to make just one bottle of cola.

    The plastic cola bottle is made from oil. Water is crucial for the process of getting oil out of the ground

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