FACTS ABOUT WATER

A few facts on water compiled from the book and blog of Charles Fishman:

The United States uses 410 billion gallons of water a day, everything from filling morning coffee cups to irrigating crops and cooling nuclear plants.

In four days, the United States uses more water than the world uses oil in a year.

At 1,300 gallons a day, the U.S. leads the world in per person water use.

Electrical production is the biggest water user in the U.S.; each American uses 250 gallons of water each day to generate electricity used at home.

One in four people in the world – 1.6 billion – must walk at least 1 kilometer each day to get water and carry it home.

The average American flushes the toilet five times a day, which comes to 5.7 billion gallons of clean drinking water down the toilet every day.

Americans spend almost as much each year buying bottled water ($21 billion) as they do maintaining the nation’s entire water system ($29 billion), even though bottled water is often just a refiltered version of municipal tap water.

300 tons of water are required to manufacture 1 ton of steel.

15 pounds of glass

14 pounds of plastic

12 pounds of iron

8 pounds of aluminum

4 pounds of copper

4 pounds of lead

1 pound of zinc.  Recycling is good for Wisconsin.

“Inspiration is not garnered from litanies of what is flawed; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, recover, reimagine, and reconsider.”

Remove the buckthorn surrounding native plants and trees. Native trees, shrubs and forbs are important for restoring woodland habitat. Removing the buckthorn surrounding your natives will lead to restoration of  your site.

Remove the largest buckthorn plants, which shade out native plants. Buckthorn may be cut close to the ground and chemically treated immediately.

Remove buckthorn seedlings as they emerge.  Buckthorn eradication takes time and effort but it is worth it.