Researchers at Tetra Tech, a consulting firm used by the federal government and many major corporations, took a look at projected water demands along with renewable water supplies. They calculated what would happen to water supplies under 16 different leading climate models. What they found is that water supplies will dwindle and demand for fresh water will increase.

On the supply side, climate models forecast that many parts of the country will not only have less rainfall, but more of what does make it to the ground from snow or rain will be lost to evapotranspiration (water lost to evaporation and vegetation transpiration). As temperatures rise due to climate change, east Texas, the California Central Valley and the Southeastern states could see five fewer inches of available precipitation each year–what’s left after evapotranspiration. Leaving them even drier than they have been in recent years.

While we’re seeing less water enter the system, we’ll be taking more water withdrawals from aquifers, dams, rivers, and lakes. According to the study, water use in the U.S. is expected to increase by 12.3 percent between 2000 and 2050. The primary uses of fresh water are for agriculture, power plant cooling, and domestic use.

The regions expecting the worst water shortages are already using more water than they receive in rainfall each year. For example, California, the Southwest, and Texas already have water withdrawals over 100 percent of annual rainfall. This means those states use more water than they have.

Another point that needs to be made is that the hardest hit states are also where we grow much of the nation’s fruit, vegetables, and cotton. On the map below, you can see by the dark red colors the counties most at risk for extreme water shortages. The white dots show where the majority of the cotton is grown in the U.S.

While American cotton farmers are methods that put cotton’s water consumption in line with other crops, we may have to choose one day that it’s more important to have food than cotton (as there are other choices for textile fibers). But we won’t be able to rely on other countries to take up the slack and grow our cotton for us.

The top five cotton-producing nations are: China, U.S., India, Pakistan, and Brazil. Together these countries produce almost 84 percent of the global cotton crops. And, with the exception of Brazil, these same nations are also looking at severe water shortages in the short and long term.

Clearly much needs to be done to ensure we’re using water wisely. Conservation methods need to improve, legislation to slow down and reverse climate change is required, and we may have to decide if we want to grow cotton for t-shirts, or food for our tables.

What do you make of the new study and do you think we’ll have to face the day when cotton jeans, linens, and t-shirts are only for the wealthy? Post your thoughts below; we’re interested in what you have to say on this subject.

image credit: Google Earth / NRDC

preparing for rising seas

The city planners in Boston are looking ahead to a future where rising ocean levels flood significant portions of the city. While Boston has benefited from the ocean, throughout its history Beantown has added to its footprint with landfill, leaving much of the city just above sea level. City leaders are considering a variety of ideas such as changing the entrances to the underground subway and newly built freeways, moving electrical equipment out of downtown basements and onto the roofs, updating zoning laws to discourage construction in high-risk areas, even building massive gates in the bay. And Boston isn’t the only city beginning to this about rising seas. Venice is building sea gates to hold back the tides already.

singapore: a model for water management

Water expert Dr. Peter Gleick takes readers to Singapore for a look at how this small country with 4.5 million people manages its water. For years Singapore has purchased about 40 percent of the water it needs from Malaysia. While the monetary cost of the water hasn’t been a burden, the political and security situation has been. To address the situation and reduce reliance on imported water, Singapore has been working for the last few years to increase conservation, eliminate waste, increase local fresh water capture, and recycle or desalinate water. The country is a model of efficiency; an average citizen of Singapore uses around 40 gallons each day. For comparison, the average Californian uses 130 gallons per day. On the supply side, they are heavily investing in wastewater treatment and recycling plants which could supply as much as 30 percent of their needs. Clearly, the U.S. and other countries could learn a lot from Singapore’s model.

water-caused wedding woes

Wedding-venue wish lists usually include features such as: has a great view, beautiful gardens, or is eco-friendly. Rarely have our readers had to worry if the hall would have enough clean drinking water for the joyous occasion. But this is just what’s happening in some parts of India where water shortages have become all too common. Families in central India are going halls to villages miles away just to ensure there’s plenty of water. According to the Times of India, the family of the groom will specifically ask for a venue that has ample water. And you thought your family had tough requests.

the ocean needs your attention

This past Tuesday was World Oceans Day. Of course, we’re all pretty darn focused on what’s happening with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, so this year people were actually talking about the state of the oceans already. Chevy and Jayni Chase have been educating themselves and others about the perils facing the oceans for a lot longer than the 50 plus days since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20. This week on CNN.com, the Chases wrote an editorial spelling out the issue quite plainly: “Our lack of attention is killing the oceans.” Chevy and Jayni point out that we often don’t consider where our fish come from, what happens when trash makes its way to the open water, or the simple fact that we know more about the moon than we do about the depths of the oceans. They encourage you to take the time and give some of your attention to the oceans. After all, they oceans account for more than 71 percent of the surface of the planet.

Which stories caught your eye this week? Please share them in our comments below.

As you may know, our company headquarters are in sunny California. A state that has plenty of problems, one of them is perpetual water shortages. The last three years have been very, very dry. This past winter, however, we’ve had well above average rainfall.

Indeed, it’s raining as we speak, which is pretty unusual for May. As of this week, the National Drought Mitigation Center, part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says that 83 percent of the Golden State has normal water levels.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought back in June 2008. Indeed, over the last few years, we’ve seen reservoirs go nearly dry and battles over water allocations for the Central Valley farms. What a difference a few months can make. Since the rainy season began in October, we’ve had ample rain leaving us with a snowpack in the Sierra of 143 percent of normal.

Where does that leave us? Some say it’s time to declare the drought over and others, such as the governor, aren’t quite so sure. Leaving politics aside for a moment, perhaps it would be good to recall that 2006 was one of the wettest years on record, but we went right into drought conditions afterwards. Plus, despite all the rain and snow, none of the reservoirs are at 100 percent capacity.

When you think about it, isn’t the time to save water is when we have lots of it and not when we’re down to the last drop?

What’s the situation where you live? Are people concerned about the quantity and quality the water supply?

photo credit: Aquafornia

clean water from common cactus

Treehugger brought an article about how the common prickly pear cactus could give us clean, safe, and cheap drinking water. The story was originally reported in the New Scientist. The process itself if quite simple: you just boil a bit of cactus and then drop it in the contaminated water. There’s more testing to do, but we think this is pretty cool.

photo: ah zut

america’s unquenchable thirst

Minnesota Public Radio program Midday recent guest Robert Glennon believes America’s thirst for water is “Unquenchable.” While we all think of Texas, California and Arizona, but even Minnesota other mid-west states have been facing water shortages. In fact, some cities in Minnesota weren’t able to supply enough water for ethanol refineries and Lake Superior is too low to float fully-loaded cargo ships. We’ve been using so much water that our groundwater pumping is getting out of hand. America is depleting its groundwater at a faster rate than it can be naturally replenished. Just last year, Atlanta was within 90 days of running completely dry. And that’s not all due to drought, but population expansion stressing water resources.

One of the biggest water wasters, according to Glennon, is our sanitation system. Each year America flushes 6 billions gallons of water down the toilet. This water is then sent back to the treatment plant to be used again. The problem is that downstream, say in New Orleans, their drinking water has been run through this cycle many times.

Glennon was also on The Daily Show last year where Jon Stewart points out that our energy policy, even moving to some clean energy technologies, could worsen the crisis.

protests prevent vote on water bill

Columbia University’s Earth Institute just posted an article about the growing water crisis in Ecuador. At the center of the problem is who owns the rights to the country’s water. In 2008, the constitution sited water as a fundamental human right. Since then many people feel this means that water should be a public utility and not privatized. As you can guess, that’s exactly what’s been happening. Over the years the people have been staging protests which have turned violent. Despite the outrage, the legislature has wanted to begin debate on a new “Water Act” that will give even more control to private companies with few guarantees for the population for continued access to clean, affordable water. Protests by Ecuador’s major indigenous organizations, however, seem to have resulted in the session coming to an end without a vote on the bill.

burmese drought

Once again the people of Burma are suffering. This time, record high temperatures and a late monsoon season have dried up wells and other drinking water sources. Some 60 villages are reported to be under severe water shortages. The drought is taking its toll in other ways as well. The severe heat and low water levels have caused some 100,000 fish deaths at fish farms in Rangoon. One article reported that while some local water bottling companies have donated some water, the government hasn’t responded to the crisis. In a related story, the Mekong River is at a 50-year low. Downstream countries are blaming China for building too many dams, but China blames mother nature.

What water stories are you following? Share them in our comments section below.

1. Take an extra long, very hot shower.
2. Leave on all your appliances and lights, even if you’re not in the room.
3. Drink only bottled water, imported scores you extra points.
4. Throw the anything that can be recycled into the regular trash.
5. Print every email you receive, in color.
6. Drive to work, and be sure to use your biggest vehicle.
7. Buy that cup of $4.00 coffee on the way to the office, and certainly do not bring in your own mug.
8. Eat lunch at a fast food restaurant. Order the extra large size too!
9. Leave your car idling when you run into the dry cleaners.
10. If it’s cold where you live, turn up the heater to 76 degrees.
11. If it’s hot, turn the air conditioner to 68 degrees.
12. Wash a single pair of pants on the full load cycle and use hot water.
13. Tear out the trees in your yard.
14. Plant a huge lawn, especially if you live where it needs to be watered all summer.
15. Spray your yard with toxic weed killers.
16. Buy imported, out of season fruits and vegetables.
17. Bring your sweetheart home a big bunch of flowers flown in from South America.

What else can you think of that we shouldn’t do on Earth Day, or any other day of the year, for that matter?!

photo credits: traffic PMM / shower head Fervent Photographer / exotic fruit Djinn76 / roses George Reyes

Not only does the documentary show the success in China, where the central government can force the population to alter their habits, but they show how villages in Ethiopia and elsewhere have also made remarkable improvements.

It’s not often we hear “hope” and “climate change” in the same sentence. Lui’s video shows us there is hope. Stories such as these need to be held up as examples for the rest of the world. Help spread the word by sharing this video.

Thera N. Kalmijn and R. Paul Herman have come up with the 10 R’s of Water Management and shared their plan with everyone in two parts (part 1 and part 2). You might think this is just overreacting by a couple of treehuggers, but you’d be wrong. They remind us that in 2001, hydroelectric power shortages forced the shutdown of aluminum plant smelters in the Pacific Northwest, resulting in the loss of 8,000 jobs. So, developing and executing on a water management strategy is just plan ole’ fashioned good business.

companies vague on water-scarcity risk, investors say

We know that water management is critical to avoid production interruption. So investors are keen to know the water-related risks faced by specific companies, but that doesn’t mean the information is readily available. A recent report by CERES shows that this information is often “boilerplate and vague.” A Business Week article goes into detail about the report including some of the companies CERES found to be most transparent with their water-risks.

water at the core of climate change

Alister Doyle, an environmental correspondent with Reuters, puts it quite plainly: “The main impact of climate change will be on water supplies.” Unlike many articles we read, Doyle suggests that conflict and disease can be avoided if we just learn from past successful examples of cooperation. Water shortages on the Indus River resulted in cooperation between India and Pakistan and Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia’s set up the Mekong River Commission. With up to 250 million people facing water shortages, it’s good to know that conflict is not guaranteed.

australia’s “top end” too dry to become food bowl

Imagine a place that gets billions of gallons of rain each year, but still can’t sustain agriculture. That place is northern Australia. According to Reuters, farmers and politicians had planned on converting this area into a “food bowl for the world.” However, topography, weather, and climate change mean that much of the water is for not. You see, the rain comes during a few months and the rest of the year is completely dry. During those wet months, most of the water runs quickly out to sea or evaporates quickly when the rain stops. Looks like the Aussies will have to find another way to make the most of this region.

TEDsters answer the question…

The folks with PUR are hanging out with all the big thinkers this week at TED and asking, “If water could talk, what would it say?” And to answer the question, you’ll have to check out PUR’s photo gallery. The extra cool part is you can “like” the album or Tweet it and PUR will donate 10 liters to those in need. Come on, click the link and make clean water happen for someone who would otherwise be without.

Just over 1,500 people were asked what the country’s priorities should be for 2010. The economy and jobs topped the list, which is no surprise. And since the survey was conducted in early January (shortly after the failed Christmas day airline bombing), terrorism rounded out the top three priorities.

What surprised us, is that global warming was dead last and losing ground against results from previous years. In fact, only 28 percent of the respondents to the Pew survey said global warming was a top priority.  In 2007, while only 38 percent said global warming was a priority. That’s 10 points higher than this year’s sentiment.

With the Pew survey, they also break down results by political party. The vast majority of Republicans do not consider this to be an issue, with only 11 percent of them making it a top concern. On the other hand, 43 percent of Democrats want action this year. Independent voters, who are now a third of the electorate, came in at only 25 percent believing global warming should be addressed by the President and Congress.

Pew wasn’t the only ones asking American’s about global warming last month. Last week  Yale and George Mason universities released a report Climate Change in the American Mind. In that survey, 57 percent of the people said, “Yes, I think global warming is happening.” That’s down from 71 percent when the same question was asked in 2008.

Of course, just because people think that climate change is happening, doesn’t mean they think we have anything to do with it. Thirty-six percent of the people said that it’s mostly caused by natural changes. Interesting, because 47 percent said that humans were the cause, but scan back up and you’ll see that only a total of 57 percent would even agree that the planet is experiencing climate change.

Clearly, people are confused, as responses to this question demonstrates:

Which comes closer to your own view?

1. Most scientists think global warming is happening
2. Most scientists think global warming is not happening
3. There is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening
4. Don’t know enough to say

The choice that received the most responses was number three! Forty percent of the people said they believe there is a lot of disagreement among scientist over global warming. The fact is that the vast majority of reputable scientists DO agree that global warming is occurring.

Where do you fall in the spectrum? Is climate change happening? If so, should the government make addressing climate change a top priority? How high on the list would you put it? Above creating jobs? Health care? Let us know.

no rain in the americas

Here at home, California, southern Texas, and the Southwest continue to suffer from severe to extreme drought. Fortunately, we haven’t had to endure the hardships imposed on the citizens of other countries. Just this week residents of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, are having to do without water service for up to 48 hours. The dry weather started back in 2007 and the water rationing is expected to be in effect until 2010 when the rainy season begins again.

africa’s suffering worsens

Over in Africa, more severe and frequent droughts are drastically changing the way of life for millions of nomads in Kenya. While drought is no stranger to Africa, a Christian Aid study released in 2006 shows that periods of drought have quadrupled in the last 25 years. Compounding the problem is a growth in population. What does this mean for the nomads? Many of them have lost their herds and are no longer  to continue with their nomadic traditions. Worse still, others have lost family members to malnutrition.

the chinese take control of the weather

And perhaps you heard about China’s efforts to wring some water from the skies by seeding the clouds over Beijing last week. According to the Xinhua news agency, the head of the Beijing Weather Modification Office (who even knew they had one), said, “We won’t miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought.”

Where does all this leave us? The message seems pretty clear, climate change is effecting more and more people every day around the world. We’re trying to do our part in reducing the demand for water for textiles. Let’s hope the upcoming Copenhagen climate conference yields real results.

photo credits- caracas: LAHT.com / goats: Siena Anstis / snow: LikeYesterday

more water facts

• Fewer than 10 countries control more than 60 percent of the planet’s fresh water.
• Every year, more than 1.5 million children die from water-related disease.
• Water.org says that one in eight people do not have access to clean water.
• An American uses more water in a single five-minute shower than most poor people in the third world use in a day.
• Water shortages have been reported near water bottling plants, including those in Wisconsin, Texas, Florida and New Hampshire.

who’s using the water?

Of course, water is a renewable resource, but mother nature is not able to keep up with the pace of human activity.

Population growth means more agriculture, manufacturing, and sanitation. Agriculture accounts for the vast majority of our fresh water demands. Often regions devote 70 percent or more of their water towards growing crops for food or commodities such as cotton.

As part of Blog Action Day, we want to bring your attention to the water waste in the textile industry. Textiles are the third biggest user of water and cause of water pollution.

You may be surprised to learn that the fiber to make one simple cotton tee uses 713 gallons of water. Then, dying that shirt can take almost eight gallons. That’s a lot of water. Did you know that more than 2 billion t-shirts are sold each year? That’s a lot of water!

climate change and everyday choices

When you think about climate change causing sea levels to rise, more drought, longer droughts, world population increases and the precious little fresh water we have for all the creatures on this planet, we believe that water is better used for food than for clothing. Especially because there are excellent alternatives. We now have recycled PET fabric that’s as soft as cashmere and stronger than cotton. And we have ways to dye the fabric that use no water at the point of coloration.

We encourage everyone to make smart choices about water use every day. Everything from taking shorter showers, to using non-toxic cleaning supplies to choosing clothing that’s not needlessly consuming and polluting our fresh water. Together we can fight climate change and water scarcity.