The Graduate Green Living Program
Follow That Frog!
Natalia Goh (NB), Contributing Writer
Issue date: 4/18/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Following last week's green activities, students around campus may have noticed the presence of a green creature-none other than the Green Frog, a mascot for the Graduate Green Living Program! This month, the Green Frog is focused on conserving a resource important to its habitat and nature's very own lifeblood: water.
Many people don't fully realize the uses of water extend far beyond simple washing and bathing. Literally every product we use in our daily lives requires water - and usually large amounts of it - at some point before arriving on store shelves. Growing crops, raising livestock, generating energy at power plants, manufacturing plastics and metals, making paper, shipping raw materials and finished products - all require water.
Since water does so much work "behind the scenes," we often forget water conservation involves more than just taking shorter showers and turning the faucet off while shaving or brushing your teeth. Although these are great habits to form, using water wisely also means changing some other wasteful practices that are less obvious.
Water conservation means not only maintaining an adequate supply of water but also making sure water of adequate quality is available for human use. Accordingly, water conservation efforts must also emphasize the effects of industrial and domestic water pollution and target ways individuals can minimize their harmful impact on water quality.
Lastly, individuals must also recognize the importance of water to the health of the general ecosystem. When water supplies dwindle and water quality worsens, plant and animal species suffer, disrupting both natural ecology, as well as many industries.
In theory, water is renewable - nature does an excellent job of recycling freshwater, while modern water treatment facilities and purification plants can decontaminate a large quantity of used water for human consumption. But water is by no means inexhaustible.
Overusing and polluting water severely limit the ability of nature and technology to recycle it. If humans extract more water than the natural flow, shortages and ecological consequences are inevitable. In addition, many urban areas in the United States, including Cambridge, have not yet installed "graywater" systems. This means we wash our clothes and flush our toilets with drinking-water standard purified water! Much of our wastewater is disinfected and then discharged as effluence into the Massachusetts Bay.
Many people don't fully realize the uses of water extend far beyond simple washing and bathing. Literally every product we use in our daily lives requires water - and usually large amounts of it - at some point before arriving on store shelves. Growing crops, raising livestock, generating energy at power plants, manufacturing plastics and metals, making paper, shipping raw materials and finished products - all require water.
Since water does so much work "behind the scenes," we often forget water conservation involves more than just taking shorter showers and turning the faucet off while shaving or brushing your teeth. Although these are great habits to form, using water wisely also means changing some other wasteful practices that are less obvious.
Water conservation means not only maintaining an adequate supply of water but also making sure water of adequate quality is available for human use. Accordingly, water conservation efforts must also emphasize the effects of industrial and domestic water pollution and target ways individuals can minimize their harmful impact on water quality.
Lastly, individuals must also recognize the importance of water to the health of the general ecosystem. When water supplies dwindle and water quality worsens, plant and animal species suffer, disrupting both natural ecology, as well as many industries.
In theory, water is renewable - nature does an excellent job of recycling freshwater, while modern water treatment facilities and purification plants can decontaminate a large quantity of used water for human consumption. But water is by no means inexhaustible.
Overusing and polluting water severely limit the ability of nature and technology to recycle it. If humans extract more water than the natural flow, shortages and ecological consequences are inevitable. In addition, many urban areas in the United States, including Cambridge, have not yet installed "graywater" systems. This means we wash our clothes and flush our toilets with drinking-water standard purified water! Much of our wastewater is disinfected and then discharged as effluence into the Massachusetts Bay.
Be the first to comment on this story