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You and I are wondering what we can do to save H2O. I always say go for the low hanging fruit. Do the easy stuff. Well, guess what, my friends? In the water world ... it is harvest time - and its super easy.

Share the comprehensive 100 water saving tips below and see how saving water will save you loads of moola and energy - not to mention saving that awesome elixir of life that keeps us all alive and well. Share this list with your friends, neighbors, associates and your buds - it all starts with you.

1. There are a number of ways to save water and they start with you.
2. When you save water, you save money on your utility and energy bills too.
3. Use a water-efficient showerhead. They can save you up to 750 gallons a month and hundreds of  $$$ a year in energy and water bills - per shower.
4. Adjust sprinklers so only your lawn is watered.
5. To save water and time, consider washing your face or brushing your teeth while in the shower.
6. Wash fruits and vegetables in a bowl of water instead of running water from the tap.
7. When cleaning out fish tanks, give the nutrient-rich water to your plants.
8. Upgrade older toilets with water efficient models.
9. Turn off water when brushing your teeth n' save 25 gallons a month.
10. Collect water from your roof to water your garden.
11. Bathe your young children together.
12. Have your plumber re-route your gray water to trees and gardens rather than letting it run into the sewer line. Check with your city codes, and if it isn't allowed in your area, start a movement to get that changed.
13. Wash your pets outdoors in an area of your lawn that needs water.
14. Teach your children to turn off faucets tightly after each use.
15. For dishes, don't run water when rinsing. Use 1 sink for wash water and 1 for rinse water.
16. Some appliances are cooled with wasted flows of h2o.  Change to air-cooled items for savings.
17. Adjust sprinklers so only your lawn is watered and not the house, sidewalk, or street.
18. Run clothes washer and dishwasher when full. You can save up to 1,000 gallons a month.
19. Pick shrubs & ground covers over turf for hard-to-water areas like slopes & isolated strips.
20. Install covers on pools and spas and check for leaks around your pumps.
21. Use garbage disposal sparingly. Compost vegetable waste and save gallons every time.
22. Plant in the fall when conditions are cooler and rainfall is more plentiful.
23. Keep h2o in refrigerator. Don't run tap, so every drop goes down you and not the drain.
24. Monitor water bill for high use. Your bill and water meter can help you discover leaks.
25. Water your lawn & garden in the am or pm when temps are cooler to minimize evaporation.
26. Wash fruits and vegetables in a pan of water instead of running water from the tap.
27. Spreading organic mulch around plants retains moisture & saves water, time and money.
28. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your driveway and sidewalk to conserve water.
29. If your shower fills a 1-gallon bucket in under 20 secs, use a water-efficient shower head.
30. If water runs off lawn, split watering time into shorter periods  for better absorption.
31. We often notice indoor leaks. Don't forget to check outdoor faucets, sprinklers & hoses.
32. If you have an automatic refilling device, check your pool periodically for leaks.
33. Upgrade appliances with cycle & load size adjustments for water & energy efficiency.
34. Shorten your shower by a minute or two. You'll save up to 150 gallons per month.
35. Use sprinklers for large areas of grass. Water small patches by hand to avoid waste.
36. When running a bath, plug tub before turning on h2o, then adjust the temp as the tub fills.
37. Walkways & patios never need to be watered and can also add value to your property.
38. Collect water from your roof to water your garden.
39. Designate a drinking glass daily or refill a bottle. This cuts down on glasses to wash.
40. Don't use a watering schedule, check soil moisture 2 to 3 inches below surface before watering.
41. Install a rain sensor on your irrigation controller so the system won't run when raining.
42. Don't use running h2o to thaw food. Defrost in fridge for h2o efficiency & food safety.
43. Use drip irrigation 4 shrubs & trees to apply water directly to roots where it's needed.
44. Grab a wrench & fix the leaky faucet! It's simple, cheap & can save 140 gallons a week.
45. Reduce the amount of lawn in your yard by planting shrubs and ground covers.
46. When doing laundry, match the water level to the size of the load.
47. Teach your children to turn off faucets tightly after each use.
48. Periodically check sprinkler system valves for leaks & keep sprinkler heads in good shape.
49. Soak pots and pans instead of letting the water run while you scrape them clean.
50. Don't water lawn on windy days as most of the water blows away or evaporates.
51. Water plants deeply but less frequently to encourage root growth & drought tolerance.
52. Know the location of master h2o shut-off valve. It can save h2o & prevent home damage.
53. To decrease wasted h2o on sloping lawns, apply h2o for 5 minutes & repeat 2 to 3 times.
54. Group plants with same watering needs to avoid overwatering some & underwatering others.
55. Trickling and cascading fountains lose less h2o to evaporation than those spraying into air.
56. Use a commercial car wash that recycles water.
57. Avoid recreational water toys that require a constant flow of water.
58. Use a rain gauge, or empty can to track rainfall. Then reduce your watering accordingly.
59. Encourage your school system & local gov't to develop and promote water conservation.
60. Set a timer when watering. A running hose can discharge up to 10 gallons a minute.
61. If your toilet flapper doesn't close after flushing, replace it.
62. Make sure there are water-saving aerators on all of your faucets.
63. If installing a lawn, use turf mix or a blend that matches climate & site conditions.
64. Cut back on rinsing with new dishwashers as they clean more thoroughly than older ones.
65. Mark pool h2o level at the skimmer with grease pencil. Check mark in 24 hrs for leaking.
66. Kids want to cool off? Use the sprinkler in an area where your lawn needs it the most.
67. Make sure your swimming pools, fountains & ponds are equipped with recirculating pumps.
68. Bathe your young children together.
69. Ask local nursery for info on plant selection & placement for optimum outdoor h2o savings.
70. Winterize outside spigots when temps go below freezing two prevent leaking/bursting pipes.
71. Insulate hot water pipes for more immediate hot h2o at the faucet & for energy savings.
72. Wash your car on the lawn, and you'll water your lawn at the same time.
73. Drop your tissue in the trash instead of flushing it and save water every time.
74. Direct h2o from rain gutters & HVAC systems toward water-loving plants for h2o savings.
75. Make suggestions to your employer about ways to save water and money at work.
76. Support projects that use reclaimed wastewater for irrigation and industrial uses.
77. Use hose nozzle or turn h2o off when washing the car. You save up to 100 gallons.
78. Share water conservation tips with friends and neighbors.
79. Washing dark clothes in cold water saves h2o & energy & helps clothes keep their colors.
80. Toilet installed before 1992? Reduce h2o used when flushing with a displacement device in tank.
81. Report broken pipes, open hydrants & errant sprinklers to property owner or h2o provider.
82. Let the lawn go dormant in the summer. It needs watering every 3 weeks or less if it rains.
83. Plant with finished compost to add water-holding & nutrient-rich organic matter to soil.
84. Leaking faucets & running toilets? Fixing it can save 300 gallons a month or more.
85. Water only when necessary. More plants die from over-watering than from under-watering.
86. Turn off the water while you wash your hair to save up to 150 gallons a month.
87. Apply water only as fast as the soil can absorb it.
88. Re-use water left from cooked or steamed foods to start a scrumptious & nutritious soup.
89. Adjust watering schedule monthly to match weather conditions & landscape requirements.
90. Aerate a lawn at least once a yr so h2o can reach roots rather than run off the surface.
91. Turn off the water while you shave and save up to 300 gallons a month.
92. Handwashing dishes? Fill basin or a large container & rinse after all dishes are scrubbed.
93. Reuse your pet’s old drinking water to water your trees or shrubs.
94. To save water and time, wash your face or brushing your teeth while in the shower.
95. While staying in a hotel or even at home, consider reusing your towels.
96. Throw trimmings and peelings from fruits and vegetables into your yard compost.
97. When backflushing your pool, consider using the water on your landscaping.
98. When you have ice left in your cup from a take-out restaurant, dump it on a plant.
99. When you are washing your hands, don't let the water run while you lather.
100. Let leaf litter accumulate on soil. This keeps the soil cooler & reduces evaporation.

If you have some water saving tips that I did not metion - add them in the comments.

Thanks. Now let's get steppin' and splashin'.

 

Water’s amazing preservation abilities ... 18^th Century bubbly still drinkable after recent discovery ...

Isn’t it impressive how well water can preserve things when they’re sunk deep below the surface? As reported by BBC News, 30 bottles of champagne were recently discovered on the Baltic seabed, off the coast of Finland, where they could have been sitting for the past 200+ years.

Pop the corks ...

Diving instructor Christian Ekstrom said the bottles are believed to be from the 1780s and likely were part of a cargo destined for Russia. The nationality of the sunken ship has not yet been determined.

"We brought up the bottle to be able to establish how old the wreck was," he told The Associated Press. "We didn't know it would be champagne. We thought it was wine or something."

Ekstrom said the divers were overjoyed when they popped the cork on their boat after hauling the bubbly from a depth of 200 feet.

"It tasted fantastic. It was a very sweet champagne, with a tobacco taste and oak," Ekstrom said.

The divers discovered the shipwreck Tuesday near the Aland Islands, between Sweden and Finland. About 30 bottles are believed to be aboard the sunken vessel.

Though the authenticity of these champagne bottles has yet to be confirmed, because of the distinctive shape of the bottles, many suspect they may have been made by French wine maker Clicquot as far back as 1782, which would make them 40 years older than the previous record holder which was produced in 1825. Some speculate that they may have been sent by French King Louis XIV to the Russian Imperial Court.

Wine experts are suggesting that each bottle of champagne could be sold for an impressive 500,000 Swedish kronor (£45,000; $69,000) at auction, though local authorities have yet to determine whether these bottles will go up for sale.

Who knows how many other treasures are waiting to be discovered in our seas? Given that we have yet to explore a full 95% of the ocean, there are many nooks and crannies yet waiting to be seen by human eyes.

 

What does it say about our society when we use water - the source of all life - to simulate drowning as a form of torture? It says we are still in the Middle Ages.

In what some say was a confession of a war crime, George W Bush recently defended the use of waterboarding to the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan as an acceptable form of interrogation, admitting that the technique was used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Going further, he said he’d “do it again to save lives.”

It has been shown repeatedly that these extreme forms of torture rarely reveal any significant intelligence that would help prevent deaths of innocent people, and so on those grounds alone it’s a tragedy that we use such means. It may also open the door for other countries to torture Americans in current and future wars - if the US can waterboard their prisoners, what would stop our “enemies” from likewise torturing Americans?

But more than all that is the psychological damage that such a use of water causes. As a form of mock execution, it has been shown to produce several mental and emotional trauma that profoundly affects the victim, sometimes for decades following the experience. Even Christopher Hitchens, a reporter who voluntarily underwent a very brief waterboarding demonstration, suffered from feelings of suffocation and panic upon waking for some time following the experience.

It is unfortunate that a former leader of the most powerful nation in the world takes this issue so lightly, but even more so that our society has permitted this practice at all.

Here is what others have to say ... Careful, first 3 seconds of video shows graphic reinactment.

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Leaders and decision makers were recently meeting in Washington, DC to talk about Drought, Water Scarcity, and International Security in the 21^st Century on June 16, 2010. Certainly water scarcity is set to become one of the biggest environmental issues facing world governments in decades to come, and as the potential source for widespread conflict among nations, water shortages could easily eclipse climate change as the premiere geopolitical concern. The possibility of richer, more powerful nations buying and even stealing the rights to clean water in the years to come seems highly likely. In such cases, an international environmental court would certainly be helpful.

Though one British lawyer suggested the establishment of an International Environmental Law Court several years ago, the idea has gone almost nowhere. By and large, the problem with such a court is the difficulty in enforcing environmental laws especially when transborder issues are at stake. Though some have attempted to sue national governments over breaches in contracts (such as the Canadian government’s lack of action on Kyoto climate change commitments), historically they’ve been stymied and stalled.

Water issues are so closely connected to other social issues - environmental justice, ecological sustainability, municipal planning, economics - that though there are many organizations looking at water policy issues, they lack the comprehensive and international backing necessary to really make a difference (see organizations such as the World Water Council, the UNESCO Water Portal, and the ICRC Water and Habitat Program). We really do need a comprehensive international environmental court of law.

Find out more about water laws internationally at the International Water Law Project - a portal with all sorts of information on water around the world.