New Eco-Challenge: Take Shorter Showers to Save Water Now

Jaceybonavia/ Climate, Plants, Water, Wildlife

What do you think of as natural resources? The first things I often think of are oil, wood, and metals. However, water is obviously more critical to our lives than any of those things; we cannot survive without it.

Because water is inexpensive and easily accessible to many people in the United States, we often take it for granted. We can no longer minimize its significance, though. Fresh, accessible water is precious and increasingly scarce.

Water Use for Showers in the U.S.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency…

• Showers account for 17 percent of residential water use in the United States.
• An average U.S. family uses 40 gallons of water for showers every day.
• Annually, we use 1.2 trillion gallons of water for showers throughout the United States.

I am guilty of wasting precious water by taking long showers. This challenge will be difficult, but it will be worth it.

Water Scarcity Crisis

A 2016 study showed that about 2/3 of the world’s population experiences severe water shortages during an average year. Millions of people will be displaced due to water shortages in the coming years, and many will die.

For those people, and for all of life on Earth, we need to save water any way that we can.

March #WildSustainabilityChallenge

Take shorter showers.

You can do it! Let us know how the challenge is going in the comments below, Facebook, or Instagram! Tag me @wildsustainability, and use the hashtag #WildSustainabilityChallenge.

If you missed last month’s challenge, it’s not too late! Check it out here.

This post contains affiliate links (below), which means that if you buy a product through one of these links, I may receive a small commission to help keep this site running!

P.S. Want to learn more about the global water crisis? Read Troubled Waters.

Sources:
https://www.epa.gov/watersense/showerheads
https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/scarcity/