U.N. World Water Day 2014

Today is U.N. World Water day!

My smartass Twitter comment was that I’ll spend the day reflecting on things, but seriously… water is our most precious resource and we really need to start taking care of it. Since joining Aquatic Informatics software, I’ve had much more exposure to stories of water-related issues around the world. We’re working to provide the software the world needs to make smart water policies based on actual data rather than speculation or lobbying. We need to let science decide how we can provide better access to clean drinking water and more widespread use of renewable resources for power generation.

From the U.N. Water Day Facebook page:

“Did YOU know that… by 2035, the global energy demand is projected to grow by more than one-third and demand for electricity is expected to grow by 70%.

22nd of March is World Water Day. The theme for this year is Water & Energy.
Share this picture and help us raise awareness about UN-Water World Water Day”

World Water Day 2013: What is your water footprint?

Check out Stu Hamilton’s blog post on the Aquatic Informatics website about World Water Day 2013.

“To mark World Water Day at Aquatic Informatics we watched the movie ‘Last Call at the Oasis’. In discussion about the issues raised by this movie one of our senior developers expressed surprise at the magnitude of the water footprint for everyday products.

For example, the water footprint for a t-shirt was given as 700 gallons!

I don’t know whether the notion of accounting for your water footprint will catch on or not. A few years ago the idea of calculating your carbon footprint got quite a bit of press and even though carbon calculators have never caught on the notion that your carbon footprint matters seemed to stick. Equating energy use with a carbon footprint is intuitive – if I turn on a light my footprint grows whereas if I walk to work my footprint shrinks.”