Water is a near-infinite resource in our world. However, that’s not enough! Water may be everywhere, but are you sure it is clean? Is the water you drink or the river near your house clean? The nearby river or creek may not have the same sparkling water you can find in a beach resort, but that’s no excuse to leave it as it is! We should all do our part to make sure all types of water is clean. How? Here are my tips.

1. Wash those water dispensers! A lot of people are not aware that those hot and cold dispensers may be dirty. Bacteria stick to the hot and cold taps, as well as the inside when you change the bottle. Over time, all that bacteria accumulates. Eventually, every glass you drink is laced with bacteria! You don’t want any children to get sick, do you? To prevent this, clean your water dispenser by running bleach through it every month. Rinse it by running a lot of tap water through. This also applies to any water containers you reuse. Make sure you wash them!

2. Clean up animal droppings. Storms can carry that stuff to rivers and creeks, dirtying the water and introducing bacteria. Keep them clean by disposing of poop in the trash bin! It may be disgusting to handle it, and I will be the first to say that, but remember that it is for the environment! Getting your hands dirty is no big thing.

3. Have your water tested. If you get your water from a well, make sure to have it tested at least every few months, specifically for nitrate. If you get it from a public supply, make sure that it’s a clean supply! If you’re paranoid, you may even want to test that. It may cost money, but prevention is better than cure any day. I’m glad my own water supply is clean. Make sure it complies to the Clean Water Act!

4. Wash on your lawn. Clean your car on the lawn instead of the driveway; better have the soapy water absorbed into the ground instead of making soapy runoff. For that matter do all your washing on the lawn! Runoff can pick up pollutants en route to its destination, so better if you can reduce that. My neighbors wash their animals in the front yard. You may also want to redirect downspouts from your roof to the lawn, or into a container so you can use it for watering later.

5. Don’t be trim-happy! If you live near the bank of a body of water, keep the vegetation there as is! Plants, grass and trees prevent and reduce erosion and hold back pollutants, so do not cut them down or mow them. You’ll be glad you did, one day. You get to keep more actual land on your property!

Whew! It may be tedious, but we can do all our part for clean water. What tips do you live by?

A friend told me that humans were meant to eat meat. That may be true, but we have free will! We can eat what we want, and I chose to be a vegetarian. I know you’re tired of hearing the whole health benefits spiel, so I’ll give you different reasons why veggies are the way to go!

1. More people will be fed! Animals who are farmed for meat consume a lot of grain. You could feed the entire world if you fed 100% of it to people! Also, Soil and Water journal states that one acre of land produces 250 pounds of beef…or 50,000 pounds of tomatoes.

2. You spend less. Switching to vegetables saved my friend a few thousand a year on food expenses. That’s a few thousand more you can spend on a vacation or new clothes!

3. You can drink cleaner water. It only takes 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat. It takes a hundred times more to produce a pound of beef! Nitrate from manure is also one of the leading water pollutants in the US.

I’m not blaming non-vegetarians, since it’s what they chose, but for me, this lifestyle is better. What do you think?

Looking through the comments from the previous entry, someone mentioned nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels. While technically, it is a good alternative, I’m well aware of the risks of that. I don’t want to be irradiated and have all my hair fall out after growing it out! And it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

I did a bit of research and I see that nuclear power has come a long way from before. I’m still opposed to it because of the risks, but if this type of technology keeps growing, and the huge load it will take off the coal and oil plants, I may have to change my mind.

A big problem before was nuclear waste…now they can recycle the waste back into the plant! I also saw innovative security measures and devices, and fail-safes as well. If science keeps it up and keeps proving that they can make nuclear completely safe, consider me a convert.

There’s also clean coal. However, I think nuclear is going to advance faster than clean coal, and maybe, sometime in the future, we will be using both for our primary power needs.

I’m not all for nuclear yet, but I have my hopes up.