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Water

water conservation keeps rivers and lakes cleanThe average American uses approximately 126 gallons of water per day, making us the largest water consumers per capita in the world. Canadians are a close second, while many European countries use half as much water we do, and most developing countries use less than 15 gallons each day.

When you are living out of a canoe or kayak, you haul your own water from the rivers and lakes you travel on and quickly realize how little water you really need. Amy and I can easily get by on 3 gallons of water per day for washing, cooking, and drinking.

Now I am not suggesting that you tell the utility company to turn off your water, because you are going to start hauling it from the nearest stream.  But there are plenty of ways to conserve water, which in the end is good for the environment and your wallet.

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Ecuador: Environmental Inspection in Yasuni Park

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Inter Press Service: Representatives of Ecuador's ombudsman's office and environmental groups are visiting the Yasuni National Park on Saturday, home to some of the world's last indigenous people still living in voluntary isolation, in order to verify reports of illegal activity by oil companies. Ecuador's new constitution bans oil drilling in the "untouchable zone" declared by the government in the southern part of the park to ensure the survival of the Tagaeri and Taromenane indigenous communities, who ...

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Brazil: A Tragedy of Local and Global Dimensions

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Inter Press Service: The people who live in the favela of Guararapes are probably unaware that the heavy rains that forced them to flee their homes were caused by a phenomenon that is affecting the whole planet: global warming. But in their own small world - a poor shantytown clinging precariously to the slopes of one of the numerous morros or tall, steep hills that dot the Rio de Janeiro skyline - they can clearly identify the local cause behind the tragedy: the artificial diversion of a stream that has ...

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Austrian glaciers melting due to warm weather

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Associated Press: Experts say that a majority of Austria's glaciers in the Alps are melting due to warm weather. The Austrian Alpine Association says 85 of the 93 glaciers it monitored between the fall of 2008 and the fall of 2009 had receded, while seven stayed the same and one grew. The Innsbruck-based group says in its annual report released Friday that the Niederjochferner glacier in the Oetztal Alps melted the most and shrank by 46 meters (151 feet). It says the average loss among ...

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Nuclear waste may get a second life

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National Public Radio: The Obama administration is promoting nuclear power, but at the same time it has put an end to plans to bury nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, Nev. Now, a blue-ribbon committee is pondering what to do with the waste. One option under consideration is a process that would dramatically reduce its radioactive lifetime. Less than 1 percent of spent reactor fuel is made up of the nasty radioactive elements that last hundreds of thousands of years. And Sherrell Greene at the ...

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Conference to probe impact of industry on environment

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Saudi Gazette: Leading environmentalists from Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries, Asia, the Americas and Europe will meet in a conference on April 18-21 in Manama, Bahrain to discuss the impact of industries on the environment, particularly in the Middle East. The conference, called ENVIROARABIA 2010, is organized by the Environmental Technology and Management Association (ETMA) and the Saudi Arabian Section of the Air and Waste Management Association, both Dhahran-based environmental groups, in ...

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Canada: 'Make or break' year for Edmonton's parched trees

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Edmonston Journal: A decade-long drought has parched trees and fields across northern Alberta and may be radically reshaping Edmonton's ecology, say forest and climate experts. Environment Canada says each of the past 10 years has been drier than the long-term average in the city. The past two years have been the driest back to back since record-keeping began in the 1880s. Like withdrawals from a chequing account, the city's trees have drained the soil's deep water and depleted their own stores ...

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Climate Change Could Destroy Glacier National Park

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redOrbit: Glacier National Park could lose its namesake ice formations by the end of the decade, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) told reporters on Wednesday. In an interview with Matthew Brown of the Associated Press (AP), Dan Fagre noted that the Montana portion has lost two glaciers thanks to global climate change. This brings the number of named glaciers at the park to 25, and due to the increased temperatures in the area, he says, "When we're measuring glacier margins, ...

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