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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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Aral Sea 'one of the planet's worst environmental disasters'

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Telegraph: Published: 12:00AM BST 05 Apr 2010 The sea which has shrunk by 90 per cent has ruined the once-robust fishing economy and left fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wasterlands. The sea shrank largely due to a Soviet project to boost cottong production in the arid region. Its evaporation has left layers of highly salted sand, which winds can carry as far away as Scandinavia and Japan, and which plague local people with health troubles. Ban Ki-Moon toured the sea by ...

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BP shareholders at loggerheads over vote on tar sands development

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Guardian: Large shareholders will be pitted against each other this week in a row over oil giant BP's involvement with tar sands in a battle that is set to dominate this year's round of company annual meetings. A special resolution has been filed by 143 shareholders for BP's annual meeting on 15 April, demanding the company provide a full report by next year about the risks of its planned tar sands development in Canada. The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) has sparked conflict ...

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New York Denies Indian Point Plant a Water Permit

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New York Times: In a major victory for environmental advocates, New York State has ruled that outmoded cooling technology at the Indian Point nuclear power plant kills so many Hudson River fish, and consumes and contaminates so much water, that it violates the federal Clean Water Act. The decision is a blow to the plant's owner, the Entergy Corporation, which now faces the prospect of having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build stadium-size cooling towers, or risk that Indian Point's two ...

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Australia appoints first population minister

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Agence France-Presse: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Saturday announced Australia's first population minister, citing concerns about sustainability as the number of people is tipped to balloon within decades. Rudd, who has previously talked of a "Big Australia", said the government needed to plan for an ageing and growing population which a recent report forecast would jump from 22 million to 35.9 million within 40 years. "Many Australians have legitimate concerns about the sustainability of the ...

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Oil spill pollutes tributary of China's Yellow River

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Agence France-Presse: A tributary of China's Yellow River has been polluted by an oil spill, state-run media reported Saturday, in the latest environmental accident to threaten the nation's drinking water. About 1,000 tonnes of oil sludge has contaminated farmland and the Luohe River in northern Shaanxi province after a recycling pool at a sewage treatment plant collapsed last Sunday, the China Daily said. More than 2,000 people have been scrambling to clean up the mess and eight containment belts ...

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How to plan better for New England floods

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Christian Science Monitor: As flood waters recede in rain-soaked New England, March's record-smashing storms highlight the need for planners in the region to place an increased emphasis on reducing flood risks and boosting their communities' resilience to floods. Focus not only should be placed on nuts-and-bolts, concrete-and-rebar projects such as upgrades to roads, bridges, culverts, and municipal drainage systems. Planners need to update the basic information on rainfall intensity they use to determine the ...

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Obama Stops In Massachusetts For Briefing On Floods

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Associated Press: Detouring from his schedule, President Barack Obama visited with emergency workers struggling against disastrous flooding in the Northeast on Thursday. Obama's helicopter landed at a county airport and the president's motorcade headed to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Framingham, about 20 miles west of Boston. White House officials said Obama was scheduled to meet with Gov. Deval Patrick and other officials between an afternoon rally for health overhaul ...

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