Latest Tweets

Follow us on twitter

Make a Donation

$

Route Description

NAO News Feed

NAO main Feed

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.

Editor’s Picks

Water footprint calculator

US household water usage statistics

Top Water Conservation Tips

100 ways to conserve water

Call for fishing ban in a third of oceans

Sustainable sea food wallet Card/ iphone app


Glaciers gone from Glacier National Park

Print PDF
Associated Press: Glacier National Park has lost two more of its glaciers to climate change and many of the rest may be gone by the end of the decade, a US government researcher says. Warmer temperatures have reduced the number of named glaciers in the northwestern Montana park to 25, said Dan Fagre said, an ecologist with the US Geological Survey. "When we're measuring glacier margins, by the time we go home the glacier is already smaller than what we've measured," Fagre said on ...

Read Full Article

Clear Water - Mercosur's Underground Treasure

Print PDF
Inter Press Service: Invisible beneath a vast area of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the Guaraní Aquifer is one of the world's largest reserves of freshwater. Despite supplying water to millions of people, it is neither contaminated nor overexploited. "The general health of the aquifer is good, but it is essential to take care of the areas where it is recharged" in order to prevent contaminants from agrochemicals or waste from human settlements from filtering in, Jorge Santa Cruz, an Argentine ...

Read Full Article

Ice missions to measure climate change takes off

Print PDF
Telegraph: The 'ice mission', led by British scientists, will show how melting ice could affect weather patterns in the future in the so called "Day After Tomorrow" scenario. The European Space Agency satellite, that cost £122 million to build, took off on a Russian launcher rocket from Kazakhstan and has already sent signals back to Earth. Duncan Wingham, a climate physicist at University College London, was relieved to see the launch after a previous attempt landed in the sea five years ...

Read Full Article

Canada: BC Hydro gets environmental OK for Mica Dam upgrade

Print PDF
Reuters: British Columbia gave environmental approval on Thursday to BC Hydro's plan to add 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity to its Mica Dam on the Columbia River. The provincially owned utility plans to add two turbines to the dam north of Revelstoke, increasing its total production capacity to 2,805 megawatts. The project still requires approval from the British Columbia Utilities Commission, but if approved the BC Hydro plans to have the new turbines in operation by 2016.

Read Full Article

Rising water temperatures found in US streams and rivers

Print PDF
ScienceDaily: New research by a team of ecologists and hydrologists shows that water temperatures are increasing in many streams and rivers throughout the United States. The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, documents that 20 major U.S. streams and rivers -- including such prominent rivers as the Colorado, Potomac, Delaware, and Hudson -- have shown statistically significant long-term warming. By analyzing historical records from 40 sites located ...

Read Full Article

Group Asks Companies to Report Water Use

Print PDF
New York Times: The Carbon Disclosure Project, an investor-backed nonprofit organization that has persuaded some of the world's largest corporations to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, will announce on Wednesday that it is asking 302 global companies to begin issuing detailed reports on their water use. The move begins a campaign to put water consumption on par with carbon emissions as a concern of company shareholders. Scientists predict climate change will aggravate worldwide water ...

Read Full Article

Mekong nations join forces on shrinking river

Print PDF
Agence France-Presse: Southeast Asian nations on the Mekong River pledged Monday to step up cooperation over the shrinking waterway amid fears China's dams are exacerbating a severe regional drought. Leaders of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam - the member-states of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) - convened in the Thai coastal town of Hua Hin to discuss management of the river, on which more than 60 million people rely. "Without good and careful management of the Mekong river as well as its ...

Read Full Article