Aug 28: Lectures and the Theater!

Today's lecture was an all-day study on "Managing the Warming World." The first presenter delivered in a succinct manner (thankfully) the various types of evidence that exist for global warming and then pointed out the two key areas of response: prevention and adaptation. We then split into smaller groups with other specialists to talk about specific issues including recycling, coastal defense, and energy production. The group that I chose covered the topic of "water security."

In this group we looked at the changing trends of precipitation and the current areas of the world that face water scarcity. What we largely focused on, however, is the eye-opening reality of our own water footprint. Many of the statistics I am about to show are quite vague and conceal a lot of information, so please take them with a grain of salt. However, based on speaking with the specialist there is some truth that can be drawn from them.

Water consumption (based on UN estimates) in liters, per person, per day:

Somalia: 4.7

Canada: > 700

(This includes showers, washing machines, dishwashers, hand washing, drinking water, general cleaning, toilet flushing, and other factors that are "behind the scenes" when it comes to delivering our water to us, sanitation systems, etc. This number seems very large to me, so we figure there is something going on behind the scenes. The UK rested a little closer to 300, and many other "developed"  countries around 500.) 

To put things in perspective, the UN's standard for the minimum amount in liters per person per day is 20. So we see a stark contrast in countries which have water to spare and others which are well below the actual need.

The other impressive thing was to learn about the amount of water that actually goes into the things we buy and consume. Our actual tap water consumption is practically insignificant in comparison. For example, it's estimated that a 250mL cup of coffee actually takes 140L of water to produce. 300g of beef takes 4650L of water to produce. A cotton t-shirt takes around 2700L of water.

It's obviously more complicated than this. There are different classifications of water sources: green (rain), blue (irrigated) and grey (polluted). These numbers are impressive, but please note that the majority of the time our group was in session was actually spent arguing about how much of this data is nonsense or unreliable and that there are a vast number of other factors that are being left out. 

What I truly took from it was that there are many people in this world without enough water to live healthily and that there needs to be a heightened awareness to this fact, and something should be done about it. Whether that is changes to industry, our lifestyles, or international economy, I do not know.

After that I went to the theater and saw Phantom of the Opera! It was an absolutely incredible show... so epic! Obviously no pictures were allowed during the show, but regrettably that means I also didn't think to bring the camera just to take pictures of the theater, which was impressive in its own right.

So here:

An impressive hallway in Hampton Court (I think it's pretty neat.)