With the heat wave thats hittibg my country I was watering my back yard today, and began wondering if there Is such a thing as wasting water when doing so… I mean, it re-enters the water cycle, doesn’t It? Besides if its absorbed by the plants AND grass … Is It really wasted?
In: 82
Yes and no.
The total amount of water in the world remains unchanged. The total amount of accessible potable water within 100 miles of you within the next 100 days is reduced.
Just because the water hasn’t poofed into non-existence doesn’t mean it’s available to drink.
Clean water needs to be extracted from the ground or taken from a river and purified, which costs money and has a limited capacity. If you have a water meter and don’t pay a fixed rate per person, then it seems fair. You can’t lose your garden and then pay for new seedlings. I would look into collecting rainwater in barrels as it falls down from the roof. It should reduce the need to use purified water.
Between Astramancer and ok_character, you have the best and most complete answer.
Water magnifies and focuses light and it evaporates. Watering during the day makes it evaporate AND it magnifies light, burning leaves rather than cooling them. Water that evaporates gets pulled on atmospheric currents sometimes to the other side of the world.
Water that doesn’t evaporate (watering done at night or early morning) soaks into the ground to be absorbed through the roots of the plants, with the rest either being filtered through layers of sediment and ending up back in the underground water table OR ending up going through the sewer system and recycled by the municipal water authority in the area.
Tldr: water that goes into the ground gets recycled locally. Water that evaporates ends up *anywhere* including raining over oceans and becoming undrinkable salt water.
Strictly speaking, yes, it is wasteful to maintain a grass yard. You should look into replacing it with something like clover, which doesn’t require nearly as much watering. You can add edible plants, fruits and herbs to make your yard productive.
Grass itself is useless, and keeping grass yards began as “conspicuous consumption” to show how one didn’t need to cultivate the land for food.
It’s wasteful because you’re wasting it on a nonessential thing, when it could be used for essential things for human life – drinking, bathing, cooking.
It’s not wasteful on a planetary level but an in your community level.
Water treatment plants that provide the potable water will output a significantly larger amount of water than any one or even hundred people can consume, even in improbably high use rates. You won’t have an effect on your local watershed really, but it’s best to listen to public water consumption advisories.
Source: work with water treatment plants
1. Grass is watered.
2. Water enters ground water.
3. Ground water is pumped up for treatment so it’s potable.
4. The water pumping, water treatment, and water distribution from the treatment plant to your house requires energy.
5. Energy is made by burning coal.
6. Coal is finite, and they have to be mined.
7. The process of mining coals, transporting it to the power plant, and processing it to make electricity requires energy.
8. The transportation of coals is likely through trucks, which is powered by gasoline/diesel/oil (fuel)
9. The fuel/oil is finite, it has to be pumped from the ground either domestically, or internationally such as the middle east. All of which requires energy.
10. Most likely the oil is purchased from the middle east, meaning that you’re giving them money. But the more oil countries need, the more dependent countries rely in the middle east.
11. Since oil is finite, the increase in demand because you want to waste water means that the price of oil increases (because there’s limited supply but an increase in demand)
12. The increase in oil price from OPEC would cause an increase in your car gasoline price to go up also. Also increase jet fuel prices for your air flights, so ticket prices go up. So now it’ll be more expensive when you drive and fly.
So yes, you wasting water, electricity, trashing stuff that’s perfectly good, etc. are all considered waste/bad.
You might disagree with #5 about coal, you’re saying sustainable power such as solar panels. Guess what, the materials used to make solar panels are also limited. Not only that, but solar panels doesn’t mean anything if you can’t store it; which is where batteries come in. To make batteries, it requires limited elements such as lithium, iron, zinc, etc. all of which has to be mined (likely in other countries such as china).
Waste just means doing something that isn’t needed. You’re either wasting resources and/or wasting time; it’s best to just avoid it if you can.
Of course it’s wasted. Any water not used for economic productivity is a waste. Every drop you use is one less drop that can be sold by a bottling company or used by a cash crop farmer.
This is exactly the situation trickle down economics was designed for. If you just give all your water to companies it will trickle down and they’ll take care of everyone. You’ll even end up with way more water this way, trust the system.
Don’t you have rules in your country to not water plants in heat waves?
It’s so weird to think of this as a novel thought. Even though water is plentiful where I live, watering your lawn is seen as wasteful. It’s generally a cool and moist climate anyway, but everyone just lets their lawns go dormant in late July. They’re back green and vibrant in September.
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