20 August 2008

Massive UK water consumption

Read all of this Revealed: the massive scale of UK's water consumption | Environment | The Guardian: and the reason why is to understand this better. "Average household water use for washing and drinking in the UK is about 150 litres a person daily, but we consume about 30 times as much in 'virtual water', used in the production of imported food and textiles; Taking virtual water into account, each of us soaks up 4,645 litres a day;"
The idea of a water footprint is likely to be of growing importance. BTW is that not a sign that the footprint thing is a dead metaphor? Otherwise 'water footprint' would appear to be oxymoronic ... wouldn't it? Got a better metaphor?

4 comments:

Bridlington advent beach huts 2010 said...

I guess i should not admit to just buying a new hottub then !!

Andii said...

Ah; it'll be okay provided you only use it at the rate Elizabeth I had a bath!
Seriously; would a hot tub use more water than a normal bath? I guess the issue is how much water you/we would use in other parts of our life. That said, it's the 'embodied' water used in the manufacture of things which drives the 'water footprint' up.

Dr Moose said...

I would have suggested that instead of Water Footprints we had Personal Puddles, but I think that might not be such a good idea!

Andii said...

Love it: it's likely to be used by me conversationally now...

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