"Slow the Flow" a Farce?

Is it possible that the entire water conservation PR campaign over the last decade or two is just greenwashing to distract us from the real issues behind water consumption?

Just a warning: what follows is partly hearsay, partly MY analysis of data, which is suspect. I'm really just playing with ideas here. I'm not expecting anyone to take any of this authoritatively. But let me know your opinions or conflicting (or supporting) data.

The 'common knowledge' in Utah is that we don't have enough water. I think most people also believe this has something to do with people watering their lawns at 4pm in the summer, letting their faucets leak and taking excessively long showers.

I wonder if this is actually true. I heard some data presented in a student report during a class this summer that purported the opposite, that claimed that things like that are not responsible for the water situation in this state. So I started doing some research.

When I started googling about water use in Utah, the first thing I came across was the Utah Rivers Council's "Rip Your Strip" program. This program is aimed at getting people to plant waterwise vegetation in the parking strip instead of wasteful lawn. They claim that 70% of water used in Utah is used outdoors, and almost half of that is used on lawns.

I kept doing more research.

Turns out, this is true.

It's also dead wrong.

First, take a look at this graph (found at www.utah.water.gov):


You can see here that indeed, nearly 70% of water use is outdoor use. But here's the catch:

It's 70% of residential use. Which is 66% of 'Total Public Supply."

Ok...so what does that mean? Well, at first glance, it seems to collaborate the public opinion of where our water goes. But...Total Public Supply is NOT total water USE!

Look at this graph from the U.S. Geological Survey (Utah Fresh Water Usage by Category, 2000):


Ok. Things get a little more interesting, no? According to this data, Public Supply makes up a whopping 13.4% of total Utah water use! So, if we were to cut our residential water use by HALF, we'd save 33% of that 13.4%. Which means we'd reduce our overall water consumption by 4.4 percent! And that's reducing our water use by HALF!!

What seems to be plain from this data is that if we REALLY want to conserve water, we should take a closer look at irrigation use, which makes up 81.1%. Any increase in efficiency here would make a HUGE difference.

But we don't. And why don't we? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the people irrigating have some of the most influence in state government?

Even worse, could it be because if we're worried about "Slowing the Flow," maybe we won't worry so much about other, much more pressing issues, like how bloody bad the air is in this valley? God forbid we actually start flipping off people driving Hummers.

Makes me wonder how many other 'public service' commercials and billboards that press popular environmental issues are bunk.

I'd just like to note one thing: I'm not saying there aren't important environmental (and water) issues. I'm just saying that we've been duped again, perhaps. Also, lawns ARE stupid and boring...so there's other reasons to 'rip your strip'... :)

Maybe we should worry more about why we build multi-million dollar pipelines to supply water to alfalfa farmers in Juab county...maybe we should be farming bioregionally, using crops that grow WELL in our climate, instead of the water-intensive crops we are currently dinking about with. Except those crops are the most profitable...especially when the water is subsidized by taxpayers!!

Push it.

I have been spending an inordinate amount of time at Nostalgia, sitting on the suede couches, staring at books.

For those of you that don't know, this fall I will be teaching Comm 4610 Magazine Writing at the University of Utah.

This, more or less, freaks me out. That's why I've been spending so much time at the coffee shop: preparing. I know the subject fairly well, but it's the materials and the teaching methodology that has me worried. When it comes right down to it, I have no idea how to teach a class, let alone an upper division college class.

Which is exactly why it's freaking me out: I have the possibility of failing at this. It's been a long time since I've done something that truly challenges me, and it's getting to me, just a bit. I mean, lots of things are difficult, but they're usually difficult in the sense that they take a lot of work to accomplish. Classes I take, for example: for the most part, if you show up, read the material, study hard, you get an A. It's just a matter of putting the time into it.

But this...this I don't know how to do. It will require more than just work. It will require learning a new skill, not just acquiring more knowledge.

The fact that it's been a long time since I've attempted something honestly challenging tells me something about myself: Do harder things.

Complacency is something to avoid. Comfort should be used as a landing pad while you get your bearings for the next big push.

I need to push harder.

I'm excited for the semester to begin.

Like the Phoenix from the fire...

Recently I've been rereading this book "We" by Robert Johnson. It's all about the psychology and implications of romantic love: how it interacts with the psyche, and, ultimately, if approached creatively, can balance the yin and yang of the self.

This isn't really what this post is about. But it's really gotten me thinking a lot about this balance, and what it means to have heart AND head. It's an introduction, none the less.

I can already tell that at first, this is going to get rather pessimistic sounding; cynical even. Keep reading, though, because I can all but promise a positive and uplifting ending, here.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my emotions, my motivations, my ethics. In corollary to this, I've also been thinking a lot about my friends and my interactions with them. I've been thinking a lot about how people see me, and how that changes who I am, and vice versa. All weighty topics.
People, in general, are disappointing. We, as humans, have so much potential. Of the animals, we alone have the capability to look consciously at ourselves, our emotions and motivations, and make choices on how to act. We alone have the capability to make decisions regarding right and wrong, what is ethical and what is not. Yet, so few are the people that actually DO these things. For the most part, people are reactionary, selfish, indulgent and weak. We have the capability to fix the problems in our societies and in the world, to stave off hunger, to cure any disease, to stop power hungry men from killing, abusing and torturing, both singly and in mass. We don't. Instead, we continue on with our own lives, doing little, or, at worst, contributing without second thought to our own actions (hear me, Hummer drivers??). I am learning, slowly, to love people, in general, anyway. It's really not that I hate the way they are, but rather I am angered that they are not what they COULD BE. Myself included, even if I DO feel like I try harder than most.

All of my friends are amazing. They are people, generally, of honesty, loyalty, integrity and passion. A couple of them (you know who you are) lately have made me aware of just how much I owe them. They are probably the two of my friends that have given me the most compared to what I have given back. One in particular I should thank: she has shown me the most loyalty and compassion when I have given her plenty of reason not to and little to encourage her.
Which leads me, in a meandering sort of way, to what I'm really getting at. Or at least the nearest prelude to it. I've gone through a lot in the last year...it just seems to keep coming at me. Recently this woman sent me a very supportive and heartfelt email, and closed with an encouragement not to become jaded or hard. To keep my heart open to the world. And this has gotten me thinking about this reaction.
A little over a year ago was probably the happiest time in my life. Everything seemed to have fallen into place: my life had love, direction, ambition and purpose. And then, in the space of less than two weeks, it all fell apart. This was the beginning of this lesson I perhaps only recently have been able to learn.
In the following months, I have been shown disappointment, disloyalty, disillusionment and betrayal from a number of examples. I open my heart (not just in romance) and get ignorance or disdain. A number of the people in my life have shown me behaviors and sides of themselves that hurt, deeply. I have been treated in ways I never saw coming from some of the people I would expect it from the least. I have been abandoned, deceived, and passed over.
And I feel the impulse to shut down. It's strong. I want to be angry, and bitter. I want to be cold. I want to turn the same self-serving attitude on the people (and the world) that have turned it on me. I want the protection of a walled-over heart.

The phrase "once burned, twice shy" pops to mind. You learn a lesson when you're hurt: don't do that again. But, instead, I think there is a truer lesson to learn: the ability to feel this way, to be disappointed and disillusioned and hurt, and instead of protecting yourself, open your heart to the world anyway. To say, "Yes, I love you" against all impulse to turn away. To look at the world, at people, and how fucked up it all is, and love it anyway.

I don't have it figured out. Not at all. But I do have my bearings again. I know where to turn, which direction to face, what path to walk. This is what I've been missing for a long time, now. What I've gained is not a 'thing', or even a knowledge. Instead, it's something I've lost, that I needed to lose: hope, expectation. Not the good kind of optimistic hope, but the kind of hope that keeps you attached to some particular outcome or behavior. These betrayals and disappointments are like a cleansing fire, and the good examples, the heartfelt loyalty I've been shown in the midst of it from unexpected sources cleared the smoke from the air.

Like the phoenix from the fire I feel like I've been reborn from the ashes of an intense and purifying blaze.

I know the last while I've been kinda weird to a lot of my friends that are closest to me. Expect something new.