canny granny

I think it’s time we started taking notice of plastic bottles

The consumption of bottled water has grown in the past 15 years from less than a million bottles a year to more than a billion per annum.

It is estimated that about one-fifth of these bottles are thrown away with the top screwed tightly down and an average of one ounce of water remaining inside.

Given that these plastic bottles are airtight, nonbiodegradable containers, this means that the water contained inside is withdrawn from the planet’s hydrosystem for the next 10 million years.

If present trends continue, it is estimated that within the next 400,000 years, not only will all the planet’s carbon be tied up in the plastic of these discarded water bottles, but also the entirety of the world’s oceans will be locked up inside these bottles.

The result is that humans of that future era will spend their lives swimming through an ocean of plastic water bottles, continually opening bottles to scavenge water, one ounce at a time

1. The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing “is equal to” in his equations. He chose the two lines because “noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle”.

2. When faced with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs.

3. Now for the last, and certainly the least, “Restaurant” is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.

Apparently a mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen. OMG. I am chronically troubled with basic math and can’t clear the fuzziness from my short term memory.

Is it lack of water do you think?

But what about the water from my tap? Is it “safe” to drink? Should I buy bottled water?

If I start buying water in bottles I have to cut down on something else, like sausages, or bread. I live on the bare essentials now and reducing my food intake is surely going to cause more fuzziness in the brain department.

I’m worried now. Or maybe I’m just not thinking straight. Excuse me while I grab a glass of water.

Have you joined an event for World Water Day?

I’ve signed up to the Virtual Walk for Water - on March 22 - and I am going to really try to do something about my water usage.

I always smile when people talk about not washing their cars, not using their mist- air conditioners too often or not using their dishwashers more than once a day. I don’t have those things. But I am guilty of wasting water, our most precious resource. Like leaving the tap running when I brush my teeth and sometimes I wash just 4 items in my washing machine. Never again!

Plus I’m going to engage in Water Conversation. That’s not a typo, I mean conversation, talking to everyone I know, strangers on bus stops, people I come across when walking along the creek and to anyone who can’t get away from me, about water.

You would think that in a country that is 70% desert we would have a better idea of water conservation but for years we treated water as though it just fell out of the sky. Like manna. When I was a child we used to play for hours under the hose on a hot day!

This year is also the International Year of Sanitation to accelerate progress for 2.6 billion people world wide who are without proper sanitation facilities. Makes you squirm doesn’t it?