Water Saving Ideas

I have been to Kenya many times with conservation groups who are teaching locals and officials how to attain clean water and preserve it. It takes education to understand the threat to the population when supplies are inadequate. People everywhere, facing the same predicament, are not as concerned as they are about food crops or enemy invasions. Now is the time to face the reality of a near-crisis. After my last trip, I was gratified to see how much progress has been made. New programs are in place across the entire country.

When I got home, I felt suddenly guilty that I had not addressed the matter in my own home. I was so preoccupied with the people of Kenya that I failed to do a “water waste” audit around the house. Was I guilty myself of ignoring the need for conservation in my own country? The answer is yes. I jumped online to get as many water saving ideas as I could. The first recommendation is to upgrade your kitchen and bathroom faucets. In older homes like mine, they leak terribly. While I leave them on too long, by upgrading to a special Moen, I can stop excess flow. New models with conservation in mind regulate the flow or go off after a short period of time. If you are irritated by this, you can opt for the touchless model, so you can go about your business without stopping. Technology is great, and we can all take notice. I also love the look of their models when I was reading Moen faucet reviews. It is sleek and stylish with a bright and shiny chrome finish. The neck is just right for the size of my sink. I won’t be crashing the larger pots against the porcelain anytime soon.

Once you have addressed your faucets, you can adjust your laundry habits. This is rule number two. Running small loads is very wasteful. New washing machines are amazing. They feature a small cycle unit at the bottom. While you don’t need to rush out to the appliance store this minute, it is still a good idea to limit the loads per weak. Set your machine correctly to adjust the water fill. No need to have it on “full” when you have half a load.

Rule number three in water conservation is to get a low-flow toilet. Just like the low-flow Moen faucet, this can make a huge difference in your water consumption. There are ways to convert an old toilet yourself. Toilets that use seven gallons of water per flush can become fixtures that use under two with the installation of an “adjustable flapper,” a fill valve converter and a toilet tank bag (or plastic bottle). You can get these supplies at any hardware store or online. Just buy the right equipment for your brand, be it Moen, Pfister, American Standard or Delta. You can also buy a leak detection tablet to see if your toilet needs additional repair. It is all about saving water and you are doing your part.

Kegerator for Kids






Missing my Friends in Kenya

I miss my friends in Kenya. We shared a passion for conservation and the assurance of clean water for every community. Those were wonderful and productive times and the memories haunt me. Oh, to be back again. There were some very interesting times such as the weekend we decided to go panning for gold as a group. We were all excited and got our panning kits together. It is a simple process and we had fun watching small flakes of gold float to the bottom. We retrieved it in small vials of water. No one made a fortune, but we had a fabulous time outdoors. There were many locals milling about watching our antics. I wonder if they thought we were experts. They never asked for an explanation or to help.

After our adventure, I read something that put a damper on the fun. It is estimated that perhaps as much as 15,000 children are slaving away in gold mines in Nyatike and Migori, two districts in western Kenya (known as the Nyanza province). This is tragic. They should be in school, even if they are paid. I assume it is quite minimal so the children are more or less slave labor. The Children’s Welfare Office is the source of the information so I assume it is reliable. During weekends and holidays, this figure soars. If I were in the country, I would organize protests. The problem is that this work feeds families. It is a true moral dilemma.

Setting this aside for a moment, now that I am back home I want to take my nephew panning for gold. It is a recreational outing and has nothing to do with child labor. I wish I could get it out of my mind. I feel guilty, but I think he would enjoy it. At the time, it was the best gold panning kit and I’m sure that even today, it is good enough for a kid. We are going to drive to an area known for a small quantity of gold. I doubt if there will be many solid nuggets. He is excited to find out. I didn’t want to tell him about the children in the mines of Kenya, but I felt that it would be a good educational lesson. We could debate the issue pro and con as an example of a real adult discussion.

He was sorry about the problem and agreed that we shouldn’t restrict our activities. We live in a completely different cultural environment. He was old enough to understand. He appreciated my concern and joined me in wanting to send some kind of protest message. Children are exploited in ways that dangerous are damaging to their health. A type of adult work for the unemployed has no adaptability to children. It is up to parents to keep their kids in school but this is a tough row to hoe.

Memorable Day of my Trip

My time in Kenya has been so rewarding that I feel I have to share the wonderful things volunteers are doing in this country. There is always much on their plates and never enough time to complete all the necessary projects. I have spent years worrying about clean water and conservation of resources and now I am off on another tangent. It is not that I am abandoning my early concerns but that I have some new issues to solve. Hunger and healthcare, especially in regard to children, is always a target. It is certainly not limited to Kenya, but it is where I have chosen to focus. Funding is always difficult and I can’t spend too much time in this regard. We depend on the kindness of strangers as they say. We enjoy crowdfunding and any other way we can garner support. I have written petitions and given talks at various groups and business association. I want to get more attention to these vital matters.

My last trip was not too long but a lot happened in the course of a few days. I was set on distributing and assembling some sports equipment to the local children in one particular area. These kids are in dire need of so many things and exercise and having fun is one of them. They certainly need a respite from a tough life. I wanted to uplift their spirits on a regular basis. The donated items would remain in the designated villages.

It is all about youth soccer these days in the western world. So why not in developing countries. It is already popular there, and it is a matter of getting new teams started. They will serve as models for other regions. In fact, I hope to eventually create a real league across many miles. I am supremely grateful to a couple of major sports gear companies for caring enough to send a great deal of equipment. If I had gotten it back home, it would have been prohibited to ship. Now it is there in Kenya ready to be used by awaiting young. The first matter at hand when I arrived was to survey the boxes and get help in unloading what I needed the most. The rest would be dealt with later. There was some limited assembly for a few things like the portable goals for youth soccer that we’d bought with us. These necessary items would be transportable to various on-the-road games.

We had enough soccer balls, knee pads, shoes, shorts, and shirts for every size child. I boned up on the rules of the game and caught up with the top world teams. Soccer overall is a very patriotic realm, particularly in some countries like Spain, Argentina, Italy, Germany, France, and Mexico. When playoff times come it is sheer mania. Let me point out a tidbit at this moment. Soccer is called football in most places other than the U.S.

The kids love the game and learning new techniques and skills. It fosters great camaraderie and personal pride.

Little Things Matter

I am here to share my time in Kenya with readers. I have a particular focus on communities taking action for nature conservation. This is vital in this country as well as in other parts of the African continent. I got involved after a thought-provoking trip to the area with my company. I am proud to say that it helps people have access to cleaner water, which as many know is a huge issue worldwide. I thoroughly support the efforts to conserve and change the environment whether it is on a corporate or a grassroots level. Let’s get everyone involved. Individual by individual, we will have great numbers to work as a whole to improve needy communities.

The trip to Kenya brought the issue of water conservation to my attention because it reminded me how wasteful we are in the western world. It prompted me to estimate how much water I use on a daily or weekly basis. Think about how you run the tap as you wash dishes or brush your teeth, without thinking about it. Also think about doing small loads of laundry, watering the garden, washing the car, filling the pool, etc. It is incumbent upon us to stop this luxury right away. We need to set an example to the world. In drought areas, this is already happening. Even if water is plentiful, you can save energy as well as the precious liquid with a tankless water heater from Water Heater Watch. It is claimed that you can reduce usage by at least 20%. The old adage, little things matter, is certainly true. I have too long been part of an enormous constituency of people who are mindless of major issues like sustainability. Now that I know firsthand, given my experience in Kenya, I am ready to lead the way of conservation for others. I want to show people the importance of balancing current and future water and how to use water responsibly.

I hope other blogs will appear and writers jump on the bandwagon. They can inform the public of crisis situations and what organizations are doing to fight for improvement. Seminars and conferences should be noted that focus on solutions to vital problems, such as a clean water shortage. Technology has to step in to create methods for purifying water and supplying it to outlying areas. I hope you support monetarily the foremost environmental protection agencies. You can read about World Vision’s projects or others like the Nestle partnership in California which is a prototype of what could be done in Kenya. If you want to start with yourself and your own surrounding community, you can read online about water conservation methods. It is a microcosm of what should be done at the macrocosmic level.

I am clearly an advocate and I hope you stick with me as a kindred spirit. Waste not want not. Teach your children, tell your friends, and spread the word.

A Successful Petition!





Do You Need Better Water?

There are many parts of the world that have a shortage of safe, clean drinking water. It is said that a whopping number of people—nearly one billion—in the developing world do not have what they need. This is mind blowing. Where is the help? Projects abound to bring it to these outlying places, but so far it is not nearly enough. There are programs by World Vision, for example, and more people need to get on board. It will take a vast global effort to make a dent in the problem. I recently spent time in Kenya, and certainly noticed the widespread need. Hunger and thirst are heartbreaking issues. We give lip service to them and have all seen the tragic photos of skeletal children, but few donate money specifically to water purification. Here we are, privileged as can be, buying our little plastic bottles when tap water is just fine.

Whoever said that water is the foundation of life knows of what he or she speaks. Let me have your ear for a moment in today’s blog. Think for a moment about sub-Saharan Africa and the endless search for drinkable water, free from water-borne diseases. Education on the subject is mandatory. We must end needless suffering. After spending so much time in Kenya, for example, I am tuned into the entire continent. In fact, I am tuned into the need for pure water right in my home state. I read up Home Water Health about how to identify water that needs to be improved with a filter. Some people don’t even know they have contamination. They might live near a polluted river whose water is recycled or next to a chemical plant. There have been scandals from time to time as people get sick from tap water. I shared their Twitter page to help raise awareness.

If you don’t believe me, read the press. Remember Flint, Michigan. You can remedy the problem by buying clean water, but why should citizens have to resort to this expense. It is up to lawmakers to police the water sources in their area and mandate regular testing. You can get a jump on them by buying kits that analyze the contents of your home water. Many home water filtration companies have them. If you find certain chemicals, lead, or other unhealthy elements, you can ask for the right kind of home system that will eliminate 99% of them. There are numerous varieties of assorted sizes and prices. It really come down to a custom system. A whole-house unit will take care of drinking, cooking, bathing, etc. Saving on bottled water is the idea so that the new installation will ultimately pay for itself.

I am not advocating on behalf of the water filtration system. I am just offering a resolution to a problem that I know exists even in my own neighborhood. People complain of a chlorine taste from time to time. Few municipal water companies have dealt with the problem of taste. It is enough for them to deal with pollutants.

Preserving Green Spaces in Your Town

One of the things I love the most about where I live is all the trees. We have lots of wooded trails and natural areas. It feels peaceful, natural, and spread out. I hope you have places like this where you live, too. And if you do, you may have to fight to protect them.

Green spaces are usually the first thing to go when an area needs to add anything. It can be anything: a new medical facility, a new commercial or industrial zone, more houses. Roads can also eat away at the natural areas of a city or town. And who wants to protest a new hospital?

If the place where you live needs to expand, where else can they build? There will typically be a town hall or a vote regarding these issues, so you can attend and make your voice heard. Watch the news or read your local paper to find out when these events will be happening. Here are some tips:

First of all, remember this: there are going to be times where new facilities aren’t needed. There are old areas that could be revamped, sometimes for cheaper than new construction. Sometimes old vacant buildings can be demolished.Then the new space won’t take up anything different than was already there. Get to know your area and see if what they are proposing is actually necessary. The town might not need another office park when two have lots of vacancies. Your city or town may want to lure new businesses in with the idea of a shiny new facility but environmentally it may not be best practice.

Secondly, sometimes things will have to be built and they will only be able to take up residence where a green space was. It happens. Towns get bigger and residents’ needs will change. However, you can petition that a portion of the land be a park or mixed-use area that includes trees, a nature trail, or recreational fields. This way, you are acknowledging that progress is necessary but so are green spaces.

Third, let your voice be heard! Get the word out if you know of a green space where you live is being threatened. Let other people in your town know what is going on. Get them involved, too. If New York City could set aside all that land for Central Park, you may be able to preserve the natural areas most important to where you live, too. Work with sympathetic lawmakers to create legislation to keep your town green. And if they won’t cooperate with you, find someone who does and campaign to get them elected the next time the position is open.

Get involved in keeping your neighborhood green and natural. Your neighbors, your children, the animals who call those places home—they’ll all be grateful to you.

Encouraging Responsible Fishing Habits

For anybody who enjoys seafood, they should find this post interesting. How much do you think about the sea life on your plate, where it comes from and how it was caught?

One of the things the organization I work for was trying to accomplish when we were in Kenya was to help the local fishermen. The goal was simple: to ensure that the people who make their livelihood through fishing would be able to continue for years to come. Through education on sustainability and good governance, we helped coastal communities in the area create a better communication and regulatory system. The hope is that it will continue to be a consistent food source and income generator for generations to come. We weren’t able to solve every problem while we were there but it was good to give techniques and strategies that can be applied over time to bring good results. There were workshops and training sessions, and I left having met some great people and close friends.

My job is pretty awesome. I got to interact with people I would never have met in a beautiful country I might never have seen. It was an experience like none I have ever had before. I came home energized and determined to do something similar right here at home.

We too need to have responsible fishing habits. We need regulations to ensure clean waters for the fish to live. A pristine habitat will promote not just the health of the fish and other sea life, but those of the people who would be consuming the fish.

Another thing we need to be concerned about is our supply. We need to keep an eye on fish populations to make sure that we are not overfishing and depleting various species or destroying sources of food for other sea life. Once these creatures are gone, they’re gone. There’s no going back. That’s why many suppliers have aquatic farms. There, the population of fish or other sea creature can be strictly monitored and their environment controlled. The fish are essentially lab created through surgical extraction of egg and sperm. The fish are vaccinated against diseases and fed a strict diet in order to fatten them up. But you’ve also probably seen labels that say things like “wild caught” and maybe wondered what the difference is.

Salmon is a big one for the “wild caught” label. Farm-raised salmon are artificially colored pink, as they only achieve that color by eating krill (not part of their farm-fed diet). Artificial coloring isn’t typically something people want in their food, especially something that is supposed to be as good for you as fish. It also obviously costs a lot more to farm-raise fish than it does to catch them in the wild. Also, if you’d rather not have your fish wish a side of antibiotics, you’re better off with the “wild-caught” option. I prefer “wild caught” whenever possible, and encourage sustainability and good ecological habits. For the aquatic farms, I would like to see more oversight and regulations to be sure that the fishes’ diet is safe for the fish and for human consumption, that waste products from the farm are handled in an environmentally responsible manner, and that the fish don’t escape and damage the local ecosystem. Some people prefer the farm-raised because they are cheaper and available fresh year-round.

Yes, You Can Make a Difference!

People often believe that the things they do as individuals do not matter. But when it comes to making the world a better place, of course it does! Look at me: granted, I work at an organization that works to conservation and environmental responsibility, but I am also writing this blog. I give other people ideas and inspire them to do a little something, or change the way they do something, to make the earth just a little bit better. If every single person did that, we could accomplish a lot. For example, if you used just one less water bottle a year, we could reduce our use of oil to make the plastic, less energy consumed to form the plastic, and there would be one less bottle in a landfill. Now imagine if your entire family did that. What about your whole town? Now think about how much less trash there would be if every single person used one less water bottle a year. Then, think bigger: consider what we could do if everyone switched to reusable water bottles!

Pretty amazing, right? We can do almost anything!

People also generate lots of trash! Learn what your recycling center takes and try to recycle more. If you find that you can’t be bothered taking the toilet paper roll from the bathroom to wherever you keep the recycling bin, just keep a small box or container for them right in the bathroom.When it is full, add it to the rest of your recyclables! Simple things like this will save lots of trees and space in landfills, and it is relatively painless to do. However, it can have a huge impact!

Another thing that I like to recommend is changing up your lunch. Many people bag their lunch. They use a brown paper bag to put it all in. They pack a water bottle, they put a sandwich in a plastic bag, and maybe they pack a snack in another plastic bag. That ends up being a LOT of garbage—assuming you’re off from work about two weeks a year, that’s 250 water bottles and brown paper bags a year! A more earth-friendly choice would be reusable versions of all those items. My kids all have metal lunch boxes with small containers for sandwiches and snacks. They also have reusable water bottles. Tada, no more packaging to waste! If all of us did that, can you imagine how much less trash there would be?

One last thing people don’t always like to talk about is energy use in their homes. Replacing perfectly good appliances with more energy friendly models isn’t really practical, but we can do things like buy LED light bulbs or unplug things like phone chargers, stereos, or computers when they are not in use. We can buy rechargeable batteries to use in our game controllers and clocks. We can insulate our homes better so that we will need less energy to heat and cool them.

Not only do simple things like these make a difference every single day, when people see you doing them, they might be inspired to do the same. Did you know that if you put solar panels on your roof, your neighbors are much more likely to do the same?!?  You never know who you are going to inspire!

What About Fossil Fuels?

What would we do without fossil fuels? I mean, besides have a cleaner planet?

We probably wouldn’t be able to go anywhere—most people have gas powered cars. And even if you drive an electric car, most trucks are still diesel, and that’s how all your food and that stuff you order online gets delivered. Until we’re all driving plug-in cars, gas stations are going to be around for a long time to come.

And then, you have to wonder—even if you have an electric car, where are you getting your power from? Many people get power at home through their local utility, which could be a combination of anything from natural gas, coal, oil, nuclear, solar, wind, or something else. So it isn’t necessarily as green of a choice as it could be (although better than gas). Unless you’ve got your own solar farm and you’re completely off the grid, you’re probably getting at least some of your power or heat through fossil fuels.

I’d say right now, we’d have a huge problem if we ran out of fossil fuels! We absolutely need to move toward more ecologically responsible and renewable energy sources before it’s too late. Even “clean burning” fuels are not as clean as other options like wind and solar. And while I understand that there are problems with renewable energy sources (solar panels are not cheap to produce, they are made with chemicals and are hard to dispose of, they are not particularly efficient; wind turbines take up space, make noise, and potentially kill wildlife), there is less risk involved. Oil and gas are volatile substances which can be difficult to transport—just think of all the times you’ve heard of oil spills, gas leaks/explosions, and the like. Explosions on the sun are what gives us light. A natural gas explosion could kill people.

That’s why regulations on these materials are important. There need to be rules about how and where these fuels can be transported. We need to keep waterways and soil safe from contamination. Waste products need to be carefully and responsibility disposed of. Sure, if you are a company that deals in fossil fuels, these things are probably a hassle. However, profits from oil have almost never been better, so I think they can shoulder some of the responsibility for keeping the environment in decent condition, don’t you?

And just think of the benefits—cleaner air, because we’re not burning mass qualities of fuel at refineries or on the highways. Less leakage into the ground or oceans—no more oil spills coating the ocean. And if we aren’t all clamoring for oil, maybe the price will come down so that those who aren’t able to move into more high-tech alternatives will actually be able to afford it.

Sure, we can do our part by buying hybrid or electric cars. We can maintain our vehicles properly and drive only when necessary so that we get the best gas mileage we can. We can also put solar panels on our roofs. We can buy more energy-efficient products, use smart thermostats, and unplug things when they aren’t in use. But we also need to be pushing for regulations to help us find better and cleaner options for energy sources. We need the government to step in and push the car companies to continue making electric cars that can go farther and charge faster—and make them more affordable, too. Give your representatives a call and let them know that you want this country to stop our dependence on fossil fuels!

Supporting Areas Far From Home

With all that needs to be done here in this country, it may seem odd that I am also pleading for people to help make a difference in other places across the world. However, we are not on this planet alone. We need to make changes here, of course, but we have things like environmental watch groups and agencies who at least keep a somewhat watchful eye on things. We have leading manufacturers spending lots of money to research new and better ways to make products that generate lots of waste, and to make other items better for the environment. We are trying to be better about forest clearing and adding green spaces when we can. These things matter.

Other countries do not have these things. Some places less fortunate than us don’t even have ways to keep their cooking equipment clean because they don’t have access to water, or they don’t have the ability to dispose of waste without contaminating their water. When there is no real recycling or chemical disposal program, toxins can leech into the ground, poisoning soil or groundwater. Also, they could run out of clean land to live on and be forced into unsanitary conditions. This is something most of us take for granted, that when we turn on the faucet clean water will come out and when we flush the toilet that the waste will be disposed of in a safe manner. Not everyone is so lucky, and the effects can be serious. Everyone should have access to clean water and live in sanitary conditions, don’t you think?

There is another concern as well. As we move into a more global world, the results of other nations’ carelessness can have a big impact on us, too. There are no regulations on what you can and cannot dump into the local waters—which, by the way, don’t necessarily stay local. Those waters may feed into the ocean, killing or contaminating something you might eat. There may be more air pollution because there are no regulations on air quality or restrictions on factory operations and air pollutants. They may not understand the value of green spaces, which improves their air quality. There may not be anybody testing the pesticides farmers use in another country, and then those foods are used in cheap animal feed fed to our livestock or that we give our own pets.It could be on fruits that we ourselves eat.

So, as you can see, we are all in this together. We need to help bring the knowledge we have gained to other struggling countries so that they may learn how to keep themselves healthy and protect their water supply, the air that they breathe, and the ground in which they plant their food. We must continue to support other nations as they strive to be more eco-conscious. When we all work together to make the earth cleaner for us all, it will benefit generations to come all the way around the globe.