While this guide to important environmental issues is not comprehensive, if you’re new to green or simply want a refresher overview, this list neatly summarizes some of our most pressing environmental concerns … some of which cannot be solved simply via creative upcycling or small-space living.

Worried by an eco backlash, the bottled water industry is waging a PR battle to turn the public back onto plastic bottled water

Villagers discover that it is easier to store water in ice than in a reservoir, and less is lost to evaporation.

A remote Indian village is responding to global warming-induced water shortages by creating large masses of ice, or "artificial glaciers," to get through the dry spring months. (See a map of the region.)

Access to water is one of the pressing global issues of the 21st century. As our global population grows and becomes wealthier, the demand for water will greatly increase. At the same time, water availability and quality are also under growing stress from climate change, energy scarcity, land use decisions, and the requirements of industry and minerals processing.

We will need to find better ways to both manage our current use of fresh water and configure it for the future, so as to be able to serve our growing populations and preserve stocks for future generations.

Feb. 2 is World Wetlands Day, a holiday that has promoted global appreciation and protection of wetlands for 41 years. It commemorates an international treaty signed in 1971, the Ramsar Convention, that aims to conserve swamps, marshes and bogs around the world, from Albania to Mexico to Zambia.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) today launched the Water Tight 2012  report, which explores the future of the global water sector in the year ahead. The report examines how major global trends such as population growth, increasing economic development, and urbanization, coupled with the changes in climate patterns, underscore the importance of effective public policy and private sector water stewardship in managing this finite and shared resource.  The growing demand for water is making conservation and efficient use central issues, particularly as governments, utilities, and the private sector come under increasing pressure to be stewards of this precious and shared resource. The report states that a clearer water pricing will play an important role in how customers better manage their water usage.

Shannon Skelton, Environmental Hero with a Fish Story Worth Hearing

The early years were a scary endeavor and squeaky tight financially. Yet, Shannon Skelton knew he could build a better river. With water resources valued for sustaining human life, Skelton had his work cut out for him to champion a new approach to river ecosystem rehabilitation.

Renewable energy sources could allow for a prudent decrease in CO₂ emissions while still powering a populous, electrified global economy. On The Pump Handle, Mark Pendergrast examines the proverbial canary in the coal mine, Japan. Wary of imported fossil fuels and burned by nuclear disaster, Japan is looking toward solar, geothermal, wind, water, and biomass-powered alternative energy sources. Wind, for example, could provide 10% of Japan's energy needs, but with blade-busting typhoons and fierce winter lightning storms, turbines must be more robust and adaptable than ever. 

5 gallon water coolers are often thought of as the alternative to having a water bottle at the office or your home. Rarely do we think about the fact that those water bottles end up in the landfill eventually as well. This article represent a geat alternative to all water bottles!

Gathering around the water cooler has been a time-honored office tradition, but bottled water can be costly for your business, and can have a negative environmental impact! Those 5-gallon plastic jugs eventually end up in landfills, and bottled water services have a high carbon footprint due to the emission of fossil fuel-burning delivery trucks.

When you also consider the inconvenience of lifting new bottles onto the water cooler, storing the empty bottles at your office until the next pick-up, and spending time in the reordering process, you may be ready to consider more sustainable, convenient, and inexpensive alternatives that still provide your staff with clean, safe water: bottleless water coolers.

Bottleless coolers draw directly from your tap water supply and utilize state-of-the-art technologies, such as ultraviolet (UV) sanitation, 5-stage water filtration, and reverse osmosis filtration, to offer you the cleanest, best-tasting water available. With no bottles involved, the expense and logistics of supply and delivery are eliminated, reducing your office overhead costs while also giving your business a smaller environmental footprint. A bottleless water cooler never runs out of water, giving you a convenient, less-expensive, more eco-friendly solution without eliminating the benefit of filtered water for your employees.

Conventional or non-organic cotton and polyester make up approximately 80% of all fiber production globally. This production is about equal between cotton and polyester (Acordis in Sheffer, 2005). First, let’s talk about conventional cotton.

Cotton requires lots of water. For example, approximately 10,000 – 17,000 L of water is required to produce 1 Kg of cotton lint. This heavy water requirement has led to water shortages in many areas of the world with the Aral Sea area being a notable example.

Over 73% of cotton fields world wide are irrigated (Kooistra and Termorshuizen, 2006). Improper irrigation techniques such as flood - furrow are leading to salinisation issues for the land. Salinisation is a condition which occurs through evaporation. Water contains minerals such as salt. If water is not allowed to penetrate the soil but rather sit on top of the soil, that water evaporates, leaving behind the mineral salts. If this happens repeatedly, as is the case with flood-furrow irrigation, minerals will build up in the soil top layer. Over time this process of mineral salt build up or salinisation will make the soil inhospitable to continued agriculture activity. In fact, an estimated 100 million hectares (8% of world total arable land) has been abandoned by farmers due to over-exploitation with the main cause being salinisation. Cotton is considered to be the main crop involved in this arable land loss.

Posted in Fashion and Earth    http://www.fashionandearth.com/us/green-fashion-facts.html