Sierra Club Water Sentinels

Sierra Club Water Sentinels are the first line of defense of America's waters. Water Sentinels work to protect, improve and restore our waters by fostering alliances to promote water quality monitoring, public education and citizen action.

We live on the water planet. All living things, our weather, the seasons and our climate are dependent upon water. However, water is a finite resource with only about one percent of the world's water actually being available for human consumption. Water pollution and overuse are threatening both the quality and quantity of our water resources at an alarming rate.

Water sentinels are behind projects across America. The Sierra Club's Water Sentinels Program works to inform and empower citizens to monitor, protect, and improve their local waterways. They organize a variety of projects including river and stream cleanups, citizen training to test their local waterways for harmful substances, provide environmental education and outdoor activities for children.

Click here to see a map that explains what Water Sentinels teams around the country are doing.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
Celebrate World Water Day
World Water Week 2011
WWF Celebrates Canada Water Week
First International Water Hour
Blog Action Day 2010: Raising Awareness about Water
Peak Water?
Contaminated Water Kills
Alarming Facts About Water
Solutions to Diminishing Ground Water
Solutions to the World Water Crisis
Population Growth and Climate Change will Add to the World Water Crisis
Environmental Impact of Overpopulation and Sustainable Development
GWC and World Water Day 2011
Water Management Webcast: Cities and the Global Water Crisis
Water School’s Ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro
Banana Peels and Water Purification
Sustainable Water Purification Technology to Be Unveiled During G20
Siemens Water Tool on Facebook
Webinar on Sustainable Strategies for Corporate Water Management
Investing in Water
The Best Eco-Inventions of 2009: Food and Water
Odd Yet Effective Green Inventions
Best Green Tech Innovations of 2010
Time's Top 5 Green Energy Inventions of 2010
Extreme Weather and the Costs of Climate Change

Peak Water?

Peak water is the condition where water demand is higher than the rate at which supply is replenished. As referenced in an EcoSeed article, climate change, burgeoning population growth, pollution and increased industrial and agricultural capacity are putting more pressure on already stretched water resources.

Although it is contentious, many believe that we have passed a tipping point in water consumption, the same way many believe we have passed a tipping point for oil. In many places there is clear evidence of over-extraction of groundwater in relation to recharge rates.

Around the world rivers and lakes are dead and dying, and groundwater aquifers are being utilized faster than they can be replenished. The result is aquatic life is being driven to extinction. These growing rates of water use have direct adverse impacts on both human and ecosystem health.

A rise in global temperatures will be a major burden on water resources in the coming years. Other factors like population growth, changes in dietary patterns, urbanization, and economic development may prove even more problematic. Increased agricultural irrigation and increased water usage for industrial purposes are exploiting water reserves at an unprecedented rate. In India alone there are over 23 million deep bore wells that are using technology created to access oil.

Although water is not a finite resource like oil, the concept of peak water can focus attention on water demand surpassing rates of replenishment. The concept has particular usefulness in countries like India, Pakistan and China. It can also draw attention to the inefficient use of water which is a global problem. Peak water could just be the wake-up call we need to better manage our water resources.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
Alarming Facts About Water
Contaminated Water Kills
Celebrate World Water Day
World Water Week 2011
WWF Celebrates Canada Water Week
First International Water Hour
Blog Action Day 2010: Raising Awareness about Water
Solutions to Diminishing Ground Water
Solutions to the World Water Crisis
Population Growth and Climate Change will Add to the World Water Crisis
Environmental Impact of Overpopulation and Sustainable Development
Sierra Club Water Sentinels
GWC and World Water Day 2011
Water Management Webcast: Cities and the Global Water Crisis
Water School’s Ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro
Banana Peels and Water Purification
Sustainable Water Purification Technology to Be Unveiled During G20
Siemens Water Tool on Facebook
Webinar on Sustainable Strategies for Corporate Water Management
Investing in Water
The Best Eco-Inventions of 2009: Food and Water
Odd Yet Effective Green Inventions
Best Green Tech Innovations of 2010
Time's Top 5 Green Energy Inventions of 2010
Extreme Weather and the Costs of Climate Change

Banana Peels and Water Purification

Banana peels can be used to purify drinking water contaminated with toxic heavy metals such as copper and lead. According to a February 2011 study published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, researchers from the Bioscience Institute at Botucatu, Brazil, indicates that banana skins are better than conventional purification agents. Traditionally water purifiers like aluminium oxide, cellulose and silica are used but these are expensive and have potentially toxic side effects.

The team's method follows previous work that showed that plant parts, such as cane husks, coconut fibres and peanut shells, can also remove toxins from water. All of these natural materials contain chemicals that attract and collect heavy metals.

In a laboratory experiment, Gustavo Rocha de Castro, a researcher at the institute and co-author of this study, along with his colleagues, dried banana peels in the sun for a week, ground them and added them to river water containing known concentrations of copper and lead. They found that the peels absorbed 97 per cent of the metals after just one hour.

The metals can then be removed from the skins so that they can be safely disposed of. According to Castro the material could also work on cadmium, nickel and zinc.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
Solutions to Diminishing Ground Water

Solutions to the World Water Crisis

Water School’s Ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro

Sustainable Water Purification Technology

Siemens Water Tool on Facebook

Celebrate World Water Day
World Water Week 2011
WWF Celebrates Canada Water Week
First International Water Hour
Blog Action Day 2010: Raising Awareness about Water
Peak Water?
Contaminated Water Kills
Alarming Facts About Water
Population Growth and Climate Change will Add to the World Water Crisis
Environmental Impact of Overpopulation and Sustainable Development
Sierra Club Water Sentinels
GWC and World Water Day 2011
Water Management Webcast: Cities and the Global Water Crisis
Webinar on Sustainable Strategies for Corporate Water Management
Investing in Water
The Best Eco-Inventions of 2009: Food and Water
Odd Yet Effective Green Inventions
Best Green Tech Innovations of 2010
Time's Top 5 Green Energy Inventions of 2010
Extreme Weather and the Costs of Climate Change