Several years ago, when I told a college-educated friend that wasting water was bad for the environment, she was surprised. She thought you just turned on the faucet, and the water came out. And she wasn't joking.
http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2011/05/21/reducing-water-use-to-save-energy/
Ethan Elkind, climate change research fellow at the School of Law | 5/21/11
In California, we’re always talking about conserving water, usually because of a drought, and increasingly because of our growing population and likely future of water shortages due to climate change. But research shows another compelling reason: conserving water means conserving energy.
Pumping and treating water is energy-intensive — the state water project, with its big pumps to get water over the Tehachapi Mountains to Southern California, is the state’s single biggest user of electricity. And the energy associated with water use — such as from dishwashers, hot water heaters, and laundry machines — adds up to a lot of pollution and waste. The California Energy Commission estimates that twenty percent of our electricity is associated with water use, mostly by urban customers.
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