Excessive water usage is another human related environmental problem that face today.

Figure 1. The damn dam. (Gibbons, 2017)

Did you know that the paper industry uses more water to product a ton of product than any other industry? That includes the meat industry which has been widely criticized for its excessive water use – encouraging many concerned citizens to go vegetarian!

However you don’t hear of people abandoning paper for the same reasons. Even though it takes 3 gallons of water to create a single sheet of paper!

Okay, so why is high water usage so bad?

So water may seem pretty abundant on planet Earth, although 1% of it is actually drinkable (and not in the form of ice). High water use requires us to use other methods of extraction such as ground water supplies, this extraction is greater than the regeneration. Water also takes plenty of time, energy, and money to filter, so using water excessively has further knock on effects than just reducing the water supplies.

Figure 2. Well in Kerala (Arunkumar, 2010)

Many other species rely on plentiful fresh water, not to mention we would all die pretty quickly without regular, clean drinking water. Food production is also heavily impacted as it requires high amounts of water to grow crops and raise livestock. Furthermore many landscapes degrade without sufficient water.

Essentially If we consume water at an unsustainable rate we will end up altering the planet, and not for the better. So if we can reduce our use of paper, we may just help reduce humanities high water usage at the same time!