Water

The simple act of using an in home water filter and stainless steel thermos, rather than buying bottled water, cuts down on the massive waste of petroleum and water while also limiting greenhouse gas emmisions.


Overall, agriculture accounts for 70% of all water use in the world. There’s nothing wrong with making an effort to conserve water at home, but with the awareness that all domestic water consumption by individuals accounts for only 5% of the the total water being used.

The number of ocean "dead zones" has grown from 150 in 2004 to about 200 today, said Nick Nuttall, a UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) spokesperson.
Dead zones can encompass areas of ocean 100,000 square kms in size where little can live because there is no oxygen left in the water. Nitrogen pollution, mainly from farm fertilisers and sewage, produces blooms of algae that absorb all of the oxygen in the water.
An estimated 80 percent of marine pollution originates from the land –
http://www.ipsnews.org/news.asp?idnews=35008



Oceans and the Global Carbon Cycle

The ocean plays a critical role in the global carbon cycle: the amount of carbon stored in the ocean is roughly 50 times greater than that in the atmosphere (see Figure 2). At the surface, the ocean interacts constantly with the atmosphere to absorb and release carbon dioxide. Once absorbed, a carbon atom will remain in the ocean for hundreds of years, circulating from the ocean's surface to its depths and back to the surface again. A small amount of this absorbed carbon will descend to the ocean floor in the form of dead marine organisms, where it is then trapped within deep ocean sediments. Overall, the ocean acts as a carbon sink, with a net intake of approximately two billion metric tons of carbon per year, equivalent to one-third of annual anthropogenic emissions (Royal Society, 2005). - http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/245


Almost half the carbon dioxide from the past two centuries of human industry has been absorbed by the world's oceans.
Oceans absorb carbon dioxide two ways: dissolving the gas out of the air, or trapping it when it is processed by phytoplankton and other sea vegetation. –
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/07/16/greenhouse_gas_buildup_seen_as_risk_to_oceans/


From EPA web-stie

Increased amounts of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, from AFOs can cause algal blooms which block waterways and deplete oxygen as they decompose. This can kill fish and other aquatic organisms, devastating the entire aquatic food chain.

When contaminants from animal waste seep into underground sources of drinking water , the amount of nitrate in the ground water supply can reach unhealthy levels. Infants up to three months of age are particularly susceptible to high nitrate levels and may develop Blue Baby Syndrome (methemoglobinemia), an often fatal blood disorder.


The Mississippi River—which drains nearly 40% of the continental United States, including its central farm lands—carries an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year. The resulting hypoxic coastal dead zone in the Gulf each summer is about the size of Massachusetts –
http://www.grinningplanet.com/2005/07-26/water-pollution-facts-article.htm


If the full water requirements of a morning roast are calculated - farm irrigation, bean transportation, and the serving of the coffee - one cup requires 140 liters of water.
The United States comprises 4.5 percent of the world population and consumes 9 percent of the world's water.
Agriculture has the greatest impact on a water footprint. Global crop production requires more than 6 trillion cubic meters of water each year.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5869

Nonetheless, it is irrigation that is the real water hog, claiming 65 to 70 percent of all water used by humans. Increasing amounts of irrigation water are used for industrial farming. These water-intensive corporate farming practices are subsidized by governments and their taxpayers, and this creates a strong disincentive for farm operations to move to conservation practices such as drip irrigation. -
Tony Clarke, co-author of Blue Gold



The burning of fossil fuels over the past two centuries had changed the chemistry of the oceans at a rate that was 100 times faster than had happened for millions of years. - http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/07/04/oceans.acid/index.html

Declining water levels affect the Great Lakes, too. In a paper published late last year, scientists projected that over the next three decades or so, water levels in Lake Erie, which supplies drinking water to more than 11 million people, could fall three to six feet as a result of climate change. –
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/world/us-faces-era-of-water-scarcity/