WiserEarth Area of Focus Suggestions

From: The Mono Lake Committee

  We rarely think about water when we see an automobile, for example, but producing a typical U.S. car requires more than 50 times its weight in water (39,090 gallons)! Choosing a fuel-efficient model will help--it takes 44 gallons of water to refine one gallon of crude oil and 1,700 gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol.

A kilogram (2.2 lbs) of hamburger or steak produced by a typical California beef cattle operation, for instance, uses some 20,500 liters (5,400 gal.) of water.

Producing 1 lb of bread requires 500 gallons of water.

Producing 1 serving (8 oz.) of chicken requires 330 gallons of water.

Growing one cotton T-shirt requires 256 gallons of water (source: The King of California, by Arax and Wartzman)

Producing 1 egg requires over 100 gallons of water.

Producing 1 serving (8 fl. oz.) of milk requires 48 gallons of water.

Producing 1 serving (2 oz.) of pasta requires 36 gallons of water.

Producing 1 serving (4.6 oz.) of oranges requires 14 gallons of water.

Producing 1 serving (4.3 oz.) of tomatoes requires 8 gallons of water.

Producing a typical American Thanksgiving dinner for six people requires over 30,000 gallons of water.