Treehugger: Green water, greywater, blackwater, and Snow White

Posted on April 4, 2008 by Jared Simpson

The truly essential green site, Treehugger, published the guide, How to Green Your Water, way back in 2006, and by golly if it doesn’t still seem relevant now, so many, many months later. It’s a fantastically well-organized, handy, and dandy resource for learning water basics (and not-so-basics) as well as how not to be a water hog.

We’ve embedded the guide’s intro and navigation below. Tips for drips, anyone? That and other easy ways to conserve in the Top 10 tips. Just what the heck is the water cycle, anyway? See Getting techie. (Hint: It’s not a setting on your washing machine.) And speaking of washing machines, see the “Dig deeper” section for appliances designed to save water. Perk up your party patter by memorizing the By the numbers section, and we guarantee you will not go home alone. What’s up with greywater and blackwater? Top 10 tips again. And while you’re there, learn why you’re an idiot if the big problem in your life is choosing just the right bottled water to match your lifestyle. (BTW, For some reason the intriguing Questions you weren’t afraid to ask link is dead.)

(What’s Snow White got to do with this? Nothing except that the guide’s home page has a link to an article purporting that “. . .Walt Disney was a secret environmentalist, inserting subliminal messages into his cartoons.”)

Introduction to and navigation for How to Green Your Water:

There is no resource more precious than water. There is also no resource that is misused, abused, misallocated, and misunderstood the way water is. Safe drinking water, healthy and intact natural ecosystems, and a stable food supply are a few of the things at stake as our water supply is put under greater and greater stress. The picture might look grim, but opportunities to be more efficient abound. Many people have had water-saving etiquette pumped into them at one point or another, so hopefully we can make a good case for conserving the stuff with practical, everyday water-saving strategies as well as some more high-tech approaches.

Guide Navigation