Monday Week Eleven

...some questions...

1. What is the difference between per per capital domestic water use between a high-use state and a low-use state? What is the volume of domestic use for a low use state (gal/day/cap)? What is the volume of domestic use for a high use state (gal/day/cap)?How is water use data collected? Why is it important to consider the specific metric of water use when interpreting a water use map? What is a "withdrawal"? Where is a withdrawal?

2. Where does the vast majority of the 23 gallons of water used in the production of a 12 oz. can of Coke get used? What does a look at the volume of water required for producing a 3.5 oz. potato vs a 3.5 oz. bag of potato chips tell us about the water footprint of more heavily processed vs more lightly processed foods? Why is the water footprint of grass-fed beef so different from the water footprint of grain-fed beef? Where does the vast majority of the 28 gallons of water used in the production of a 12 oz. can of beer get used?

3. What is the difference between green, blue, and gray water? Why is it important to consider the "color" of the water when evaluating the water footprint )(volume) of a particular product? Why is it important to note that the numbers that we have been using in class are for global average water footprint (how might your local/regional/national footprint volume/color vary)?

Slides from today are on Sakai. Your assigned reading for Wednesday is The water footprint of poultry, pork and beef: A comparative study in different countries and production systems (.pdf) by Gerbens-Leenes et al. in Water Resource and Industry (peer-reviewed) 2013. We will have help sessions for the W&L Water Bill Homework Assignment Monday (tonight) at 7:30 in A115 and Tuesday at 7:00 also in A115. Instructions for the water footprint extra credit thing are here.