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  • Earth Day 2021 Quiz

    Earth Day 2021 Quiz (April 22, 2021)

        Test your knowledge of a few Earth related topics on Earth Day. Note that when you Google some of these topics, you can get rather wide ranges of answers. Make sure you are looking at the US (if that is the target region), rather current information, and rather reliable sources. Or, just wait a day to see what we think the correct answer should be. 

    Answers will be forthcoming today or tomorrow.

    1.  Plastics. Approximately what % of the US’s
    plastic gets recycled?

    a.  8-10%

    b.  14-15%

    c.  25-30%

    d.  45-50%

    2.  Plastics. Approximately what % of the US’s
    plastic makes its way into lakes, rivers, oceans?

    a.  0.5%

    b.  1%

    c.  3%

    d.  5%

    3.  Plastic in the environment (on land or in
    ocean). About how many years does it take to decompose a plastic bottle in the
    ocean?

    a.  Plastic decomposes in about 20 years.

    b.  Plastic decomposes in about 50 years.

    c.  Plastic decomposes in about 150 years.

    d.  Plastic doesn’t really decompose, but let’s
    go with 450 years.

    4.  Plastic in the oceans. Approximately how many
    years before the plastic in the oceans will exceed the fish? (by weight). 

    a.  Too last, plastic already exceeds fish in
    oceans (by weight).

    b.  2030. In 10 years, plastic should exceed fish
    (by weight).

    c.  2050. In 30 years, plastic should exceed fish
    (by weight).

    d.  2100. In 80 years, plastic should exceed fish
    (by weight).

    5.  Manatees in Florida are dying at an unusually
    high rate recently. What is the primary cause of deaths in 2021?

    a.  Boats

    b.  Cold

    c.  Disease

    d.  Starvation

    6.  The artic is melting enough that ships can
    now travel through the Arctic to the North during the summer and avoid the
    Panama Canal or longer routes? Approximately how long during the summer can
    ships now navigate through the Arctic?

    a) About 4 weeks of thaw sufficient to
    navigate in the summer.

    b) About 8 weeks of thaw sufficient to
    navigate in the summer.

    c)  About 3 months of thaw sufficient to
    navigate in the summer.

    d)  About 365 days a year.

    7.  About, what percentage of the US lakes,
    rivers and streams are polluted (according to US EPA)?  (Polluted, as in no swimming and you should
    not eat the fish, if there are any.)

    a.  4%-5%

    b.  10%-15%

    c.  25%-30%

    d.  40%-45%

    8.  Soil. The current “industrial” farming
    methods deplete the topsoil. No topsoil, little or no farm crops. At the
    current rate of topsoil depletion, how many years do we have before we “run
    out” of topsoil? [Ooops…. Things changed… problems with this question… Well, with the answers…]

    a.  About 20 years until the world’s topsoil will
    be effectively depleted.

    b.  About 30 years until the world’s topsoil will
    be effectively depleted.

    c.  About 60 years until the world’s topsoil will
    be effectively depleted.

    d.  About 100 years until the world’s topsoil
    will be effectively depleted.

    9.  Extinction. Out of about 8 million plant and
    animal species on earth, approximately how many are in threat of extinction?

    a.  100K, 1.2%

    b.  300K, 3.7%

    c.  500K, 6.2%

    d.  1M, 12.5%

    10.  Earths. Current estimates are that we
    significantly overuse the earth’s resources (overshoot the earth’s carrying
    capacity). We currently need part of another earth to be “sustainable”. But, if
    the rest of the world consumed at the same rate per person as we do in the US,
    how many earths do we need?

    a.  2 earths (+1)

    b.  3 earths (+2)

    c.  4 earths (+3)

    d.  5 earths (+4)

    11.  What is the depth of the oceans? (Plus, water
    expands when warmed about 0.000214 per +1C for seawater, so how much would sea
    levels rise based on a +1 degree Centigrade increase in global temperature that
    transferred throughout the oceans.)

    a.  Average ocean depth is 1,000ft (+1C temp
    increase = +2.6in increase in avg ocean level.)

    b.  Average ocean depth is 2,500ft (+1C temp
    increase = +6.4in increase in avg ocean level.)

    c.  Average ocean depth is 1.2 mile (+1C temp
    increase = +16.3in in increase avg ocean level.)

    d.  Average ocean depth is 2.3 miles (+1C temp
    increase = +31.2in increase in avg ocean level.) 

  • Is Trade Secret a Good Strategy? A Trade Secret Assessment

    Is Trade Secret a Good Strategy? A Trade Secret Assessment

    The most widely identified Trade Secret is, of course, Coke Cola. (The original formula included caffeine and cocaine – thus the name – but that is a different discussion!) In 1903, cocaine was removed, leaving caffeine as the sole stimulant ingredient, and all medicinal claims were dropped. But the Coke-a-Cola trade secret lives on. Sections below: 

    Most Widely Acknowledged Trade Secrets

    Other trade secrets include WD-40, Thomas’s English Muffins, the Google search algorithm, Listerine, Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Big Mac special sauce, Bush’s Baked Beans, and the New York Times Bestseller List algorithm. 

    When you look at Strategic Business Planning Company’s Perpetual Innovation™ series of books, you will find descriptions of Trade Secrets and when they might be best utilized. In many cases, trade secrets that are ultimately released in commercial products are more advertising gimmicks than true secrets. Someone with a refined pallet, and a spectrometer, can identify all the elements that go into a bottle of Coke, for example. In which case, the copyrights © and Trademarks ® are more important than the (open) secret. We have had clients that wanted to use Intellectual Property (IP) protection for food products and consumer electronics. In both cases, the secret would be out there for an industrious competitor to reverse engineer once the product is launched. An “outed” secret in a competitor’s hands! A ruthless competitor could utilize all the powers of Intellectual Property against you, and all the powers of unethical business (like knock-offs) as well. 

    Probably the best trade secret is related to internal manufacturing where the finished product gives no evidence as to the innovation that yields a competitive advantage. In fact, we have had clients who patent an internal manufacturing process but have no way of determining if competitors adopt the technique inside their factories. The patent application tells them how to improve their processes. Our advice might have been to keep this invention internal as a trade secret. However, once the patent application was filed (published really), the next best approach was to manufacture and sell the new machines that capitalized on the invention. Everyone in the industry needed to upgrade to realize the production improvement.

    Our Trade Secrets Assessment Tool

    SBP has a Short Trade Secret Checklist and a regular checklist to see if new technology should be considered for protection as a Trade Secret. Here is the short form (with only 6 of the original 11 questions).

    As well, here is the interpretation of the checklist assessment in this Short Form example; the score was 4.8 (out of 10). The Longer Form (not shown here) for this same business case was slightly higher at 5.1, up slightly from a low to a medium trade secret position.
    If a trade secret is the decision for IP protection, then you will want to develop a Trade Secret Plan. The plan will include how to protect the secret by limiting who knows the secret, confidentiality agreements, etc. The Trade Secret Plan will also address what happens when the secret is exposed. Note the when, not if, here. There might be circumstances where you would expose the secret yourself, maybe in the disclosure associated with a patent application.

    #TradeSecret #IntellectualProperty 
    #IntellZine #IPplan #SBPlan

    Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA)

    This is from the UTSA (with 1985 Amendments):

    The USTA (Uniform Trade Secrets Act) “trade secret” (UTSA § 1.4) “means information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that: (i) derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use, and (ii) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.”

    The UTSA also provided refinement through comments to the definition of a trade secret itself:

    • Multiple parties may hold rights to the same trade secret, as they may all individually derive value from it.
    • A trade secret ceases to exist when it is common knowledge within the community in which it is profitable. This means that the secret does not need to be known by the general public, but only throughout the industry that stands to profit from it.
    • A party that reverse engineers a trade secret may also obtain trade secret protection for their knowledge, provided the reverse engineering process is non-trivial.
    • Knowledge preventing loss of funds, such as that a particular idea does not work, is valuable and as such qualifies for trade secret protection.

    Regarding reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy, the UTSA maintained that actions such as restricting access to a “need-to-know basis” and informing employees that the information is secret met the criteria for reasonable efforts. The UTSA stated that the courts do not require procedures to protect against “flagrant industrial espionage” were not necessary.(Uniform Trade Secrets Act with 1985 Amendments”. Retrieved 2020-04-19.)

    Remedies. The UTSA provided for several potential remedies for wrongs committed under the act, including injunctive relief, damages, and attorney’s fees.

  • World Water Day 2021 in Review

     World Water Day
    2021 (in the rear-view mirror): Valuing Water.

    World Water Day (March 22, 2021) is past (www.WorldWaterDay.org)…   By now
    you should have taken the     Water
    Day Quiz     at SustainZine.
    It’s been about 10 years since I developed such a quiz. I had to work to
    improve and update the original quiz… It is still tricky to get good answers to
    some of these water-critical issues. Often the water usage is available to the
    homeowner,     but gets confusing as the data is aggregated for the state and for
    the nation. The more abstract uses of water, like virtual water, are erratic
    and imprecise. Important concepts, but the answers are fuzzy.

    Here is my Water
    Day Quiz     for 2021; if you haven’t already done it, please complete before
    going further. It’s important to know what you know, and what you don’t know
    related to water systems. It is surprisingly hard to develop this quiz because
    the numbers are all over the map. I have 15 multiple guess questions. Answer
    them all before starting to Google the answers. For which questions do you have
    a high confidence in your original answer? I’m trying to use current stats;
    different sources give different estimates, sometimes old news is no longer
    accurate (maybe it never was accurate). I generally used US and US units of
    measure unless specifically indicated otherwise. Answers, scoring and sources are
    presented in the next sections.

    Thanks for playing the game. It’s a
    serious game though, because lives and livelihoods now and into the future
    depend on how we sustainably address water issues.

    Water Facts: The Water
    Resources of Earth

    Over 70% of our Earth’s
    surface is covered by water (we should really call our planet “Ocean”
    instead of “Earth”). Although water is seemingly abundant, the real
    issue is the amount of fresh water available. 

    • 97.5%
      of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh
      water 
    • Nearly
      70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica
      and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or
      lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human
      use. 
    • <
      1% of the world’s fresh water (~0.007% of all water on earth) is
      accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes,
      rivers, reservoirs, and those underground sources that are shallow enough
      to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed
      by rain/snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis.       Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_distribution_on_Earth

    With water everywhere (70% of the earth’s surface), it is
    hard to image people without fresh drinking water and clean sanitation, but the
    numbers are pretty ugly. About 780M people do not have running water according
    to the World Health Organization (www.WHO.INT); but you might see 2.1B (about
    25% of the world’s population) who don’t have clean running water at home. And
    probably about 2B do not have safe septic/sewer
    (https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation) Who estimates
    that 4.5B (almost 60%) of the world’s population do not have safe toilets at
    home.   (Some people might argue, that if
    you don’t have clean septic, you really don’t have clean water, because it gets
    contaminated in normal household operations.)

    The health implications of this are massive. Direct
    ailments, hospitalizations and deaths are staggering. Poor water and sanitation
    contribute to diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A,
    typhoid and polio.  A WHO study in 2012
    estimated that for “every US$ 1.00 invested in sanitation, there was a return
    of US$ 5.50 in lower health costs, more productivity, and fewer premature
    deaths.”

    Probably 50% of the US fresh water is
    polluted… as in no swimming, and you should not eat the fish (if any). If it is
    that bad in the US, imagine how horrible it is in some of the developing
    countries. In short, we need to stop treating water like dirt! And definitely stop
    use rivers and streams as a sewer dump.

    How
    much water do you use per day?

    Indirectly
    and directly, the average person in the US uses more than 1,500 to 2,000
    gallons of water per day. This varies a lot by season and by area. Let’s start
    with the more direct usages of water. The EPA provides average usage at home:

    ·        
    300 gallons per household directly.
    (roughly 120 gals per person)

    ·        
    210 gallons (70%) of that water used in
    households is indoors, mostly in the bathroom (toilets, showers, faucets)

    ·        
    12%-13% of indoor water used is wasted from
    leaks!

    ·        
    Much of the outdoor water is wasted as
    well.     

    Use EPA resources here:
    https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water.

    Ensia provides a great visualization including state-by-state differences:     https://ensia.com/articles/water-use/

    Various sources give higher averages. Compute your own water footprint based on
    your lifestyle here:     https://www.watercalculator.org/footprint/the-water-footprint-of-energy/ 

    How
    many gallons of water does it take to…?

    Water to power a 60-Watt light bulb?
    It takes a lot of water to generate electricity using coal, natural gas or
    nuclear power. Nuclear requires the most water to generate electricity.
    Estimates are that it takes between 3,000 and 6,000 gallons of water to produce
    electricity for a 60-watt light bulb, 12 hours per day, for a year! Heating
    water (NatGas, Coal, Nuclear) for steam turbine power generation uses lots of
    water; they generally take water out of the river and return most of it further
    downstream after partial cooling (maybe 10% evaporates, however). If the water
    source dries up (or freezes) the power plant may need to be idled. Hydro
    electric from dams simply redirects the downstream flow of the water, so the
    water impact is in the change in water flows (when power is needed) and evaporation
    of the increased surface area in a dam.

    Wind power and photovoltaic solar power do
    not use any water in operations to produce electricity. The power mix of the
    local utility determines the savings of water and CO2 each year from a switch
    to solar power on the home or business.

    Buying an electric vehicle (EV) may not be
    such a great savings if charged from the local power utility that has a heavy
    footprint. Installing solar and charging mainly from direct sun power is much
    better.

    But what about gasoline (before adding in
    a 10% ethanol mix)?

    It takes lots and lots of water to produce
    oil. The drilling process, conventional or fracking, takes huge amounts of
    water, and it contaminates water. Fracking for oil (and NatGas) can produce
    about 0.5 barrels of waste water for every barrel of oil (Duke University
    citing a 2015 fracking study:     https://today.duke.edu/2015/09/frackfoot).
    But then the crude has to be refined, which takes energy and water. There is
    less processing needed for jet fuel and diesel, but gasoline requires about 0.7
    gallons of water per gallon of fuel.

    Ethanol requires a surprising amount of
    water during procession. Ethanol from corn, for example, requires about 10
    gallons of water for every gallon produced; and that’s not counting the water
    required to grow the corn, if corn is the ethanol feedstock. It takes a
    whopping 20-30 gallons of water to make the corn needed for 1 gallon of
    ethanol. (It takes about 1.25 gallons of ethanol, however, to make the equivalent
    power as 1 gallon of gasoline.)

    Water to create a pound of food?
    (See Water Calculator on this.).
    It takes a lot of water to grow crops, and a massive amount to produce animals
    for food. This has been referred to as virtual water. It takes 37 gallons of
    water for a cup of coffee counting everything from grow coffee beans, to
    cleaning them, and to brewing the coffee. 
    To grow a pound of potatoes requires only 31 gallons; beans, 43; and
    corn, 109. BUT it requires a huge amount of water to produce animal products,
    since you have to grow the corn or hay first in order to feed it to animals. It
    requires 371 gallons to produce a pound of cheese; eggs, 400 (8 x 2oz);
    chicken, 469; pork, 756; and 1,857 gallons of water to produce a single pound
    of beef. Wow! Not only is it healthier for you to eat lower on the food chain,
    but it would save massive amounts of water (and energy).

    Oh, and it requires a huge amount of water
    to produce clothes too — to grow the cotton, but the water intensive
    processing required to make cloth and ultimately clothes. It takes 2,000+
    gallons of water to produce one pair of blue jeans!  Countries that are net importers of foods,
    clothes and other finished products are, essentially, also importing water
    inherent in them. (See     https://www.watercalculator.org/footprint/the-hidden-water-in-everyday-products/)

    The Nexus of Water and Energy.
    As you can see, power generation and food production require large amounts of
    water. Similarly, water requires energy in many ways. Hydroelectric generation
    from water in dams is a direct relationship. Other requirements of energy are
    simply to get water from wherever it is, to wherever it is needed. Energy is
    needed to purify water. It takes about 10% of the energy produced in the US to move
    water around and process it.

    With only about 1% of the world’s water as
    available fresh water, an obvious way to get fresh water is desalination of salt
    water. Unfortunately, desalinization is rather expensive. It is much easier and
    cheaper to pump water from the mainland to islands (St. Petersburg and Key
    West).




    It takes a lot of water (and typically oil and NatGas)
    to make plastics. Lots of energy, and lots of water, to mine, refine,
    manufacture and ship everything. Recyclings of plastics, paper and metals still
    takes water and energy, but far less than the resources used than the original
    products that started in the mines.

    Oh… If you want to know your water footprint you can go
    here: http://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/interactive-tools/personal-water-footprint-calculator/

    The last time I ran the calculator it estimates that I
    consume about 2,100 cubic meters of water per year.  If my math is right, that is about 1,800
    gallons per day! The US average is more than 1,000. 

    So What Can I Do Right Now?

    Measure and monitor. You need to measure
    and monitor regularly to have a consistent impact on your usage, and your improved
    savings from each initiative.

    Savings. Reduce what you
    use saves you money, saves resources, and saves water. Directly, you can
    usually use 20 to 25% less water in homes. Each state and most counties will
    offer water savings tips that are relevant to the locale; in Volusia County
    Florida here are 25 tips.     https://www.volusia.org/services/growth-and-resource-management/environmental-management/natural-resources/water-conservation/25-ways-to-save-water.stml

    The gallon that is never saved, and never
    used, is called a NegaGallon.

    As you have seen, most of the water you
    used is indirectly, so reducing travel and using less electricity are important
    places to start.

    Telework. Some of us are
    getting tired of Zoom meetings, but the savings are massive from telework (and
    other types of avoided travel). The NegaGallon of gasoline is petrol that is never
    used and therefore never drilled, refined, shipped, and burned in your car.

    Electricity.
    Do an energy audit if you haven’t already done so; it’s free from your local power
    utility. Energy-ize your home and businesses. NegaWatt. That’s the kilowatt of
    power that you never used: it never had to be fracked, piped to a refinery,
    shipped to the power plant, burned to produce power. No trees were killed, no
    greenhouse gasses produced.

    So
    What?

    So energy and water are very closely
    interconnected. It’s important to conserving water and to use it wisely.
    Unfortunately, as with most things sustainability-related, the people who deal
    with energy, don’t generally deal with water management, and vice versa.
    Sustainability requires an integrated approach to most things, especially water
    and energy.

    Imagine what happens if the rest of the
    world consumed resources as we do. The Water Use Around the Word InfoGraphic shows that US water use is
    156 per person per day, but we know that the real number is 10 times that, all
    things considered. And our usage is twice that of Europe (France) and 4x India.
    What happens if they start to consume at the same rate as we? Plus, what
    happens as we move toward 10B world population? 

    Expect that water and water management
    will become far more important in the future. Probably as important as oil is
    currently. You should see more disputes over water by states and countries. This
    topic is, accurately, called Water Wars.     

    FIND OUT MORE:

    ·        
    Use
    EPA starting here:     https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water.
    Ensia provides a great visualization including state-by-state differences:     https://ensia.com/articles/water-use/

    ·        
    World Water Day 2021 website: https://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday2021/

    ·        
    UN World Water Development Report 2021: www.unwater.org/publication_categories/world-water-development-report

    ·        
    UN-Water SDG
    6 Data Portal:     www.sdg6data.org

    INTERSTING LINKS:

    ·        
    WaterFootprint
    Calculator:     https://www.watercalculator.org/footprint/the-water-footprint-of-energy/

    ·        
    www.WaterMatters.org  (Great, including Florida specific info.)

    ·        
    http://www.worldwaterday.org/  

    ·        
    www.UNWater.org

    ·        
    www.savewaterfl.com  (For details & water-saving tips.)

    ·        
    Bottled Water and Energy:
    A Fact Sheet     http://www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/bottled_water/bottled_water_and_energy.html
    (old source)

    ·        
    EPA on Water http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/pubs/waterenergy.html

    ·        
    Save Water Save Energy
    brochure:     http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/docs/drops-to-watts508.pdf
    (including facts).

    ·        
    Couple cool Energy-Water
    Nexus sites:     http://www.eeweek.org/water_and_energy_wise/connection
    and
    http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/environment/water/enviro.notes/enviro.notes.water-energy.pdf
     

    ·        
    Virtual Water: https://mywaterearth.com/what-is-virtual-water/

    Tips
    and easy means to save water.

    • FIRST. Measure
    and monitor. Your pump should not be coming on when no activity is happening;
    your meter should not be moving when all water is turned off. Most utilities
    charge more as you consume (waste?) higher volumes of water.

    • In your house
    check for leaks from faucets and pipes; even the smallest drip
    can waste as much as 75 liters (20 gals) a day.

    In the
    bathroom:
    • Flush less — remember the toilet is not an ashtray or
    wastebasket.

    • While brushing
    teeth, shaving, etc., turn off the water.

    • When cold water
    will do, avoid using hot water.

    • Take shorter
    showers — 5 minutes or less.

    • In the shower,
    wet yourself down, turn the water off, lather up, then turn the water on to
    rinse off soap.

    In the
    kitchen:
    • Operate the dishwasher only when you have a full load.

    • Scrape, don’t
    rinse, your dishes before loading in the dishwasher. Run when full.

    • When purchasing
    a dishwasher, consider a water-efficient model.

    • Thaw frozen
    food in the refrigerator or microwave, not under running water.

    • Store drinking
    water in the refrigerator instead of letting the tap run while you wait for
    cool water to flow.

    • When washing
    dishes by hand, fill one sink or basin with soapy water and fill the rinsing
    sink to one-third or one-half full
    — avoid letting the water run continuously in the rinsing sink.

    In the
    laundry:
    • For washers with variable settings for water volume, select the minimum
    amount required per load.

    • If load size
    cannot be set, operate the washer with full loads only.

    • Use the
    shortest wash cycle for lightly soiled loads; normal and permanent press wash
    cycles use more water.

    • Check hoses
    regularly for leaks.

    • Pre-treat
    stains to avoid rewashing.

    In the
    Yard:
    • Most sprinkler systems waste a lot of
    water. Frequently, they waste more than they (should) use. Install rain
    sensors. Carefully monitor the coverage. Change level and frequency based on
    season.

    • Try to switch
    to reclaimed water; it doesn’t need to be processed as much as potable city
    water. Plus, many cities charge for the water you use assuming that all of it
    also goes into the sewer system (separate, but equal, sewer water charges).

    • Plant local
    friendly (Florida friendly) and low care landscapes.     

    The
    World Health Organization (Who.INT) offers these key water facts:

    • In 2017, 71% of the global
      population (5.3 billion people) used a safely managed drinking-water
      service – that is, one located on premises, available when needed, and
      free from contamination.
    • 90% of the global population
      (6.8 billion people) used at least a basic service. A basic service is an
      improved drinking-water source within a round trip of 30 minutes to
      collect water.
    • 785 million people lack even a
      basic drinking-water service, including 144 million people who are
      dependent on surface water.
    • Globally, at least 2 billion
      people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces.
    • Contaminated water can transmit
      diseases such diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio.
      Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 485 000 diarrhoeal
      deaths each year.
    • By 2025, half of the world’s
      population will be living in water-stressed areas.
    • In least developed countries,
      22% of health care facilities have no water service, 21% no sanitation
      service, and 22% no waste management service.

     Source:
    https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water

    #WorldWaterDay
    #WorldWaterDay2021 #ValuingWater #Water2Me #WaterEnergyNexus #WaterFoodNexus
    #SustainZine

  • World Water Day 2021 Quiz

    World
    Water Day 2021 (March 22) Quiz        Name/Team: ____________ 

    (See SustainZine blog post related to this quiz and World Water Day.)
    1.      Approximately
    what percentage of the adult human body is water (H2O)?

    a.       10-15%
    b.      20-30%
    c.       40-50%
    d.      55-65%

    2.      All
    of the following are primary water-related causes of death world-wide except:

    a.       Diarrhea
    b.      Malaria
    c.       Dehydration

    d.      Driving
    into bodies of water while texting

    3.      A
    gallon of DeLand city tap water costs about how many cents (vs. bottled water)?

    a.       <0.6
    cents
    b.      2
    cents
    c.       4
    cents
    d.    8
    cents


    4.      What
    percentage of the world’s water is fresh surface water (lakes, rivers, swamp,
    etc.)?

    a)     
    10.9% of the world’s water
    is fresh and surface water.
    b)     
    5.2%
    c)     
    2.5%
    d)     
    <0.1%

    5.      Of
    the ~7.8B billion world population what number (percentage) do not have safe
    drinking water; what percentage do not have clean septic/sewer?

    a)     
    0.5 Billion (~7%) without
    clean water; 1B without basic sewer/septic (~13%)

    b)     
    1 Billion (~13%) without
    clean water; 1B without basic sewer/septic (~13%)

    c)     
    780 Million (~10%)
    without clean water; 1B without basic sewer/septic (~13%)

    d)     
    780 Million (~10%)
    without clean water; 2B without sewer/septic (~25%)

    6.      About, what
    percentage of the US lakes, rivers and streams are polluted (according to US
    EPA)?  (Polluted, as in no swimming and
    you should not eat the fish, if there are any.)

    a.       5%

    b.      10%

    c.       30%

    d.      50%



    7.      How
    many gallons of water does it take to power a single light bulb for a year
    using NatGas, Coal and Nuclear (100-Watt, incandescent, 12 hours per day)?

    a.       50
    to 60 Gallons
    b.      200
    to 500 Gals.
    c.       1,000
    to 2,000 Gals.
    d.      4,000
    to 8,000 Gals.



    8.      How
    many gallons of water does it take to produce the corn necessary to produce 1
    gal of ethanol?

    a.      
    1-5 Gallons of water went
    into the corn to make up 1 gal of ethanol.
    b.     
    10-15 Gals
    c.      
    20-25 Gals
    d.      30-35
    Gals

    9.      How
    many gallons of water does it take to produce a gallon of ethanol from corn?
    (Not counting the virtual water in the corn from the prior question.)

    a.       None
    b.      0.5
    Gal
    c.       2
    Gals
    d.      3.5
    Gal



    10.  About
    how many gallons of water does it take to extract a gallon of oil?
    (Fracking drilling.)

    a.       No
    water used.
    b.      2-4
    gal of water per 42 Gal barrel of oil
    c.       5-10
    gal of water per 42 Gal barrel of oil
    d.      21
    gal of water per 42 Gal barrel of oil

    11.  About
    how many gallons of water does it take to refine a gallon of gasoline
    from crude oil? (not counting the prior question related to drilling the oil.)

    a.       No
    water used in the refining process.
    b.      0.1
    gal of water used per 1 gal of gasoline produced from crude oil.
    c.       0.3
    gal of water used per 1 gal of gasoline produced from crude oil.     
    d.       0.7
    gal of water used per 1 gal of gasoline produced from crude oil.

    12.  All
    things considered, how much total water does it take for a single chicken egg?
    (Virtual Water.)

    a.       12 gals

    b.      22 gals

    c.       32 gals

    d.      52 gals

    13.  All
    things considered, how much total water does it take for a pound of beef?
    (Virtual Water.)

    a.       200
    gals
    b.      500
    gals
    c.       900
    gals
    d.      1,800
    gals

    14.  All
    things considered, about how much total water does it take to make a pair of
    cotton jeans, both the cotton, milling, dying and the fabrication? (Virtual
    Water.)

    a.       50
    gallons
    b.      500
    gals
    c.       1,000
    gals
    d.      2,000
    gals

    15.  The
    average American family uses how much water per day at home directly
    (meter and/or well)? (Average household is 2.5 people.)

    a)   60 gals directly per day
    b)     
    95 gals directly per day
    c)     
    125 gals directly per day
    d)     
    300 gals directly per day

  • World Water Day: 2021 Valuing Water (Quiz your Water Knowledge)

    It’s World Water Day, March 22, 2021 (www.WorldWaterDay.org).  

    Time to test your water knowledge with a World Water Day Quiz. 
    Some days we wish it would rain. Some days, we
    wish it would stop. But every day, not just March 22, we should stop and
    appreciate the importance of water. How important it is to out our being, to
    our lives, to our living and to our existence.

    Here is my Water Quiz for 2021. It is
    surprisingly hard to develop because the numbers are all over the map. I have 15
    multiple guess questions. Answer them all before starting to Google the
    answers. For which questions do you have a high confidence in your original answer?
    I’m trying to use current stats; different sources give different estimates. Sometimes old news is no longer accurate (maybe it never was accurate). I
    generally used US and US units of measure unless specifically indicated otherwise.
    Answers, scoring and sources will be forthcoming.

    Celebrate the day. Go, drink a glass of H2O.

    Cheers!