This post joins Blog Action Day 2010: Water.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “water”?

Maybe you think… Scarce. Critical. Dirty.

Me: Wasteful.

Since reading an article on water in the early 1990s, I’ve been drinking at least 64 ounces of water daily. For years (still does), a big drinking cup with a lid has accompanied me at home and at work. When I go places, I always figure out how to have water with me. The how depends on where and how much I can carry.

One thing stays the same. The water content. It’s always store-bought water.

It’s about taste. Not about thinking bottled water is better than tap water.

Because we need water, I’m trashing the planet. It pains me to say this especially when you have African women walking over 40 billion hours every year to gather water, and it’s often not safe drinking water. And to make matters worse…

“17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 percent of which will never be recycled,” writes Tara Lohan in change.org. Well, at least, I recycle every single bottle. But I still feel bad.

I’d love to save money and avoid piling up on the trash by drinking tap water. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the last time I lived in a place where I can stand the taste of tap water. In the early ’90s, we had a water cooler. In the late ’90s, we tried the filtered pitcher route. My fridge has a built-in filter, but it fails to filter the taste.

People challenged my taste buds, and the bottled water brands I like won every time. However, some bottled water brands lost. Evian did.

I feel bad about buying water instead of using tap water. Goodness knows, I’ve tried to drinking from the tap. Whenever I did, I didn’t drink enough water. You know humans need water just like we need to breathe.

Maybe it’s time our cities figure out how to improve taste and some of us may finally stop buying bottled water, or at least cut down.

A side note: Washing our hands is one of the best things we can do to fight illness. Yet, it takes 20 seconds of hand washing to ensure we have clean hands. I recently read somewhere that antibacterial hand cleaners don’t do as good a job as soap and water.

Clearly, we need solutions to help us stay healthy without using up a lot of water.

How do you conserve water?

“Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness to trigger a global discussion.” This year’s topic of global importance is climate change. Why climate change?

“Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees. Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, we think the blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilize millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.”

How can writers help with climate change? Create a query to your favorite publication that addresses climate change and its impact on the readers. Think about how the publication’s readers can help solve the problem of climate change or educate them about the problems.

In the meantime, here are some suggestions based on the type of publication to warm you up:

Technology: Standards, companies and products that will help companies cut their carbon footprint as well as how to make the most out of their use.

Business: How businesses can support the problem of climate change in their strategy and goals. Cover the benefits for businesses to pursue this. For example, more customers elect to invest in ecologically-supportive companies.

Family and parenting: What can families do to make a difference. Provide a list of easy and fast things to do.

Politics: Discuss current laws and standards or those undergoing review that affect climate change.

Entertainment: What Hollywood is doing to educate the public on climate change in movies or television shows. Talk about celebrities who are pushing for support.

Sports: Report on professional sports teams that have taken steps to improve their turf from an ecological standpoint. Not just turf as in floor material, but also home turf.

Find experts who might give you a great starting point for ideas on how to help and educate your readers. Let them know you want to do a story on climate change for [publication's topic] audience. Ask them if they can help with ideas on how your readers can make a difference.

What other ways can writers make a difference?

This year’s Blog Action Day looks at poverty. Thanks to my daughter, I learned about an innovative product that helps those living in poverty.

When my daughter collected cash gifts, she donated 15% to Darfur to buy Berkeley-Darfur stoves for families. My daughter explains why she did this:

Darfur is a place in Africa where a great deal of genocide and mass murder. Millions have been killed, and the government is causing it. I’d like to see good wishes sent to places like Darfur and the unfortunate who need help. I care about it because I believe everyone should have the option to at least help themselves, and they don’t even have that. I want people to take action and spread the knowledge, even possibly making it more of a grateful nation.

These stoves don’t just help these families, but they’re also more efficient than three-stone fires and clay stoves.

• Uses 75 percent less firewood.
• Cuts smoke inhalation.
• Encloses flames fully to reduce chance of burning down shelters.
• Lasts five years — more than most stoves. Only exception is three-stone fire, but that requires much more wood fuel.
• Cooks faster than most stoves including three-stone fire.

The facts regarding fuel wood amaze:

• 7 hours: Number of hours per trip in search of wood fuel. This puts women at risk for rape.
• 90 percent: Number of refugees selling rations for wood fuel.
• 50 percent: Number of families missing meals due to lack of wood fuel.

Learn more about The Darfur Stoves Project – Safety. Nutrition. Environment. Hope.