(Photo of rain barrels from Flickr and photographer fireballsedai)
News Update: What can you do to help conserve an increasingly scarce resource – water? Well, growing numbers of people are setting out rain catchers to collect water to use on their lawn and plantings, and for things like flushing toilets and doing laundry. With severe droughts and water shortages in the Southwest and Southeast, catching rain can give some relief from water restrictions. The average American uses 101 gallons a day for their home and yard. Agricultural and industrial use per capita drives that up to 1.430 gallons/day. In addition to providing a scarce resource, rain barrels help prevent run-off from paved areas in downpours that can flow quickly into rivers instead of seeping into the soil. Storm surges, at their worst, cause flooding or rush to sewers, sometimes causing raw sewage to flow into lakes and oceans. Rain barrels may become more common as global warming causes more erratic weather, droughts and downpours. (Sources: MSNBC, Greenwire)
