This quarter I'm taking a class called Water and Society. It's a study of water in natural ecosystems and humans affect (usually destructive) those systems.
So, now for this girl. It was the first quiz section of the quarter and we were discussing what to do about cities or countries that can not be naturally sustained by the local watershed. Vegas is a great example of a city that would not be there if we did not pipe in water from miles and miles away. We also talked about Yemen and what to do about places in general where this is happening. Do we tell the people to move? We can't really do that… do we decrease their supply even if they can pay for it?
Anyway, ideas were being thrown around and my day week was made when this girl raised her hand. Unknown by me at the time was how truly amazing the words she was about to speak were going to be.
"Umm like it floods around here a lot and… well if we could hold onto that somehow we could like ship it to Yemen."
Silence.
When she finished it looked like she had just crossed "save an impoverished country" off of her list of things to do that day. The rest of the section looked at each other, not really sure what to do. Then someone raised their hand and said, "I don't really think there is a viable way to ship our floodwater to Yemen," which was more polite than anything I could come up with. There are so many things wrong with this idea I was taken aback but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. Yes, we can't "ship" water there. Yes water is mainly imported via pipelines or diverted rivers. Yes, it doesn't flood enough in Seattle to sustain another country, but hey she tried.
Later we were talking about what to do about water conservation. Most people were saying that we needed to get rid of corrupt corporations like Global Bank and fix Coca Cola's priorities, essentially stick it to the man. I had a different idea. I suggested that we should make water conservation cool. A majority of the population does not care much about others, especially others on the opposite side of the globe, but they do care about celebrities. So if we could convince a celebrity to be water-conscious and make it cool, then eventually cool goes to habit, habit goes to lifestyle. So over time water conservation would become a part of our culture.
Water girl raises her hand and very seriously, almost with anger responds, "I don't think celebrities are the answer because if you like look at Tiger Woods, people used to think he was respectable and then he cheated on his wife and people like don't think he's cool anymore so I don't think that's a good idea." I assumed that she was trying to say that if a celebrity was conserving water and they cheated on their wife then conserving water would no longer be cool, but it really is a mystery to me.
I raised my hand to respond but for the first time ever in class I didn't wait for the TA to say anything, I just said, "I'd like to respond to that" and went for it. I looked her in the eyes and said with a grin, "I DO think Tiger Woods is the answer. It doesn't matter if he cheated on his wife or not, he had, and still does have a major influence on a large part of the population today. Regardless of the celebrity, if they wear a certain type of jeans, those jeans WILL sell. Like I said before, I think that because the majority of the population doesn't really care about others and isn't involved in politics, to get their participation we have to make this cool. As sad as it is, I think celebrities could help get the ball rolling so we good from cool, to habit, to lifestyle with water conservation." She turned around, either frustrated or confused by my use of "big words" like "politics" and "regardless" I'm not sure, but she was silent. At least for the time being…
The last thing we talked about in class on that wonderfully magnificent day was how to conserve water in our personal lives; no companies, no Tiger, just what can you do. One person suggested to reduce the amount of meat we eat (which has the largest water footprint out of everything we commonly eat, second only to chocolate). Another suggested to use metal water bottles, to reduce the use of plastic water bottles. Then the best thing that could have happened did; she raised her hand.
She started off with, "Well like, I'm not an engineer…" and I almost cried because I felt so truly truly blessed. What had I done to deserve such a honor? Thank you God! Her idea was as follows, "Well like, I'm not an engineer but I sometimes take longer showers than I should. Let's just be honest, we all take 30 minute showers and I don't want to sound weird but it's like an addiction, which is kinda weird but it's true. The warm water feels so good I end up staying in there. So if we could like, make the hot water in hot water heaters less, and like make the cold water come sooner, I know I would take shorter showers." She ended, satisfied that she had given a groundbreaking world-saving answer.
I don't usually take notes in class, I'm a visual learner so I just watch and listen then study later by looking at the slides, but by this point in class I was writing furiously. My paper was titled "Quotes of Water Girl," and for good reason was quickly filling up.
Having grown up in the garage wrenching on motorcycles and cars, and pursing an engineering degree it makes my day when someone starts by saying, "Well I'm not an engineer but…" because I know that physics is thrown out the window, usually along with logic. With this girl though, I feel like any person over the age of 5 could spot the flaws.
Yes there is a small bit of logic there, five minutes before she raised her hand we talked about how wasteful long showers are so props to her for listening, but make the hot water less? I didn't know they sold water heaters with less to more dials on the outside. Also, make the cold water come sooner? She's right, the water drummer-boy has been far too lenient lately, he needs to make sure the cold water gets there sooner.
I'm sure there will be more sightings of Water Girl as my journey through the wonderful class of Water and Society continues. Over the course of the quarter, I'll keep you updated.
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