Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Techly, an online publication aimed at Millennials, has advised its audience to save the world by peeing while taking a shower.
Worried about climate change? Do something about it and start peeing in the shower
According to science, you could actively help to save the planet by peeing in the shower. And we have Colbert to back us up.
It’s all about reducing the times you flush. The average flush of a modern toilet takes about six litres of water, and the average adult pees about seven times every day. I suspect that number rises during Oktoberfest, but you get the general idea.
The point is, you’re using 42 litres of water every single day just to flush your pee. Multiply that by however many adults on the planet use a toilet every day and you get a very worrying scenario.
…
Read more: https://www.techly.com.au/2017/12/06/worried-climate-change-something-start-peeing-shower/
The Techly article includes a Brazilian Government video which provides the same advice;
I can’t fault their logic. If you think wasting water is damaging the planet, not flushing up to 15,000 litres every year is a substantial saving.
Skeptics might be concerned that any water saving would be mitigated by confused parents furiously cleansing suddenly very smelly shower cubicles, but it seems unlikely most Millennials would take this possibility into consideration.
“Saving” water has two sides to it. Back in the first decade of this century, the Southeast US had a prolonged drought. Here in Atlanta, GA, the main source of water is the Lake Lanier reservoir, which dropped so much that there were fears the intake pipes would be exposed. The news reports were so persuasive that water usage declined dramatically, so much in fact that the City of Atlanta Water Department had to raise the rates to pay their bills!
“Saving” water has two sides to it. Back in the first decade of this century, the Southeast US had a prolonged drought. Here in Atlanta, GA, the main source of water is the Lake Lanier reservoir, which dropped so much that there were fears the intake pipes would be exposed. The news reports were so persuasive that water usage declined dramatically, so much in fact that the City of Atlanta Water Department had to raise the rates to pay their bills!
So in Michigan, they teach our kids that our state is a peninsula surrounded on 3 sides by huge bodies of fresh water. Then these wonderful public schools teach our kids that they need to “use” less water. Turn off the sink while brushing teeth, shorter showers etc…
So then I get to explain the truth to the kids that water isn’t used it is still water after it runs off them. We pump it from the ground, either right by the house or several miles away from the house, it runs into the sink or drain and then into the septic tank, a processing plant or something else and back into the ground.
The water is simply relocated not used. I’ve produced vast amounts of additional water in my life by chemical reaction than I’ve broken down. We all have.
Some areas of earth don’t have enough water to support the lavish lifestyles of the human animals but this isn’t my problem at all. Because we don’t live in an area like that but my son’s left wing idiot teacher drones on and on about conserving water – to save the planet of course.
George Costanza was ahead of his times. But he got in big trouble when he peed in the men’s shower at the gym.
I really have an issue with “saving water”. Water doesn’t get consumed like gasoline, it just goes down the pipe to somewhere else so you really aren’t “saving” anything.
If the water source is a lake or river, it typically ends right back there after treatment. The only time it matters is when it is being drawn out of the ground faster than it is being replenished or if the area is arid or in a drought situation.
In fact in our fair city which uses surface water as a source, the people running the water system were complaining about the low flow toilets not providing enough flow in the sewage system to get the solid waste to the treatment plants. They now have trucks systematically running pigs through the pipes to clear them to prevent backups.
Water is the most sustainable, recycled, reused substance on the planet (except, perhaps, for the individual oxygen molecules that make up O2 and O3 in the atmosphere). We drink and bathe in water micturated by our ancestors and dinosaurs.
The cyclical flow of water on our planet sustains our lives, and it should make every greenie and environmentalist weep for the sheer beauty of it. Then they should realize that carbon dioxide is similarly recycled, and that it may be even more indispensable to life than water, because it is building the much more complex carbon chains that make up our bodies, interacting with the life that makes up the food chain. Thinking of CO2 as pollution makes about as much sense as thinking of a rain cloud as a giant cesspool because it contains water that once got pissed out of someone’s bladder.
“…thinking of a rain cloud as a giant cesspool…”
What a fine way to end a romantic interlude on a summer day. A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, reading poetry, then looking up at the clouds and saying, “You see those clouds? People peed all that water.”
When I was plumbing, a guy called me and said, “I gotta leak in my shower!” I said, “ Go ahead… it all ends up in the same place anyway.”
Forget the shower. Just pee on the lawn, flowerbeds and gardens. Not only will you ‘save’ water you’ll be saving the energy needed to produce fertilizer and the energy needed to process wastewater. Don’t have a lawn, flowerbed or garden? Fine pee in the park. If you end up facing prosecution you can always offer this study as evidence in your defense – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer/
Pee is a great fertilizer. Just don’t overdo it because you can easily kill plants.
It’s also a great pest repellent. I regularly pee around the edge of my garden to deter the local fox, squirrel and chipmunk population from their rape and pillage of my crop. Works great!
see Calvin & Hobbes comic….
“why are the plants on this side of the house dying?”
I love Calvin & Hobbes. Hopefully this is big enough. Reminds me of when I killed a bush once when I worked a 3rd shift job at a lodge.
I can’t pee in the garden directly because too many people could watch, but I collect it and use it there. The former junkyard/wasteland/thicket has become really fruitful within a few years.
Real environmentalism would see to it that urine and the rest were collected and used as manure instead of being flushed into the ocean.
Real environmentalists would see to it that all the deserts, wastelands and worn-out soils were fed carbon and covered with plants, so that the whole world could become a Garden of Eden. All “human-made” CO2 could be put into the ground and all alarmists could turn to useful work or careless play.
I stopped to do just this the other day; there I was happily peeing on the lawn until the spectators started moaning and the referee sent me off.
Pee turns the grass yellow unless you water the lawn right after. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Also, don’t get caught. In most states, it’s literally illegal to take a leak in the woods. Here in SC, SECTION 48-1-90 of the Pollution Control Act of SC states:
“It is unlawful for a person, directly or indirectly, to throw, drain, run, allow to seep, or otherwise discharge into the environment of the State organic or inorganic matter, including sewage, industrial wastes, and other wastes, except in compliance with a permit issued by the (health) department.”
Not to mention the fact that you’re likely to be branded as a pervert.
I’ve been saving the planet for 50 years…
“It’s all pipes!” George Costanza
But what does any of this have to do with CLIMATE CHANGE?
At least millennials will decrease their chance of getting athletes foot, if they pee in the shower. I wonder how many of them know that its not a bad thing to pee on their feet?
Why not do as the ancient romans and put out huge vessels to collect the stuff?
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/money-does-not-stink-urine-tax-ancient-rome-003408
A urine tax?! Please don’t give the politicians any ideas. They would tax us for breathing if they could get away with it.
I have an excellent and eco-friendly drain cleaner, using stuff you can find at the grocery store.
1 cup of salt (NaCl)
1 cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, also a good anti-acid if you have stomach issues)
1/4 cup cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate, baking stabilizer,from making wine)
Mix it well, divide equally for all the drains in your house.
Pour 2 (two) cups of boiling water into each drain and let it work.
You can flush the drains afterwards with more water.
As long as one hits the clog ASAP, that works. I do like the idea, but sometimes things get out of hand before I notice (or I engage in wishful thinking that the clog will clear on its own). Then I do have to go chemical. Also, I read that boiling water will help keep the black crud from forming in drains. It does seem to help, but again, you have to keep on top of it. Chemicals may have been introduced because trying to keep on top of everything wasn’t panning out.
Ever notice that the CAGW loons never all get together in a huge rally and go plant trees?
It makes sense, if you believe more water use make it worse for climate change (as this peeing advice suggest), you won’t plant trees because they will use huge amount of water. I guess.
Piss Poor. Urine was saved by the poor to sell at the tannery soaking the hide in acid helped in
hair removal. If you were poorer yet u didn’t have a pot to piss in.
Yes, it was also used as a mordant in dying and as a ‘fabric softener’ for freshly woven tweed which could explain the peculiar odor certain woolen goods have when they get worn in the rain. It could also be collected and used to produce saltpeter for the manufacture of black powder.
any true climate warrior/hero would also remove the drain strainer and….
Please don’t go there….
you are not of the body. the savings in toilet paper alone could slow the rising oceans by .0000005 mm per year!
We know we can reduce CO2 in the atmosphere by planting trees.
Maybe we could stop sea level rise by planting sponges in the oceans…
Another use of the fallacy that we “consume” water. We don’t. There is just as much water on Earth after we flush the toilet or don’t.
You can save the water because it is a way to save your wallet, but it won’t save the planet.
I don’t think this generation was taught the water cycle…..:)
This reminds me of the hotels (in the United States, anyway) that virtue-signal by giving guests the option of either having their towels laundered every day, or reusing them without laundering. A little card in the bathroom explains how we can save the planet by just using our dirty towels over and over.
There are 5,000,000 hotel rooms in the United States. If all were occupied all of the time, and everyone insisted on clean towels daily, the water use would amount to 37.5 million gallons per day (142.5 million liters.
A front-loading hotel washing machine can easily handle the towels from 4 rooms, and uses a maximum of 30 gallons per wash.). Similarly, the 315 million people in the US, urinating 7 times daily and consuming 6 liters per flush would use a whopping 13 billion liters (3.5 billion gallons) of water a day. So it sounds pretty dire, right?
Except that the United States consumes 500 billion gallons (1.9 trillion liters) of fresh water per day. Assuming each person does away with one flush (corresponding to one shower) a day would save 2 billion liters per day, or 0.10% of the country’s consumption. Foregoing clean towels for a day would reduce US water consumption by 0.0075%.
Given that water flow meter accuracy is typically +/- 1.5%, giving up towel washing and toilet flushing wouldn’t even register in the statistics.
Maybe washin’ them thar towels and peein’ ought to be done down at the crick. Just be sure you be peeing down stream of the washin’ spot.
Not just the US, all Asia and Australia too.
I always want to cross out ‘the planet’ and replace it with ‘money’ on those cards asking you to not get sheets or towels changed daily. The amount I get charged, I’m gonna have clean sheets and towels daily that I don’t have to wash myself for once!
Have they calculated how much extra water you use while in the shower standing around taking a piss?
Bet its more than a flush.
Whoever chose that particular photo to accompany this article — is a genius. Very funny. Congrats.
6 liters/flush x 1 flush/day x 365 days/yr = 2,190 liters/yr
unless you shower multiple times per day or shower just to pee, which would defeat the purpose.
Am I the only 70 year old man out here with prostate problems?
I’m too busy to answer that right now, Walter. I’ll be with you in two shakes. Well, maybe five shakes.
7 times a day? And I thought I were starting to have a weak bladder.
@ur momisugly HotScot
Also depends on the height of the water tank, the old Victorian reservoirs were usually up at five foot above the seat
Potential energy = m g h (mass x grvty.const x height)
When flushed potential energy is converted to kinetic energy = 1/2 m v^2 (one half of mass x velocity square)
Victorian sanitary engineers did their science (look up Joseph_Bazalgette )
London is multi-million city, all our brown and yellow stuff ends under this august edifice
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/07/20/09/366F9D3B00000578-3698938-image-a-2_1469004047559.jpg
The Crossness Pumping Station was built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette as part of the capital’s new sewage system
That is a sewerage plant? Wow.
the real engineering ‘pièce de résistance’ are the originally steam powered pumps
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/07/20/09/366FB65A00000578-3698938-image-m-25_1469004367139.jpg
“The four original pumping engines are possibly the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams”
Its gunna take something pretty darn solid to lock that up !!
That’s engineering as it should be done.
Climate “Dear Abby” science has reached a new low. It’s like the Khrushchev Russian claim all over again of Americans taking showers too frequently and shortening their life span—while Russian life expectancy actually did fall.
Since a shower uses more water than a toilet flush, peeing in the shower doesn’t save any water. Besides, a shower is the one opportunity to wash my feet, and I prefer soapy water to diluted urine for that purpose! Yuck!
Wash from the top down, pee when you first start. No problem.
Pee can get rid of athlete’s foot. It’s also sterile, and harmless when washed away.
Victorian era people created a learned disgust for bodily waste that was unknown before. It did help us combat things like cholera, so it helped.