Virtual water or "gray water" (eg consumption)

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Christophe
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Virtual water or "gray water" (eg consumption)




by Christophe » 13/07/10, 17:27

Not to be confused with gray water (household waste water that does not correspond to toilets = black water), gray water is an analogy with gray energy (energy necessary for the manufacture of an object). I don't know if it's official as a definition.

Here are some orders of magnitude:

We consume billions of liters of water without realizing it. Thanks to the concept of "virtual water", researchers are revealing the quantity of water used during the production of everyday products:

1 sheet of A4 paper = 10 liters of water
1 cup of tea = 30 liters of water
1 slice of bread = 40 liters of water
1 orange = 50 liters of water
1 half beer = 75 liters of water
1 glass of wine (12,5 cl) = 120 liters of water
1 cup of coffee = 140 liters of water
1 egg = 200 liters of water
1 liter of orange juice = 850 liters of water
1 liter of apple juice = 950 liters of water
1 liter of milk = 1000 liters of water
1 hamburger = 2400 liters of water
1 t-shirt = 2700 liters of water
1 kg of rice = 3400 liters of water
1 kg of chicken = 3600 liters of water
1 beef steak (300 g) = 4650 liters of water
1 bar of chocolate (200 g) = 4800 liters of water
1 cotton sheet = 10600 liters of water
1 pair of jeans = 11000 liters of water
=> Consumption per capita:
1 American = 6803 liters per day (or 34 200-liter baths)
1 French = 5137 liters per day (or 25,5 200-liter baths)
1 Haitian = 2323 liters per day (or 11,5 bathers of 200 liters)
1 Chinese = 1923 liters per day (or 9,5 200-liter baths)


http://www.terra-economica.info/Eau-vir ... 11235.html

PDF version (have fun calculating its "water weight" if printed): https://www.econologie.info/share/partag ... U550Ek.pdf
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oiseautempete
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Re: Virtual water or "gray water" (ex.




by oiseautempete » 14/07/10, 08:12

Christophe wrote:Here are some orders of magnitude:

We consume billions of liters of water without realizing it. Thanks to the concept of "virtual water", researchers are revealing the quantity of water used during the production of everyday products:

1 sheet of A4 paper = 10 liters of water
1 cup of tea = 30 liters of water
1 slice of bread = 40 liters of water
1 orange = 50 liters of water
1 half beer = 75 liters of water
1 glass of wine (12,5 cl) = 120 liters of water
1 cup of coffee = 140 liters of water
1 egg = 200 liters of water
1 liter of orange juice = 850 liters of water
1 liter of apple juice = 950 liters of water
1 liter of milk = 1000 liters of water
1 hamburger = 2400 liters of water
1 t-shirt = 2700 liters of water
1 kg of rice = 3400 liters of water
1 kg of chicken = 3600 liters of water
1 beef steak (300 g) = 4650 liters of water
1 bar of chocolate (200 g) = 4800 liters of water
1 cotton sheet = 10600 liters of water
1 pair of jeans = 11000 liters of water
=> Consumption per capita:
1 American = 6803 liters per day (or 34 200-liter baths)
1 French = 5137 liters per day (or 25,5 200-liter baths)
1 Haitian = 2323 liters per day (or 11,5 bathers of 200 liters)
1 Chinese = 1923 liters per day (or 9,5 200-liter baths)






Yep, I don't see how they arrive at such monstrous figures, especially when the products do not require watering like tea (cultivated in tropical areas with high rainfall), vines (watering prohibited in France), coffee (use of water only for washing the cherries), and I have never seen a 500kg cow swallowing 20000L of water (even counting food grains) for the 20L of milk it produces daily ... to my notice meaningless figures, just to impress the ignorant ...
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by Christophe » 14/07/10, 08:29

Well I also find this high ...


The discovery, signed Tony Allan, British environmental scientist, dates back about twenty years. This concept - dubbed “virtual water” - has revolutionized the vision that we can have of the production and consumption cycles of everyday goods. It is no longer a question of measuring your water consumption at the rate of your showers and daily drinks, but now of taking into account the watering of the orchards where our fruit comes from, the water consumed by cows promised to become steaks or the one integrated into the production chain of our latest car.


The researcher's study may be visible on the net ... I will search a little.

But they must also be qualified, namely: when 1L of water is consumed it is not lost, because unlike petroleum (for example), water regenerates itself naturally (except chemical or nuclear pollution is obviously severe). ..so the term "we borrow water" is not bad I think.

I think these figures on water are to be put next to these for food: https://www.econologie.com/forums/alimentati ... t8851.html and of these for the manufacture of cars:
https://www.econologie.com/forums/fabricatio ... t8713.html
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Re: Virtual water or "gray water" (ex.




by hic » 14/07/10, 09:53

oiseautempete wrote:Yep, I don't see how they arrive at such monstrous figures, especially when the products do not require watering like tea (cultivated in tropical areas with high rainfall), vines (watering prohibited in France), coffee (use of water only for washing the cherries), and I have never seen a 500kg cow swallowing 20000L of water (even counting food grains) for the 20L of milk it produces daily ... to my notice meaningless figures, just to impress the ignorant ...


Example:
The Aral Sea has been drained by the cultivation of cotton,

rice using 3 times less water than. . . ,
is still a big consumer of water, compare to wheat

www.encyclo-ecolo.com/Eau_virtuelle
** http://ecoloinfo.com/2008/05/19/eau-vir ... d-sense-5/ **

on my ftp 1140 url "Virtual water" (118kb) in CollectionURLsEnVrac2010
Last edited by hic the 14 / 07 / 10, 16: 02, 1 edited once.
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oiseautempete
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Re: Virtual water or "gray water" (ex.




by oiseautempete » 14/07/10, 12:41

Hic wrote:
oiseautempete wrote:Yep, I don't see how they arrive at such monstrous figures, especially when the products do not require watering like tea (cultivated in tropical areas with high rainfall), vines (watering prohibited in France), coffee (use of water only for washing the cherries), and I have never seen a 500kg cow swallowing 20000L of water (even counting food grains) for the 20L of milk it produces daily ... to my notice meaningless figures, just to impress the ignorant ...


Example:
The Aral Sea has been drained by the cultivation of cotton,

rice using 3 times less water than. . . ,
is still a big consumer of water, compare to wheat


Yes yes, cotton I know this, it is one of the only points on the list which is perhaps not too wrong ... and still 10m3 of water for 1 sheet it seems impossible to me, even if it includes cultivation cotton, washing and dyeing operations, etc ... and I know some schose because I know near my parents a very small industrial channel (2.5m wide by 20cm deep, little slope) which Formerly supplied 1 large stationery shop and 3 textile factories, therefore 2 large ones: if the figures were true, it would have the flow of the Amazon this channel ... : Lol:
We can add sogho which can advantageously replace corn and fodder crops ...
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by chatelot16 » 14/07/10, 20:29

1 glass of wine (12,5 cl) = 120 liters of water
it is quite possible that the vine that made the grapes has pumped this amount of water into the soil

but if there were no vines there would be any wild vegetation which would have drawn the same thing ...

these 120 liters of water are not lost, they just passed!

the rest of the list is checked in the same way

it’s different when you pump up to completely dry rivers or whole seas to irrigate crops

fortunately there is a majority of the earth where water is not lacking: whether we consume it or not it is there and does not lack
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by oiseautempete » 14/07/10, 21:27

chatelot16 wrote:1 glass of wine (12,5 cl) = 120 liters of water
it is quite possible that the vine that made the grapes has pumped this amount of water into the soil



Not certainly with regard to the vine which is very little greedy in water and grows in dry and poor grounds (sandy alluvium or limestone grounds) unsuitable for other cultures ... and the only vines which are irrigated (in France ) are those that produce table grapes called "Italia", which is unsuitable for making wine because it is much too low in sugar ...
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by Obamot » 14/07/10, 21:35

... it lacks more than the addition of oil necessary for all this to happen in the supermarkets and grocery store around the corner to realize how hard we are walking on our heads : Shock: : Mrgreen: : Mrgreen: : Mrgreen: 8)
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by zozefine » 14/07/10, 23:21

I'm new, sorry to intervene. I believe that at the very least obamot touches the sensitive point of this monstrous list to read like that. I do not think that it is about the water used directly on the various objects listed, it is well specified, for example, a glass of wine, not "the vine" in general. to have a glass of wine on your table, you have to produce it, you have to produce everything that is involved in the fact that this glass of wine is on the table.

so, to really calculate what each of the objects around us costs, we should calculate the total, real, energetic, economic and ecological cost of that object from the beginning to the end of the chain, cup of tea, glass of wine, beef steak or ticheurte with "econology" logo on it. and certainly this monstrous list is not false.

look around, count the objects on the table where your bike is placed, how many? 10? 50? I count the table nails with, eh, not cheat! and the pen, and the bills to pay, and the bowl with seeds, whatever. and the ashtray for the clopers. each object has a cost, and also required water, and work, and energy, and money, and sometimes wars (I think of the rare metals present in the components of the computer).

before there was practically nothing left, the Australian aborigines, hunter-gatherers, when they were not gathered together for advice or ceremonies, "wandered" in the bush in small family units, most often the parents and children. to hunt, gather, survive. well they had in everything and for everything (it's interesting after having calculated how many objects on the table) 5 (FIVE) objects, including 2 ritual objects for prayers ... in a period of decline, voluntary or not , it is to be meditated powerfully.

so I think that a list like the one presented in this subject has its place and its meaning in an econology site, right?
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