Check out Alex and Tyler on George Stroumboulopoulos and Daily Planet!

Listen to our CBC Radio interview CBC Metro Morning!

Here are some more tips to help you conserve water around the home:

Steam mops are a smart choice and use way less water for cleaning. In
fact, keep your steam mop filled by using the tap water that is wasted
down the drain when waiting for hot water. Also, kids love to clean with
steam mops!

Keep a jug of cold water in the fridge to avoid wasted water from tap
water kept running until the water is cold enough. In fact, try to fill
cooking pots and jugs with that water, and use it for something else.

A spike in your water bill can be an indication you have a leak.

Before you throw water away, maybe it has another use. Water from boiling
vegetables can be cooled and used to water plants. Dehumidifier water is
great to save for cleaning day.

Have a water tip you’d like to share? Leave a comment below or join the
conversation on Facebook.

–
When the well is dry, we know the worth of the water.
Benjamin Franklin, 1746

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

In 2013, in reflection of the International Year of Water Cooperation, World Water Day is also dedicated to the theme of cooperation around water.

Learn more here: http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/home/en/

What does Water Cooperation mean to YOU? Let us know in the comments.

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The Pure and the Poisoned

[The River Ganges in India]

Named after a Hindu goddess, no other river is more holy to more people than The Ganges. For nearly a billion people, bathing in her waters makes you pure and protected. It was the only water that The East India Company would ever use for its voyages to England, as it was the only water that stayed fresh for the 3 month long journey home. However, today, no other river is so polluted from human and industrial waste – 3,000 times more than is considered to be safe. How can the river be both pure and poisoned? The Brothers had to find out. Each stop along the river, from Kanpur to the sacred city of Allahabad – site of the Maha Kumbh Mela – will show something new and fascinating about how an ancient religion, a vast human population and extreme pollution can all intersect, in the context of water. The Kumbh Mela Festival of 2013 is expected to be the largest gathering of people in history, attracting over 40 million to bathe in the Ganges over the course of one day. The Water Brothers will be there to partake in this historic event and explore the paradox of The Ganges.

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Here Comes the Flood

[The Sinking of Bangladesh]

No one saw it coming – the extensive flooding and damage in the low-lying NY City area in 2012 from Hurricane Sandy. But all the signs were there, half way across the planet. Oceans everywhere are rising from climate change and low-lying coastal areas are the most vulnerable and when unexpected and more violent storms occur with more frequency – watch out! The entire country of Bangladesh is sinking. Millions have already been permanently displaced and 20 million more could follow by 2050. Experts estimate that once Bangladesh is half sunk, so will Amsterdam, LA, Miami, London and Shanghai. We are all in it together and Here Comes The Flood. The Brothers continue their journey down the sacred Ganges and head out to the lush Ganges Delta in Bangladesh to learn how the largest river delta in the world is both incredibly productive and the most vulnerable region to climate change. As the Delta continues to erode from rising sea levels and more frequent and intense cyclones, how will people in Bangladesh adapt to this new landscape? The Brothers will explore how climate change is already forcing people to leave their homes and examine some amazing adaptations as they walk through one of Mohammad Rezwan’s famous floating schools (schools on boats) designed to ensure kids attend school during the flooded monsoon seasons. Will these solutions and others hold the key to Bangladesh’s floating future, or is this country on the verge of a massive environmental refugee crisis?

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Farmed and Dangerous?

[Salmon Aquaculture in BC]

People love to eat salmon, but chances are that salmon is not wild. Over 70% of the global salmon we eat is raised on fish farms, some in ocean pens and some on land. The Brothers travel to British Columbia, home to the world’s greatest wild salmon habitat and the heart of Canada’s salmon farming industry. Wild salmon stocks are declining all along Canada’s West Coast and many scientists believe that the use of open net farms in the Pacific Ocean, raising Atlantic salmon, could be inadvertently infecting wild Pacific salmon. Ironically, the salmon farms that are supposed to take the pressure off wild salmon stocks might be destroying them. The farmed fish industry is largely foreign owned and much of the farmed salmon is sold outside Canada, so who is in charge of protecting the iconic wild salmon? Surely not the same government body in charge of producing and promoting farmed salmon? Can new technologies being developed here in Canada revolutionize the industry and heal the damage that has already been done? To find out, the Brothers immerse themselves in the worlds of both wild and farmed salmon in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

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No Woman, No Water

[Tanzania and Kenya]

The UN recently declared access to clean water and sanitation as Human Rights – knowing they are at the heart of any economic development. Yet, hundreds of millions of people live without access to clean water and billions live without a toilet, causing countless lives to be lost each day. Women and girls are usually given the difficult task of hauling water, taking many hours each day often in the hot sun and sacrificing much for their families and communities. The Brothers travel to Africa to the most water scarce regions of Tanzania and Kenya, to see first hand how simple water projects can make huge changes towards economic advancement. And again, it is the women who are initiating these projects and often hold the key to improving clean water and sanitation access in their local communities. Through these changes in water sustainability, lies the ultimate empowerment of women in allowing them more time for education and economic activity and thus in ultimately helping to alleviate poverty cycles across Eastern Africa and becoming models for all around the world. In order to give back to the people they meet, the Brothers make an adventurous climb up Africa’s highest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and help raise money for valuable clean water and sanitation projects across East Africa.

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Plastic Ocean

[Giant Plastic Patches in the Western Pacific – Marshall Islands to Tokyo]

The Brothers embark on a sailing adventure to the middle of the Pacific Ocean with no land in sight in any direction for over 1,500 hundred kilometers. They have joined a group of scientists and water advocates in the Marshall Islands in the south Pacific and travel together to the remote “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, a massive collection of plastic waste congregated together by swirling ocean currents known as gyres. What does the patch look like? How does it affect wildlife and the seafood we eat? Where in the world did this inconceivably massive amount of plastic come from and from what human activities, and more importantly, what can be done about it? The Water Brothers bring us some answers to this strange and disturbing phenomenon. After three weeks of adventure and research at sea, the Brothers arrive in Tokyo for an international Plastic Oceans forum to meet with Captain Charles Moore, the man who discovered the garbage patch, to discuss what they have learned and what the “Garbage Patch” can tell us about the ways we use and dispose of plastic in our modern consumer society.

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Water, Water Everywhere – but not a drop to drink!

[Canada’s First Nations]

Canadians are big water users and are also advanced in water storage, distribution, filtering and cleaning technologies, both domestically and for international use. Yet, in one of the most water rich countries in the world, approximately one out of every five First Nations communities in Canada lacks access to clean, safe and sustainable drinking water. Why do some communities have these problems and others do not? How can there be economic independence and advancement for our native communities without this basic human right? The Brothers explore this water shortage dilemma that is surprisingly close to home by visiting several of these communities, and speaking with national Chief Shawn Atleo and government representatives responsible for the funding for these basic services. Surely we are capable of identifying just what needs to be done and working with our native communities for water sustainability – their economic sustainability has to first start with fresh water. Are some communities simply too remote or too small to maintain water treatment facilities? Is the money going in the wrong hands? Is this situation just another symbol of centuries of neglect from the rest of Canada – or is there more to this story?

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Dead Zones

[Gulf of Mexico and Lake Erie]

While it sounds more like a futuristic, sci-fi title, “Dead Zones” exist in our water environments and are rapidly increasing. Why? A Dead Zone is a term used to describe a greatly reduced level of oxygen in water, which often causes marine life to die. Excess nutrients that run off land into nearby water habitats stimulate an overgrowth of algae that in turn decomposes and depletes the oxygen in water. Habitats that were once teeming with life are reduced to biological deserts. Although they can occur naturally, nutrient pollution from human activity such as farming is the major culprit and they are popping up all over and also making existing Dead Zones even bigger. When scientists first started recording the number of dead zones in the 1960′s, there were 49; today there are over 400. The Brothers travel to the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Erie to examine two of the world’s largest and most notorious Dead Zones and visit farms that are a primary source of the nutrient pollution. Can these bodies of water be restored to their former glory and what can Dead Zones tell us about the way we grow our food here at home and all around the world?

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Read about Quench in The National Post and Media Caster Magazine

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Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is “hot, flat, and crowded.” Already the earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things–unless the United States steps up now and takes the lead in a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green.

This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that America cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America.

In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution we need is like no revolution the world has seen. It will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff for America will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire Americans to something we haven’t seen in a long time–nation-building in America–by summoning the intelligence, creativity, boldness, and concern for the common good that are our nation’s greatest natural resources.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge–and the promise–of the future.

With Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime, marine scientist Ellen Prager takes us deep into the sea to introduce an astonishing cast of fascinating and bizarre creatures that make the salty depths their home. From the tiny but voracious arrow worms whose rapacious ways may lead to death by overeating, to the lobsters that battle rivals or seduce mates with their urine, to the sea’s masters of disguise, the octopuses, Prager not only brings to life the ocean’s strange creatures, but also reveals the ways they interact as predators, prey, or potential mates. And while these animals make for some jaw-dropping stories—witness the sea cucumber, which ejects its own intestines to confuse predators, or the hagfish that ties itself into a knot to keep from suffocating in its own slime—there’s far more to Prager’s account than her ever-entertaining anecdotes: again and again, she illustrates the crucial connections between life in the ocean and humankind, in everything from our food supply to our economy, and in drug discovery, biomedical research, and popular culture.

Written with a diver’s love of the ocean, a novelist’s skill at storytelling, and a scientist’s deep knowledge,Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime enchants as it educates, enthralling us with the wealth of life in the sea—and reminding us of the need to protect it.