Yeah I'll not be guilted into the notion at saving SECONDS of residential water use has any impact on climate. Water savings by industrial process and unmanaged municipal leaks are much higher on the list. The seconds of reduced residential use are less than a "drop in the bucket"
Caveats being I don't live in a drought striken area, I don't take overly long showers to begin with, and my utility bills are a non issue financially.
Some water systems have an insane amount of leaks. One house I lived in, the water and sewer plants were owned by the HOA. They estimated that they lost 75% of the water to leaks.
By that logic nobody has to do anything, because you can always find someone who has a higher impact that should start first.
- Why stop driving my petrol car, trucks or container ships have a much higher impact
- Why stop flying around the globe for no particular reason, Taylor Swift should stop
- Why should I start energy saving, cryptominers should stop
Don't get me wrong, you leaving the shower on for 10s longer than necessary will not be the end of the world. It's just this mentality of: I am pro climate change (policies) as long as I don't have to change anything about my own life, that you can hear way to often.
Hey you show me the meaningful impact, and I'm all for it. For example the reduction of single use plastics in communities near coasts and waterways. It measurably reduces coastal waste. Great, let's do it and the consumer can help.
Anything that has no measurable impact is just performative green guilting.
I just won't be pressured into carrying the guilt of industry I don't even profit from while I'm soaping my balls.
Residential water use has practically no effect on climate change though when its used at manageable levels. Those levels are not made unmanageable by too many people taking 10 extra seconds to shower.
We need to save the planet, that's why you need to put a giant plug up your ass! Why? Well you see, Methane is a serious greenhouse gas, and despite your farts being miniscule compared to the massive releases from factory farms and other industries, eVErY liTtlE biT HeLps!!
You should really just not question it and live your life with this painful inconvenience because we all need to start somewhere. If everyone across the nation were to just start wearing a big butt plug at all times, we could reduce methane emissions by a whole 0.1%! And no, before you ask, the factory farms and other industries won't be doing a damn thing to reduce their emissions. So lube up that bussy honey, you gotta get into that green mentality, it's for the planet!
Can't stop, sorry. The shower is my final refuge and if I start being conscientious about water usage there, I will end up breaking down in a denny's bathroom at 2am or something.
Using California as an example, agriculture consumes 4x the water of everything else combined - business + industry + parks + homes.
Austerity at homes is generally more of a show than anything else. You can read about the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, but it looks like the legislation isn't mandated to be implemented until the 2040s.
Came here hoping to see this comment.
Now let's talk about paper straws in plastic wrapping...
'DON'T FUCK WITH MY ALMONDS, TREE HUGGIN' LIBCUCKS!"
If i turn the water off it takes a good 30 seconds to be hot again, so it just stays on.
Yes. I don't take wildly long showers, so the conservation isn't really worth the convenience of being able to step in/out of warm water at will.
Yeah. My shower has two knobs, so it takes ages to find the right balance for the temperature. It would be annoying to turn both knobs off and then turn them back on and find the right temp again
They make shower heads with a stop too, if you were so inclined.
I live under the sea level. We as a nation control the water. It is our bitch. I can do with water whatever the fuck I please. We won that war a long time ago. Water listens to ME.
Not only do I leave it running, I belittle it in the process.
You'll get your swim-uppance soon enough!
Yes I let it run. Because honestly, I don't care. People will try make you feel guilty over using water while continuing to make excuses to drive everywhere and why they really need an electric car to "save the planet". Oh and please recycle while the city that collects the recycling sends it to the dump because this industry is not profitable. And use less water because giant tech companies are going to need it in order to cool and power some more AI servers.
I never owned a car and have driven only once in 40 years. But I know that whatever I do individually to reduce the amount of pollution in the air, it is absolutely useless and pointless. The army or the police will annihilate a lifetime of individual efforts in one day, or even a few hours. I could get a car right now and 90% of people would probably tell me I did the right thing, as a car is sooo useful. No problem as long as it's electric!
So uuh, I let the water run when I feel like it.
I mean yeah, but also if everyone thought like you we'd definitely not make a difference, so there's two sides. It's the classic "one vote won't matter" argument.
But I hear you. I do the same. I shower for 10 minutes every 2-3 days (I don't get sweaty easily or smell, and live in a semi-dry climate), and when I shower I don't use a very high temperature either. So yeah. The water hits me as I soap up, too, so it's not like it's falling directly from head to drain either.
Imma treat ma self.
I do try to be aware of my water supply. If I'm in a place where water is limited by default, like having a well, or when in a Caribbean country, I'll be careful as I know others will depend on that source in the very near future. But I live in Canada and from my immediate point of view, the St-Lawrence and the Great Lakes are not going to be dry soon. The only scarcity here is the energy required to pump the water (also provided by water), and its treatment.
And I do understand that our little collective efforts do add up. However, the issues are systemic. Only in a single region of my province (a region!), around 18 corporations and businesses are using more than 75 000 litres a day. We know just because they have to report it past that point. It adds up to billions of litres in a year. For a single region. The provincial government here also allows corporations to just pump the ground water for about $35 CAD by million of litres.
So again, I know that I could make a difference, if we all really tried. But because of the system, and since the pandemic, I've lost faith in our societies. I don't think most people care. While all hiding in our places a few years ago, while the production slowed down, people have seen the changes in nature, the air clean up... and they said fuck it we just want to go back to how it was before.
Just seeing multiple police cars running their engines 24/7 to stalk and bully some oh so dangerous anti-genocide students made me see that any effort to reduce air pollution on my part will be nullified by the system in general. It doesn't matter if I have car or not, if I recycle plastic while it's produced in the first place, or if I try to save a few litres of water while Nestlé... sigh.
Sorry but.. yeah.
No. Takes two seconds to open or close the tap. However, I do sometimes spend time daydreaming under running water so I guess it evens out!
I also keep a razor in the shower, and shave in the hot water...... wild card!
But after seeing !wetshaving@sub.wetshaving.social posts for awhile, I got a double sided safety razor... and it's really improved the experience.
Nothing shaves closer, it's inexpensive, and often no plastic packaging.
What did it make better? I just use cheap disposable razors.
The safety razor is cheap over the long run.
I have an adjustable safety razor, so I can dial in the sharpness i need; So far I'm still on my first blade after 2 months, I find I only need one pass to get a clean shave. When I'm done shaving, its really easy to get the hair off the blades (rinse it off) which I think helps alot with longevity of the blade. Plus everything is tidier since I dont have bags of disposables everywhere.
With disposable razors I found I had to go multiple times, and sometimes use two different razors - not to mention the trash build up. Where I live shaving isn't so common, so getting a consistent supply of disposable razors was a bit of a logistical issue. (i'd always be swapping out what I was using based on what I could find)
I did some research on YouTube before I bought it, and I thought this is too much work, cuz everybody has their detailed meditative process they do. Oh you pre-soak the skin, okay now you get the soap, now you lather up the soap, now you apply it multiple times, now you take the razor with a fresh blade, and go one direction. Now go the other direction. Now go perpendicular to both of those. Then after the shave clean all of the soap, now apply an aftershave lotion, take the blade out of the razor.... And I should have ignored all of that, because it's fine just to use it like a disposable razor in the shower. No fuss. The people who like the process can really enjoy the process, but I now realize it's totally unnecessary
For me, it's a closer shave and much, much cheaper than disposables or cartridges. Still on the same box of blades I bought probably 8 years ago.
Yes, I admit I take excessively long showers with the water running the whole time. It makes me feel sane again, able to face the day. More importantly, I live where water is plentiful, so I’ll focus on reducing my carbon footprint in other ways
I turn the water off.
Growing up we used to live in a house with what I swear was the smallest boiler ever so the hot water would only last for maybe 1-2 showers before needing some time to get hot again. So leaving the water running meant no hot water midway through the shower, or forcing the next person to wait to take a shower.
It's a habit that stuck with me ever since, I've found that I don't really need the water running the whole time anyway.
No. It would take more time and water to run it to get the temperature in the pipes warm again than to just quickly soap and rinse.
So...yes?
Are we only allowed yes/no answers here? Sorry if clarifying details are annoying. I assumed if they only wanted stats this would have been a poll.
Yes
Yes, but I don't live in a water stressed area.
I turn it off, mostly because my shower is small and i need to completely cover my body in soap before washing it off and if the water is running it'll wash away the soap when i don't want it to.
Also my shower knob stays at the correct temp so I don't need to mess around to get the same temp.
You mean there are people who don't spend 30 minutes in the shower contemplating their life choices?
No because then the water becomes hot.
Only with you there bby
I still do, but I used to, too.
It never occurred to me that there was any other way to do it.
How do you soap up without water? You just scrape dry soap all over your body?
You get your hands/wash cloth and body wet before you turn off the water to lather up
Get wet, lather up, rinse off. A large part of Asia uses something that looks like a saucepan, made of plastic.
Mine is easy enough to turn down the water to keep a smaller flow to maintain comfort and water temperature while soaping, so I do that.
Yes, but only because it doesn't take very long to lather up. It's annoying to have to readjust the water valves to get the temperature right again after having it off for only a minute or two. I feel like I waste more water just letting the shower run on startup to get the cold water to flush out of the hot water pipes.
Saves more water with a recirculation pump on the hot water line. I now literally turn it on, adjust the heat and jump in. It's amazing having instant hot water.
I easily spend an hour in the shower.
Sometimes if I'm really exhausted or sleepy, I'll plug up the shower and imagine myself meditating in a waterfall.
Meh, my showers are so short to begin with, I'm already doing my part.
I also used to keep water running and stopped doing that a few months ago. Also reduced my showering time to ~10 minutes… could easily spend 20, sometimes 30 minutes under the shower before.
I do. But if I am washing only my hair, face or hands, not literally taking a shower, that I turn off while not using it.
Uhhhhh, yes?
People do that? Why would you waste water like that?
Because in many places of the world, water is abundant, free, and naturally renewed.
In my case, the water source is a large lake on top of this mountain righr next to my house, and the consumption of my town isn't even close to consuming how much is added by rain. The same water source also runs the two hydroelectric plants we have.
Your comment reminded me of the fun fact that there's more water in Loch Ness alone than all of England and Wales' lakes and rivers combined!
Add in all the other Scottish rivers and lakes, and you can see why Westminster is loathe to let Scotland have independence.
Some places just have a fuckton of water, and the Australian outback is not where Mad Max will take place irl in the future, but in these places.
Naah. Turning it off and on again would mess up the temperature.
I do but I'm rather conscious over water and power (electric shower) consumption, so my showers are more like shortwers.
I’ve lived in places where “military” showers were the only way to guarantee everyone could have one. Water cutting out when you’re soaped up really sucks.
But in the US, most of the US most of the year, there’s little benefit to such rationing, at least with regard to climate or natural resources.
no. soaping is also scrubbing and having the water run dilutes it to fast. It should sit for a bit until the rinse. and it saves water
I've started to just because it's easy
We've got a shower massage type thing with multiple settings that include a cutoff, but I never use it because we also have this water conditioner can before the shower massage that I'm pretty sure would just explode if it had to hold back our water pressure. Wife likes the conditioner bc she claims it helps with the itchy. I'm sure we could save some water if we used the cutoff, but it's not like we spend hours in there anyway.
Never! Because I also soap up my hair, and I really don't like to have the water running at that time.
No... that's a waste of water.
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I do mostly, I turn it almost all the way off with a valve on the shower head.
The running stream is thinner than a pencil.
If I turn it off all the way, it is cold when I turn it back on.
