Save Water Save World

Save Water Save World 

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam. About 1.460 petatonnes (Pt) (10²¹ kilograms) of water covers 71% of the Earth's surface, mostly in oceans and other large water bodies, with 1.6% of water below ground in aquifers and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation.

Saltwater oceans hold 97% of surface water, glaciers and polar ice caps 2.4%, and other land surface water such as rivers, lakes and ponds 0.6%. Some of the Earth's water is contained within water towers, biological bodies, manufactured products, and food stores. Other water is trapped in ice caps, glaciers, aquifers, or in lakes, sometimes providing fresh water for life on land.

Water moves continually through a cycle of evaporation or transpiration (evapotranspiration),precipitation, and runoff, usually reaching the sea. Winds carry water vapor over land at the same rate as runoff into the sea, about 36 Tt per year. Over land, evaporation and transpiration contribute another 71 Tt per year to the precipitation of 107 Tt per year over land. Clean, fresh drinking water is essential to human and other life. However, in many parts of the world — especially developing countries — there is a water crisis, and it is estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability. Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as asolvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation. Approximately 70% offreshwater is consumed by agriculture.

Water conservation encompasses the policies, strategies and activities to manage fresh water as a sustainable resource to protect the water environment and to meet current and future human demand. Population, household size and growth and affluence all affect how much water is used. Factors such as climate change will increase pressures on natural water resources especially in manufacturing and agricultural irrigation

The goals of water conservation efforts include as follows:

• Sustainability. To ensure availability for future generations, the withdrawal of fresh water from an ecosystem should not exceed its natural replacement rate.
• Energy conservation. Water pumping, delivery and waste water treatment facilities consume a significant amount of energy. In some regions of the world over 15% of total electricity consumption is devoted to water management.
• Habitat conservation. Minimizing human water use helps to preserve fresh water habitats for local wildlife and migrating waterfowl, as well as reducing the need to build new dams and other water diversion infrastructures.

In implementing water conservation principles there are a number of key activities that may be beneficial.

1. Any beneficial reduction in water loss, use or waste
2. Avoiding any damage to water quality.
3. Improving water management practices that reduce or enhance the beneficial use of water.

                         

Water conservation programs are typically initiated at the local level, by either municipal water utilities or regional governments. Common strategies include public outreach campaigns, tiered water rates (charging progressively higher prices as water use increases), or restrictions on outdoor water use such as lawn watering and car washing.Cities in dry climates often require or encourage the installation of xeriscaping or natural landscaping in new homes to reduce outdoor water usage.

One fundamental conservation goal is universal metering. The prevalence of residential water metering varies significantly worldwide. Recent studies have estimated that water supplies are metered in less than 30% of UK households, and about 61% of urban Canadian homes (as of 2001). Although individual water meters have often been considered impractical in homes with private wells or in multifamily buildings, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that metering alone can reduce consumption by 20 to 40 percent. In addition to raising consumer awareness of their water use, metering is also an important way to identify and localize water leakage. Water metering would benefit society in the long run it is proven that water metering increases the efficiency of the entire water system, as well as help unnecessary expenses for individuals for years to come. One would be unable to waste water unless they are willing to pay the extra charges, this way the water department would be able to monitor water usage by public, domestic and manufacturing services.

Some researchers have suggested that water conservation efforts should be primarily directed at farmers, in light of the fact that crop irrigation accounts for 70% of the world's fresh water use. The agricultural sector of most countries is important both economically and politically, and water subsidies are common. Conservation advocates have urged removal of all subsidies to force farmers to grow more water-efficient crops and adopt less wasteful irrigation techniques.

New technology poses a few new options for consumers, features such and full flush and half flush when using a toilet are trying to make a difference in water consumption and waste. Also available in our modern world is shower heads that help reduce wasting water, old shower heads are said to use 5-10 gallons per minute. All new fixtures available are said to use 2.5 gallons per minute and offer equal water coverage.

The water cycle

The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the H₂O cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time, individual water molecules can come and go, in and out of the atmosphere. The water moves from one reservoir to another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean to the atmosphere, by the physical processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow. In so doing, the water goes through different phases: liquid, solid (ice), and gas (vapor).

The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads totemperature changes. For instance, when water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment. These heat exchanges influence climate. By transferring water from one reservoir to another, the water cycle purifies water, replenishes the land with freshwater, and transports minerals to different parts of the globe. It is also involved in reshaping the geological features of the Earth, through such processes as erosion and sedimentation. Finally, the water cycle figures significantly in the maintenance of life and ecosystems

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom and Jerry for u

Tom amd Jerry for relaxing you 

See this great cartoon for relaxing yourself to work hard for living in this great world.

Awesome journey so far

Jammin Global - The journey so far

In March 2010, Jay Kannaiyan and sanDRina, his beloved Suzuki DR650, left on a great journey. Jay quit his secure corporate job, sold his Chicago townhouse and every household possession, and left with sanDRina on a journey that saw them through 94,933 km, 32 countries, and 1,150 days on the road. At the core of the three-year motorcycle journey through the Global South -- from the USA through Latin America and Africa, heading towards India -- was Jay’s desire to raise awareness about sustainability and a unique sentiment best described by an archaic Greek term, eudaimonia – the search for things that are true, good and beautiful.

There are love stories and love stories, but none tugs more at the heart than a tale of infinite departure. In March 2010, Jay Kannaiyan and sanDRina, his beloved Suzuki DR650, left on a great journey back home to India. Jay quit his secure corporate job, sold his Chicago townhouse and every household possession, and left with sanDRina on a journey that saw them through 94,933 km, 32 countries, and 1,150 days on the road through the Global South -- from the USA through Latin America and Africa, heading towards India. At the core of this seemingly mindless pursuit was Jay’s desire to raise awareness about sustainability and a unique sentiment best described by an archaic Greek term, eudaimonia – the search for things that are true, good and beautiful.
Homecoming isn’t complete unless you experience the country you call home in all her varied terrain and temperaments. And so Jay and sanDRina will embark on a journey of discovery through India. 

Yahoo! India Travel follows Jay and sanDRina on their exhilarating discovery of India with daily updates from the road in words, pictures and video. If you have questions to ask, or words of encouragement for Jay and sanDRina, follow Jammin India on Twitter (hashtag#jamminindia). Also visit JamminGlobal.com for comprehensive accounts of his journey so far as well as snippets and trivia. 

Conclusions for research on work–life balance concentrates

Conclusions

Most research on work–life balance concentrates on the experiences of the mothers of young children. However, lack of work–life balance is a problem for men as well as women, and for the parents of older, as well as preschool, children (Chandola et al., 2004; Emslie et al., 2004a). Our research contributes to the literature in exploring the experiences of men as well as women in mid-life, most of whom had teenage (or older) children. Despite the similarities in the current work and family circumstances of these men and women, our data suggest that gender remains interwoven in the business of negotiating home and work life. Our methodology meant that respondents were free to choose the situations and times in their lives when they felt it had been most difficult to reconcile paid work and other areas of life. It was notable that the female respondents discussed their current and varied concerns about juggling paid work, adult children and ageing parents, while the men tended to locate problems of work–life balance in the past; often when paid work conflicted with the demands of raising young children. Thus, while the presence of children in the household was associated with a lack of work–life balance for both men and women, these difficulties lasted longer, and took more complicated forms, for women. Our data suggest that, across the life course, women are seen as being responsible for maintaining smooth, or preferably imperceptible, transitions between the worlds of home and work life (see also Connell, 2005). As Loscocco (1997) argues, ‘changes in gender consciousness are the “final frontier” in the quest for greater gender equality in work–family linkages’ (p. 223).

Our research also contributes to the body of work which notes the variety of ways in which men and women do gender (Connell, 1985;Paechter, 2003). Exploring the boundary between the ‘male’ domain of work and the ‘female’ domain of home life is a fruitful way to explore how gender identities are continually (re)constructed (Smithson and Stokoe, 2005). The range of masculinities constructed by our sample is illustrated by the contrast, on the one hand, between men who said that they ‘worked to live’, noting the importance of life outside paid work, and on the other, the few men who ‘lived to work’, demonstrating a more traditional version of masculinity (also seeEmslie, et al., 2004b for similar findings for an older cohort of men). Some men discussed how they had moved from a ‘live to work’ to a ‘work to live’ mentality over time, illustrating the way in which gender identities are continually reassessed and reconfigured (Paechter, 2003). Similarly, women constructed a range of femininities through their narratives; some emphasized their close family ties, while others underscored their independence from partners.

Our research also points to the importance of socioeconomic position when considering issues of work–life balance. Most research on work–life balance concentrates on non-manual (usually professional) employees (although see Collinson and Hearn, 1996; Speakman and Marchington, 2004). Through the analysis of our qualitative interviews, we identified a group of pragmatic workers (either male manual workers, or women married to manual workers) who discussed the practical and economic benefits of work. While health concerns often pushed them to consider early retirement, lack of resources prevented them from doing this. Our study suggests that, for some groups of employees, securing sufficient income may be a more pressing concern than balancing work and home life. However, our main focus in this study was on gender rather than social class. Future work should take a more nuanced approach to social class, rather than merely distinguishing, as we did, between manual and non-manual employees.

In the introduction, we referred to Clark's (2000) theory of border-crossing as a useful way to conceptualize work–life balance. Our empirical data provide some support for this theory and also suggest some ways to extend it. First, Clark's exclusive focus on the border between the worlds of work and family may have more resonance for men than for women: for women the family may comprise many worlds with conflicting demands (for example, children and elderly parents) and so women may cross more borders (more often) than men. Secondly, the temporal borders between work and family may vary for men and women. For some men in this sample, their role as a father was associated with attending key family events such as school plays or associated with spending time with their children outside the working week as ‘weekend dads’ (Hatten et al., 2002). The women did not discuss motherhood in this way. Finally, the ways that people position themselves in relation to social structures such as gender has consequences for the ways they shape the worlds of work and family (and vice versa). For example, female carers had relatively weak boundaries between home and work life as they integrated these worlds through the identification of similar (caring) aspects in each. In contrast, pragmatic workers — who were manual workers, or married to manual workers — had stronger boundaries between work and home life. Collinson and Hearn (1996) refer to the way that working-class men seek to ‘maintain an impenetrable psychological wall between “public” and “private” life’ as an attempt to distance themselves from organizational cultures that treat them as second-class citizens (p. 69). Respondents with greater resources were more able to renegotiate the boundaries between work and home life, through cutting down their hours in paid work (independent women) or by physically removing themselves to a place where they could not be contacted out of working hours (men who worked to live going to their boat or caravan for the weekend).

This project raises two methodological issues. Firstly, it is interesting that our findings cannot be explained simply by our sampling strategy. The respondents who expressed less traditional attitudes to work and gender roles in the semi-structured interviews (men who worked to live and the independent women) were not all from the less conventional group of respondents (for example, those who never married or never had children, or had very high or very low masculinity scores). Thus changes in marital status, socioeconomic status and resources, and parenting experiences seem as important, if not more important, in influencing gender identities than similarities or differences between people in the same age cohort.

Secondly, our study raises some issues about trying to access respondents' accounts of work–life balance. Integrating work and family life is intimately tied to constructions of identities and therefore questions about this topic may be experienced as threatening. Given that it is women who are expected to balance work and family life (Moen and Yu, 2000), we might expect women to find these questions more threatening than men. Our data provide some evidence that the working-class women respondents experienced these questions in this way. Their narratives suggest that they initially tried to minimize problems with work–life balance, instead noting that they ‘coped’ and ‘just got on with it’. Pill and Stott's (1982) study of perceptions of illness amongst working-class mothers came to similar conclusions. They found that their respondents defined a good mother as ‘one who “keeps going” and copes with the multifarious demands that her family make of her’ (p. 50).

In conclusion, while we have reported respondents' own accounts of work–life balance it is important to bear in mind that their individual choices were constrained by their socioeconomic resources and cultural norms about family, work and gender (Moen and Yu, 2000). For example, while the middle-class independent women had the freedom to reduce their working hours in order to enhance their work–life balance, this option was not open to those with more limited resources. In addition, it is striking that work–life balance was perceived as a personal issue to be dealt with using individual strategies and not as a structural problem caused by a lack of flexibility in the workplace and a lack of affordable childcare and elder-care in the UK. Indeed, Caproni (2004) suggests that balance may be an unachievable goal because it is built on an individualistic, achievement-orientated model that assumes that people have choice and control over their lives.

To the extent that the work/life discourse remains focused on the individual, power relations will remain beyond the scope of the discourse … who gets to define what work/life balance is? Who has access to available benefits, and who does not? (2004, p. 215).

Future research should concentrate on work–life balance among men and women in less privileged class positions in order to further illuminate the relationship between individual choice and structural constraints.

Working for life

Work–life balance 
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is a concept including proper prioritizing between "work" (career and ambition) and "lifestyle" (health, pleasure,leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation). Related, though broader, terms include "lifestyle calm balance" and "lifestyle choices".

Stress and work-life balance

The number of stress-related disability claims by American employees has doubled^[when?] according to the Employee Assistance Professionals Association in Arlington, Virginia. Seventy-five to ninety percent of physician visits are related to stress and, according to the American Institute of Stress, the cost to industry has been estimated at $200 billion-$300 billion a year.

Steven L. Sautes, chief of the Applied Psychology and Ergonomics Branch of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati, Ohio, states that recent studies show that "the workplace has become the single greatest source of stress". Michael Feuerstein, professor of clinical psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences at Bethesda Naval Hospital states, "We're seeing a greater increase in work-related neuro skeletal disorders from a combination of stress and ergonomic stressors".

It is clear that problems caused by stress have become a major concern to both employers and employees. Symptoms of stress are manifested both physiologically and psychologically. Persistent stress can result in cardiovascular disease, sexual health problems, a weaker immune system and frequent headaches, stiff muscles, or backache. It can also result in poor coping skills, irritability, jumpiness, insecurity, exhaustion, and difficulty concentrating. Stress may also perpetuate or lead to binge eating, smoking, andalcohol consumption.

According to James Campbell Quick, a professor of organizational behavior at the University of Texas-Arlington, "The average tenure of presidents at land-grant universities in the past ten years has dropped from approximately seven to three-and-a-half years".

The feeling that simply working hard is not enough anymore is acknowledged by many other American workers. "To get ahead, a seventy-hour work week is the new standard. What little time is left is often divvied up among relationships, kids, and sleep."  This increase in work hours over the past two decades means that less time will be spent with family, friends, and community as well as pursuing activities that one enjoys and taking the time to grow personally and spiritually.^{[citation needed]}

Texas Quick, an expert witness at trials of companies who were accused of overworking their employees, states that "when people get worked beyond their capacity, companies pay the price." Although some employers believe that workers should reduce their own stress by simplifying their lives and making a better effort to care for their health, most experts feel that the chief responsibility for reducing stress should be management.

According to Esther M. Orioli, president of Essi Systems, a stress management consulting firm, "Traditional stress-management programs placed the responsibility of reducing stress on the individual rather than on the organization-where it belongs. No matter how healthy individual employees are when they start out, if they work in a dysfunctional system, they’ll burn out." 

Work-life balance concerns of men and women alike

Similar discrimination is experienced by men who take time off or reduce working hours for taking care of the family.

For many employees today—both male and female—their lives are becoming more consumed with a host of family and other personal responsibilities and interests. Therefore, in an effort to retain employees, it is increasingly important for organizations to recognize this balance.

[edit]Young generation views on work-life balance

According to Kathleen Gerson, Sociologist, young people "are searching for new ways to define care that do not force them to choose between spending time with their children and earning an income" and " are looking for definition of personal identity that do not pit their own development against creating committed ties to others" readily. Young adults believe that parents should get involved and support the children both economically and emotionally, as well as share labor equally. Young people do not believe work-life balance is possible and think it is dangerous to build a life dependent on another when relationships are unpredictable. They are looking for partners to share the house work and family work together. Men and women believe that women should have jobs before considering marriage, for better life and to be happy in marriage. Young people do not think their mother’s generations were unhappy. They also do not think they were powerless because they were economically dependent.

[edit]Identity through work

By working in an organization, employees identify, to some extent, with the organization, as part of a collective group.Organizational values, norms and interests become incorporated in the self-concept as employees increase their identify with the organization. However, employees also identify with their outside roles, or their "true self". Examples of these might be parental/caretaker roles, identifications with certain groups, religious affiliations, align with certain values and morals, mass media etc.

Employee interactions with the organization, through other employees, management, customers, or others, reinforces (or resists) the employee identification with the organization. Simultaneously, the employee must manage their "true self" identification. In other words, identity is "fragmented and constructed" through a number of interactions within and out of the organization; employees don’t have just one self.

Most employees identify with not only the organization, but also other facets of their life (family, children, religion, etc.). Sometimes these identities align and sometimes they do not. When identities are in conflict, the sense of a healthy work-life balance may be affected. Organization members must perform identity work so that they align themselves with the area in which they are performing to avoid conflict and any stress as a result.

Working for Nations

 L.K.Advani 

Working for India  

Largest democracy in world

Air  force One 

Obama in side working for USA