Our Common Waters, Patagonia’s new environmental campaign, focuses on the freshwater crisis facing the earth. The more water we use and waste, the harder it is for freshwater animals and plants to survive.

Photo: Amy Gulick (Tongass National Forest, Alaska.)

Water, we all need it to survive and yet few of us know how much water is consumed because of our individual footprints. It’s not the long showers, or what comes out of the tap that we are talking about, but rather our share of the sum of industrial production and consumption. We need to realize the importance of water and keep an eye on what business does to increase, or meet the challenges posed by water scarcity and pollution.

This year, Patagonia’s environmental campaign, Our Common Waters, spotlights the need to balance human water consumption with that of animals and plants.

Patagonia is known for teaming up with grass roots organizations, small business, and corporations all over the world to curb the influence  of our humanly bad habits and misunderstandings. Concerning water, it’s not only long showers and swimming pools that we should be looking at, but rather the bigger picture. Things like paper mills sterilizing local fishing areas, dams and low bridges that block fish spawning migration habits, and loads of other industries that are undervaluing the precious commodity that water is. Free-flowing streams are the lifeblood of our land, while oceans are a substantial contributor to not only the air we breath, but also the food source for a majority of the earth’s population. Almost half the animals on the U.S. threatened and endangered list call freshwater home.

Get involved locally this year to help curb our negative impact on one of our most amazing resource. Help protect out common waters today before it’s to late.