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April 2015 P R A C T I C A L W I N E R Y & V I N E YA R D 75 B O O K E X C E R P T ficult to convince a society about the need to prepare for risks when the most recent large floods have become a distant memory. Flood memory half- life, suppressing individual and public memories of recent flooding, has been demonstrated by flood insurance cover- age behavior. For instance, the rates for flood coverage increased immediately after the 1997 floods but have been declining since then. Similarly, it can be a tough sell to convince people to adopt a "no regrets" approach to water conservation when water still flows abundantly and cheaply through our taps. Water is uniquely vul- nerable to overuse. It falls freely from the sky, giving a false sense of abundance. Water policy in the West has made it a resource that is easy to seize and exploit by those with the power and will to do so. As yet there is little incentive to conserve water for the common good, despite scores of ingenious water con- servation proposals. Society in the West lacks any sense of urgency concerning the growing scarcity of this life-sus- taining resource. People in this region are oddly estranged from their natural surroundings — living in human-created oases of concrete, manicured lawns and air-conditioned homes. Few are aware of the origins of the water flowing out of their taps, which is perhaps due, in part, to the complexity of the region's modern, highly engineered hydrology. Peter Gleick and Matthew Heberger at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif., view the decade-long drought in Australia that ended in 2010 as a "wake- up call" for the American West. The Australian drought, the worst in that country's recorded history, had excep- tionally low river flows, agricultural col- lapse, catastrophic fires and blinding dust storms. The drought-prone West has many lessons to learn from Australia, a similarly semiarid to arid region. Gleick and Heberger point to some of the strategies adopted by Australians during their drought, including steps that individuals can take to conserve, such as converting to water-efficient washing machines, toilets, showerheads and faucets, all of which can save an enormous amount of water per year. Recycling and reusing treated waste- water (or gray water) has also been successfully adopted by Australians, including treatment of this water to a level safe enough for drinking. These strategies led to a 37% decline in water used per person between 2002 and 2008 in Australia. Other strategies for water conserva- tion include rainwater harvesting sys- tems that allow individual homes or offi ce buildings to capture rain that falls on roofs and transfer the water to above- or below-ground cisterns or storage tanks for use at a later time. The construction of desalination plants may also be a par- tial solution along the coast. Australia spent $13.2 billion to build desalination plants in its five largest cities in 2011 in preparation for future droughts. Reducing our water footprint Another important step in water con- servation is to improve societal aware- ness of the "embedded," or virtual, water in foods and products. Dubbed our "water footprint," ecologists and economists have recently defined this concept so that people living in the western United States can learn how much water they actually consume in their daily life. The water footprint is analogous to the more familiar carbon footprint in providing an accounting of the total amount of water used to pro- duce a crop or product. Keeping track of our water footprint will ultimately Toll-Free: 877-552-4828 909-464-1373 • Fax: 909-464-1603 For your nearest dealer, contact: WIREVISE® Trellis & Fence Wire Anchor This trellis and fence wire anchor securely holds wires to end-posts. Insert the wire into and through the wirevise. It automatically locks onto the wire. No tools required. To tighten, just pull more wire through the vise. A release tool is available from AgFast for 12- 16 gauge wire. WinesVines WireVise AD.qxp_Layout 1 12/1/14 2:3