Thread by @jonburkeUK

1/ What if I told you - with the continent suffering another #heatwave and England in severe #drought conditions - that increasing forest cover in Europe by 20% would result in 8% more summer rain, with negligible effects on winter rain?

You might not believe me, but it's true.

2/ What if I told you that photographs over a 54-year period since the reintroduction of beavers to Alberta, Canada, showed they were associated with a 900% increase in open water and a "damatic influence" on mitigating extreme #drought?

You might not believe me, but it's true.

3/ What if I told you that if every household in the U.K had a water meter, we would reduce household water waste by a billion litres a day within three months and two billion litres a day within two years?

You might not believe me, but it's true.

4/ What if I told you that a Water Smart Meter trial in Cape Town, South Africa, saved one school more than three million liters of water in three months, and helped another more than halve its water consumption in just four months?

You might not believe me, but its true.

5/ What if I told you that a single, waterless public urinal saves between 75,000 and 170,000 litres of water a year?

You might not believe me, but it's true.

6/ What if I told you that provided rebound effects - such as farmers demanding increased acreage, resulting in increased water consumption - are avoided, 'drip irrigation' systems can reduce agricultural water consumption by up to 60%.

You might not believe me, but it's true.

7/ What if I told you that water utilities companies lose around 20% of mains water through leaks every day, and that halving these losses could save 1.4 billion litres of H₂O daily?

O.k, you probably would believe that, but it's still true!

8/ References!

Tweet 1/ - Meier, R., Schwaab, J., Seneviratne, S.I. et al. Empirical estimate of forestation-induced precipitation changes in Europe. Nat. Geosci. 14, 473–478 (2021).

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Tweet 2/ - Glynnis A. Hood, Suzanne E. Bayley,
Beaver (Castor canadensis) mitigate the effects of climate on the area of open water in boreal wetlands in western Canada, Biological Conservation, Volume 141, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 556-567, ISSN 0006-3207,

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Tweet 3/ - Ansink, E., Ornaghi, C., Tonin, M., Technology vs information to promote conservation: Evidence from water audits, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper 2021-014/VIII

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Tweet 4/ - Emma Reynolds, How smart meters saved water and money in drought-ravaged Cape Town, CNN, 23.09.19

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Tweet 5/ - Annette L. Stumpf, Waterless Urinals - A Technical Evaluation, US Army Corps of Engineers - Engineer Research and Development Center, June 2005

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Tweet 6/ - Shamshery P, Wang R-Q, Tran DV, Winter V AG (2017) Modeling the future of irrigation: A parametric description of pressure compensating drip irrigation emitter performance. PLoS ONE 12(4): e0175241.

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Tweet 7/ - Colin Fernandaz, Environment Correspondent, Fury as water companies make £2.8BILLION in profits amid scandal of dumping raw sewage in rivers, Daily Mail, 11.02.22