Searching “Texas ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” on YouTube brings up 327,000 videos, including ones from Texas Tech. Searching “Texas Drought” results in 63,800 videos — just a fraction of the first search. Which one would you most likely look up?
If every “Texas ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” participant on YouTube used two gallons of water to complete the dare, that would be around 654,000 gallons. The average family of four uses 400 gallons of water a day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. So, at a 400 gallons per day rate, it would take a f0ur-member family over four years to use 654,000 gallons of water.
http://launch.newsinc.com/?type=VideoPlayer/Single&widgetId=1&trackingGroup=69016&siteSection=statesman_nws_non_sty_ppap&videoId=26557344
Tanner Hockensmith, the executive director of the ALS Association in Texas, said it was hard to say how much the campaign had raised as of August, but it was more than last year.
“This morning (August 29), we found out we crossed the $100 million mark, nationally, from July 29 until today,” Hockensmith said. “This time last year, in the same time frame, it was like $2.2 million. So, obviously, there’s an exponential increase, which is pretty amazing.”
ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the spinal cord and nerve cells in the brain. Hockensmith described it as being trapped inside one’s body, where you cannot make your muscles move but are still mentally aware of what is going on.
Hockensmith said this has been the most awareness the disease — commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease — has received in a while.
“I think we’ll look back and see that this was a pivotal point in time for ALS,” Hockensmith said. “There was one more pivotal point in time: obviously when Lou Gehrig was diagnosed and gave his famous farewell from baseball. That was 75 years ago.”
Noted physicist Stephen Hawking has ALS.
Image provided by wikimedia.org.
Chuck West, assistant professor in plants and soil sciences, said he had seen the ice bucket challenge. West, Ph.D., said central and western Texas have been in a drought for years. Despite the amount of rain the area has received recently, he said people should still be wary of how much water they use.
West said city dwellers are not the only citizens using excessive amounts of water. West works with local farmers to teach them how to properly and most effectively irrigate their crops. He said the amount of water used on landscapes, both in the city and on the farm, is problematic.
“Lawn water is a major use of water in urban areas,” West said. “Where as a cotton farmers might be apply 16 or 18 inches of water during the whole growing season, a person who waters their lawn frequently is putting on 60 inches a year. It’s unbelievable.”
West gave numerous examples of how to conserve water in the city. He said he personally has showering down to one minute and uses only two gallons of water.
“You turn it on for 15 seconds, and during that time you wet your body down, you wet your hair” West said. “Then, turn it off. Then, you do your shampoo and, you know, scrub. Then, turn it on for 45 seconds and rinse yourself off. That’s 60 seconds of water.” (editor’s note: This is sometimes known as a “Navy shower.”)
Hockensmith said water conservation issues have come up frequently during this activism campaign. He said some people have gotten creative with how they complete the challenge to raise awareness for both issues.
“I think Matt Damon did it best; I mean, he used toilet water,” Hockensmith said. “Get water out of your pool, and poor it on yourself and back into your pool. I think there’s ways you can still do the challenge and still be conservative with water.”
Hockensmith said he thinks one reason the campaign became so popular is because water is easily accessible for everyone.
Although the campaign was not started by the ALS Association, Hockensmith said it has been a blessing to the cause.
“People like to be connected,” Hockensmith said, “and so this is a way people were instantly connected with celebrities and politicians — and their neighbor down the street. It was an act of celebration. It was an act of standing with people with ALS.”
About Sarah Self-Walbrick
