Living in New York City means eventually many people will pass through my neighborhood so I host people for visits in my home a fair amount. Though I spend most of my time here and visitors average maybe a few hours a week, I think they cause more pollution and depletion in my apartment than I do.

One big reason is that they use hot water for everything and heating water uses more energy than many things. How do I know? My faucet knobs are always to the right because I use only unheated water to cook, drink, brush my teeth with, and so on, but whenever someone visits, I find the knobs in the middle or hot end.

Why does everyone—everyone—use warm or hot water for things where it doesn’t make a difference?

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I’m not blaming or judging. I support people living by their values, though I notice all my visitors value not hurting people without their consent and polluting and depleting do just that. If they are violating their own values, I can see why they might feel guilt or shame, but that emotion isn’t coming from me. It’s their business, not mine.

For comparison, when people serve me water in restaurants or even their homes, they often put ice in it. I don’t understand the fascination with making water so cold. Whatever the reason, nearly every visitor to my home who uses a faucet leaves the water control knob in the middle or left—that is, warm or hot.

I’m not talking about showers. I can understand people not using only unheated water. I don’t take only cold showers, though I do take one on my cardio days, which means every six days, but take short ones without much heated water, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the rare showers people take at my place are hot enough to cause more pollution and depletion in my home than I do.

Freezing and heating water generally burn fossil fuels—that is, they pollute and deplete. Meanwhile, drinking room temperature water instead of freezing cold water seems to go down easier. Washing my hands or brushing my teeth with room temperature water works too.

350 million Americans freezing and heating water for no meaningful benefit many times every day seems like pointless pollution and depletion.

Toothpaste

I have put toothpaste on a toothbrush at least twice a day every day for about a half century. In those 36,000-plus applications, not once—not once!—have I missed the toothbrush. I can’t see how I would. I put the tube right up close to the brush. I don’t throw it or apply it from a distance. The paste is sticky. it doesn’t fall off easily.

Yet frequently when people visit, if they brush their teeth, globs of toothpaste end up in my sink.

How is this mess possible?

How do people applying toothpaste miss the brush?!?

How can they not notice the glob in the sink? If they notice it, how can they leave it there?

This waste and mess mystifies me. I don’t see it as an issue of pollution or depletion, though in a sense it is. I just can’t imagine how it happens. What about humanity am I missing that such results can happen?

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