Want to save energy and fight climate change? Try using less water

By SAMMY ROTH

Marina Vista Park in Long Beach uses conservation-friendly sprinkler heads to water the athletic fields twice a week. This is the March 4, 2021, edition of Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter about climate change and the environment in California and the American West.

Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There’s a classic scene in “The Graduate” where Dustin Hoffman’s character, fresh out of college, gets pulled aside at a graduation party by a well-meaning friend of his parents and told: “I just want to say one word to you.

Just one word … plastics.” If that scene were written today with sustainability in mind, the word might be “batteries.” Or maybe “hydrogen.” But it might also be two words: “energy efficiency.” Efficiency is not a newfangled concept, as you probably know if you’ve ever purchased an Energy Star-certified dishwasher or asked about the gas mileage of a car.

Across the United States, per-person energy use has fallen since the 1970s even as overall demand has risen , according to the Energy Information Administration. The savings have been more dramatic in California, where state officials say aggressive efficiency standards for appliances and buildings have saved consumers well […]

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