There was a neat discussion on Airtalk today about whether, when, and how we should report water waste. I think you know my opinion...yes, always, and in every way possible. The show focused on "public shaming," but it's a fine line between shaming and documentation. The story page is here (http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2015/05/08/42771/the-etiquette-of-droughtshaming/#comments)
One guest mentioned that public shaming doesn't change behavior (probably true), but another guest said that those doing don't necessarily want to change behavior of the individual person they're shaming, but the behavior of others possible (or current offenders). I don't know what the psychological research on this says, but for me it's a matter of bringing attention and documentation. We should have shame for wasting water. I'm not one for saying "shame on you" directly. I just document what I see and I think the shame is obvious (if it exists).
For me, shaming business is fine. What's better than a business shaming or boycott to get attention for an important issue. If they lose business, so be it. That's the market working. If they want to keep business by promoting their water awareness, they can do that. Shaming individuals is different. To be fair, it's good to know more about peoples' individual situations and educate first. But I don't have a problem pointing out flagrant waste. In the few times that I've seen waste and there's been a person present to talk to, I've done that. In one case he didn't speak English. In another he seemed happy to learn he had a leak in his sprinkler. In another I learned that she only waters twice a week, and had nice chat with her (I still think she could use less and get rid of her green green lawn, but that's another conversation). The reason I like to report as much as I can to LADWP and blog about it is because I think it's one of those situations where people are going to just keep acting out of habit (either unconsciously, or consciously thinking "I'll get away with what I can until someone stops me."). We have to a) bring awareness, and b) make things a little uncomfortable to create community-wide change. People don't change when their too comfortable (though I guess they may not change if too uncomfortable either).
The show made a good point of paying attention to one-time offenders v. repeat offenders, and I think that's a good idea. One caller told a story of her sprinklers going off during the day after it had just rained, and her neighbor giving her a hard time about it. The problem here isn't that she forgot to turn off her sprinklers (though really, how hard is it to notice that it just rained in SoCal and turn off your sprinklers for the day), but the bigger problem is that she was watering during the day. That not only violates LADWP water rules (no watering btwn 9AM and 6PM) but is just stupid. I recently heard a number citing 70% evaporation from watering during the day. Even if that's not exact, we know it must be more than it would be overnight.
Another caller said something that was a good reminder to me. He waters with drip irrigation so hes plants and lawn look watered. But drip is so much more efficient (no evaporation), so next to not having a lawn or plants, he's doing the second best thing.
It's a complex problem, but anyone who isn't paying attention and acting accordingly at this point (or has a good reason for not reducing their water use in some way) should be banned from getting bottled water hand-outs when the tap runs dry.
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