Google the phrase “Awareness Week” and you’ll have no problem finding a cause
to root for, or against. Or perhaps avoid.
Some examples:
Need to “air” your concerns about Earth’s upper atmosphere? Say hello to Air Quality & Ozone Awareness Week.
Want to shake it up this summer and walk the Greenbelt in your birthday suit? Legalities and common sense aside, July 5-11 is Nude Recreation Week.
Got a problem coping with a certain someone in your life? July 20-26 marks a special week just for the easily annoyed. According to Urban Dictionary: “If you have a crappy ex, this is the week to inform everyone you know about their issues, should they ever come into contact. Very much like a ‘side effects’ warning for drugs.” (This week does have an actual name, although there’s no way in Hades I would mention it in print.)
It used to be we didn’t need awareness weeks at all. We had 365 DAYS to choose from, more or less. But hey, why have a single Hairball Awareness Day when you can spread it out over seven days and retool it as something more profound, like Feline Regurgitation & Preventive Grooming Week?
Certain days, weeks and months obviously carry more weight than others. Cancer awareness makes an obvious case in point. Same for sexual assault, poverty, discrimination and other issues that directly affect society and the general quality of life. But with that in mind, what room is there for a subject that is neither emotionally provocative nor silly? How about something as nondescript — yest pervasive — as water?
Well, what do ya know: Earlier this spring, I ran across a calendar post calling on locals to recognize Water Awareness Week. Along with the promotion was a call to attend the Greater Idaho Falls Water Festival — a two-day event at both Tautphaus Park and Gem State power plant. The event is now in its 18th year, and draws upwards of 1,500 students from local schools.
Water deserves more awareness for a host of reasons. Remember the local stir created years ago when a Skyline student launched a campaign to address dihydrogen monoxide in local schools? Anyone with a touch of scientific savvy would recognize water’s chemical name, but that example alone speaks volumes about the lack of public awareness about the wet stuff all around us.
Some H2O fun facts: More than 70 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with it, and just here in Idaho it accounts for half a million acres of lakes and rivers. Our state’s agriculture industry utilizes billions gallons of it every day. On its wayward course from local mountaintops to the mouth of the Columbia, it also gets channeled through a mind-boggling labyrinth of pipelines and aqueducts. Almost a million miles of it course through the United States and Canada, enough to circle Earth 40 times.
One of my favorite trivia bits is that by weight, up to 70 percent of our own bodies consist of water. In that singular statement is an amazing little nugget: water isn’t apart from us. In fact it is a part of each of us.
For all the eye-popping scenery and natural wonders in our own backyard, it’s definitely worth taking a little time to appreciate the lifeblood that makes it all possible. Does that mean we need a special water awareness week to make it a priority? Hard to say, but at the very least, it sure beats celebrating hairballs.
For more information about the Greater Idaho Falls Water Festival, contact Flint Hall at 528-2612, 520-5382 or Flint.Hall@deq.idaho.gov.