I just wanted to write to highlight this idea from my diary today:
There are ways you can turn your regular toilet into a low-flow. Some toilets use a rubber part called a flapper to control flushing. . . Now, there are flappers on the market that can be adjusted with a dial- you just turn the round dial on the flapper, and it adjusts the shape so you can choose between a large flush, or a small, environment-saving, money-saving flush.
You can buy an adjustable flapper for around $4, so it’s even worth replacing before your old kind of flapper wears out, turning your friends and acquaintances on to them, or even giving them as gifts and installing them for friends. In fact, maybe it would be worthwhile for the government or some civic-minded group should just send free adjustable flappers to people through the mail with a letter explaining them- maybe you could get tens or hundreds of thousands of people to install the flappers within a week of a big program sending them out. A smaller version of the program- just in a municipality- could test it out. They could check compliance by doing a phone or door-to-door poll a week or two after, asking people whether they installed the flappers.
So I'm wondering, why wait for the government?
If you want to do something that especially makes you feel like a true hippy or true environmentalist or what have you, just start the project on your own, or with a few friends. It's easy to check is someone has a low-flow toilet already (and therefore doesn't need the flapper), whether they know what they have or not, by just givign their toilet a flush and seeing what the flush looks like.
You can start out giving them to friends in your area, then by going door to door for 20 or 30 minutes in your community every week or two. You can also try soliciting donations, including from people you gave a flapper to who seemed especially appreciative (remember to offer to install it, too). After a little while you can try getting a municipality or other group, like a fraternal group, etc., to sponsor or take over your efforts. You will have some positive experience to tell them about instead of just some idea you're telling them they should do.
Remember, in California, one-fifth of electrical output is used for processing or pumping water- so for the sake of the carbon footprint, if they aren't going to have a waterless urinal yet, every home and building should at least have low-flow toilets or adjustable flappers!
And one more thing about putting hard-top awnings over glaciers that feed rivers to protect them against deterioration due to global warming:
To make sure the glaciers keep getting the precipitation that replenishes them, the awnings could open somewhat like sunroofs- they could have panels or slats like venetian blinds that could be turned up or down when it snows. This could even be controlled wirelessly instead of there having to be workers out there to handle it.