Colorado Drought

Not only was I able to see the incredible drought in the Midwest this year,  now, unfortunately, I've seen it in my beloved Colorado. I lived there for about 15 years and saw variation in water levels of Dillon Reservoir, but this year was especially a down year. Why is this important? Because it's part of Denver's water source. Actually it's about 40% of it, and many people in Summit County and Denver know this.

But not everyone knows their water source, and from this article by The Nature Conservancy it appears that most people don't. What does that translate to? Public Awareness. Oh yeah... that! Again. 

If you know what my mission is, you are not surprised by this information, if you don't know what my mission is, here you go: To remake a movie that has already been seen all over the world, and use it to bring funds and AWARENESS to the Global Water Crisis. Simple idea really, and a very timely one with all the drought situations in the world.


"Denver Water invests millions of dollars into conservation programs to encourage customers to reduce their use." Found this line when making sure I had the right info about Denver water. It's all about learning, then being aware, then changing behavior. Just like smoking (see below) is a behavior, so is water conservation. And if it becomes an addiction, wow, what a great addiction that is! I've had it for years and it's served me well. My record for water use when I lived in my cabin on the side of a mountain in Colorado was 68 gallons of water for 6 1/2 weeks, including 25 plants and a thirsty dog. (not including showers which I took short ones elsewhere).

When I was just there visiting, I had a few "water police" moments with 3 different people. Two of them know about the water project so I was quite surprised! One didn't remember so he was forgiven... actually I hope he forgave me when I reached over and turned off the water that was running while he wiped around the counter top! And when I was doing the dishes at another place, I put a bit of water in a pan, added soap, and this is what happened:

"What are you doing? my friend asked.
"I'm doing the dishes."
"Why are you using the pan?"
"Because I don't fill up the sink, I just use a pan or bowl."
"But it's a dirty pan."
"No it's rinsed. Why, how do you do dishes?"
"I just do them under the running water."
"You let the water run?!?!"
"...Ah...yeah..."

IN Denver! Where there is a drought!! So it's just not just a matter of awareness, but finding a way to make people change their behavior. But can "Hollywood" do this? Do people actually pay attention to celebrities? Ummm let's see...

We all know that humans are influenced by famous people and especially by "Hollywood"--good or bad. Remember the old movies when everyone smoked? Well, it was cool to smoke back then because the actors in all the movies did it, and... hey wait a minute! I just looked up smoking in the movies and was shocked to see that it still goes on! (ironically I actually don't watch many movies) But look at this site, and if you search: "smoking in the movies facts" you'll find a bunch.

People magazine pretty much is all about celebrities right? And Time magazine is about serious news. Even though many printed magazine numbers are declining somewhat, here are statistics from the Audit Bureau of Circulations:  by June 30, 2012 People was at 3,563,035, and Time was at 3,276,822 -- not a lot of difference, but while People increased .2%, since 2011, Time decreased 2.9%. AND, for the Top 25 U.S. Consumer Magazines by Single-Copy Sales, Time didn't even make the list! People was at #4 with Cosmopolitan, Woman's World and First For Women on top. (Newsweek wasn't on any lists at all.)

By the way this goes along with what my friend said about escapism in the movies: "We are in the longest period since Vietnam." Yup, that is why people don't go to see documentaries as much as the "Hollywood" narrative movies. People don't want to get depressed and serious, they want to be entertained!

Bottom line? Same as I have been saying all along. Why not use the platform that is already established to do something good! Messages can be very effective if placed in movies...we know that. People pay attention to celebrities. We know that too...Wouldn't it be great if "Hollywood" had a campaign where instead of being cool by collecting all the __________ from the _________series, (which end up in a landfill anyway) you could be cool by helping people get water and learning how you can help yourself? How? By being entertained and going to see the "Did I Say Thousand Island?" series. Wouldn't that be cool?