In fairness, I once worked at a brewery, and the ridiculous and immense water wasting that went on there, as a result of procedures and policies that were simply lazy, were enough to more than overcome all of my water savings in a year, every single day.

They're not doing that because their customers like beer and keep buying it. They're doing that because water is cheap enough that the company doesn't see it as an issue to crack down on, and the workers doing various procedures that use the water can't be bothered to shut it off when they're not using it.

I'm talking even simple applications like a hose used to rinse off some equipment occasionally through a day. Rather than only turn it on when needed, install a shutoff valve closer to where it's being used, or installing a nozzle at the end, they just let the hose run the entire shift, with water running from the hose straight to the drain for the majority of an 8 hour shift, every single day.

Not gonna lie, while I still do lots of little things to save water around my apartment, that experience made me chill out about most measures to save water that were any sort of inconvenience to me at all. I still don't actively and intentionally waste it, but I'm far less strict with myself about it since learning that, as I said, all the water I save in a year is more than undone in a day at that brewery.

How about we nationalize the energy industries and incorporate the social/environmental costs of them into our long-term planning so that we can have our cake and eat it to?