“It’s gone before you even knew it was there: as energy is unlocked from fuels at power plants, two-thirds of the energy consumed to create electricity is lost.”

“Sixty-four percent of all the energy burned to generate electricity is lost as heat, which creates steam to run turbines, escapes from smoke-stacks into the air. A further 3 percent is lost in delivery to the customer.”

1. Wasted Energy, The New York Times.

“For most of the last two decades, the Rondout-West Branch tunnel, 45 miles long, 13.5 feet wide, up to 1,200 feet below ground and responsible for ferrying half of New York City’s water supply from reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains, has been leaking some 20 million gallons a day; except recently, when on some days it has lost up to 36 million gallons.”

“In the 1820s, New Yorkers used an average of 12 gallons of water a day, architect Kevin Boon said. Individual water use peaked in the 1980s, at more than 200 gallons.”

2. Fixing New York’s Drinking Straw, The New York Times.

3. Olov, Flickr.