Water is everywhere. There are oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, and ice throughout most of the world. This summer, we’re seeing many areas under drought. There were suggestions to conserve water which were ignored or not taken seriously. Now there are mandatory conservation efforts in place.

There has been a suggestion that people get virtual grass. Astroturf could end up in many front yards soon as an alternative to water guzzling grass that one is dedicated to keeping alive and green if just installed.

If you don’t have a yard to keep looking attractive in front of your decreasing valued home, and enjoy plants instead, you have an easier time conserving water. Don’t buy vegetable plants and you won’t need to water them. Problem solved.

The idea of virtual plants is an interesting solution as well. You can have as many plants online as you want. They can turn different colors (hopefully not the dreadful brown) and require different levels of care. You can even set your desktop to look out onto a a virtual patio of plants (some which could be dying from the lack of care).

In the web world of cats and dogs that exist only in cyberspace, plants could co-exist. Actually, these pets could help with the care of plants and trees. Attracting insects such as bees to pollinate your plants can be just as easy or difficult as it is in real life.

Including the real life issue of diverting water to places can be a public service lesson for everyone affected. When turning on water in real life, one will be reminded of all the effort it took to get that water to their tap for their use.

It’s not a matter of conserving water, but also of understanding why we don’t have a constant supply of water. In this civilization, water means life to both humans and plants (as well as the virtual pets).