We, as residents of a developed country, tend to take water for granted. How many times have you left the water running while brushing your teeth? Or left the sprinklers running in our backyard for hours and hours? We forget that in some other parts of the world, water is not as accessible as a turn of a faucet. The founder of Cirque du Soleil wants us to remember this.

I received an e-mail from Cirque du Soleil last week announcing the launch of ONE DROP Foundation, a non-profit organization that fights poverty worldwide by "ensuring equal access to water for everyone across the planet, now and in the future." In developing countries, ONE DROP establishes educational programs based on the arts to manage water and works in communities that need access to water. In developed countries, ONE DROP will develop artistic and educational programs to increase awareness of this issue.

You don't have to give anything to the organization to get involved (although your donation and help are greatly appreciated, I'm sure!). But you can easily help the organization and the people around the world by doing several simple things. ONE DROP website lists several actions that you can take to preserve water, such as limiting consumption of bottled water and filling your bath tub to only one-quarter full. Did you know that if you don't fix a leaky tap, just one drop of water per second yields an annual waste of 10,000 liters?

Check out ONE DROP Foundation's website for more ways to preserve water.

Want to donate money to a charity that helps protect the environment, but don't know how to choose? Kiplinger.com's new article, "Charities That Deserve Your Dollars," provides tips on how to choose a green charity that will do the most with your dollars.

The story notes that the number of environmental charities has grown during the last few years as climate change emerged as a hot issue (pun intended). The article advises prospective donors to find out whether or not charities show results and to scrutinize their finances. If a group spends more than 25 percent of its budget on administrative costs, you may want to donate someplace else.

I disagree with the writer, Thomas Anderson, when he says "Forget about groups that focus on raising awareness." Many established environmental groups engage in both awareness-raising and taking action to fix problems. Some that come to mind are Sierra Club, Environmental Defense and Natural Resources Defense Council. Raising awareness of an issue is an important first step that can lead to action -- once stakeholders are convinced to act.

The article lists four green charities that are top-rated for financial efficiency: The Conservation Fund, Union of Concerned Scientists, Oceana and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. You can do your own research at sites such as Charity Navigator and the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Browse the Environment listings at Network for Good to see what charities are out there and what they are doing.

Discuss your favorite environmental charities here.

In late July, General Electric said it will begin issuing the Earth Rewards MasterCard that will allow consumers to help fight global warming. Here's how it will work, according to an article in Fortune magazine:
"Consumers will be able to dedicate one percent of their purchases to fund projects that offset carbon dioxide emissions. (They can also opt to get 1/2 of one percent cash back, in which case the other 1/2 of one percent will go to carbon offsets.) GE will then pool those monies and once a year -- on Earth Day, natch -- invest them in verified, transparent carbon offset projects.

For instance, a consumer who charges $750 a month, or $9,000 a year, would offset 10 tons of emissions -- the annual carbon footprint of a typical individual, according to GE's Gentile.

There's no end to what these offsets could do. They could be used to capture methane gas from landfills, to plant trees, to finance renewable energy projects or to pay for energy efficiency -- all of which reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

I agree with Fortune columnist Marc Gunther that this kind of credit card is a good first step in getting people to fight climate change, but that using this card does not entail sacrifice – and the U.S. government and all Americans will have some big sacrifices to make if we decided to fight global warming in a serious way.

Gunther notes that Bank of America will also offer a carbon-offset credit card soon. You'll have options!

If you want to investigate other socially responsible credit cards, check out this article from Co-op America.

Four mountain gorillas were found shot to death in Congo's Virunga National Park, apparently killed by someone for no reason. Newsweek covered the story. It was the seventh killing of the endangered gorillas in two months. One infant gorilla did survive the attack.

There are about 700 of these gorillas left in the wild, living in Congo and Uganda. Poachers often hunt the gorillas for their meat. The hunting of wild animals, even supposedly protected ones, is now a global, multi-million dollar business. People are eating the "bushmeat" because they want to, not because they need to in order to survive.

Many groups are working to help protect and preserve the mountain gorilla. If you want to help, you can join the International Gorilla Conservation Programme or one of its member groups. The Wildlife Conservation Society also works to protect mountain gorillas.