World Water Day: How Long Can You Last Without Water?

National Geographic Explorer David de Rothschild pictured aboard the Plastiki, a boat made of post-consumer plastic bottles which embarked on a voyage from San Francisco to Sydney one year ago yesterday. The expedition made de Rothschild one of our 2010 Adventurers of the Year.

Op-ed by David de Rothschild; Photograph courtesy of Adventure Ecology 

If you type the phrase "how long can you last without" into Google, given the thousands of preemptive suggestions to fire back to complete the phrase, it might surprise you that "water" is the first word to bubble up and claim top spot. Scan the first few pages of the 159,000,000 search results and you’re presented with a collection of near identical survival websites focused on tips needed to keep your personal water tank from dipping dipping into the red.

But amid all the reams of cut-and-paste references, one particular tip caught my eye. It was a sentence that could easily win the award for most obvious statement of 2011: "The best method to survive without water is not to be placed in that situation in the first place."

David de Rothschild's Plastiki Sets Sail! - Video

Just in time for World Water Day (today) and after nearly four years of development, eco-adventurer David de Rothschild has launched his most ambitious expedition yet. The Plastiki, an innovative catamaran made from 12,000 post-consumer plastic bottles, set sail on Saturday for a 100-day voyage from San Francisco to Sydney. Their mission is to witness some of the most devastating waste accumulation on our planet, including the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch. According to his twitter feed, David and the crew had eggs for breakfast on their first morning at sea. (Read our previous coverage and see the NG Plastiki site.)

Taking inspiration from Thor Heyerdal's 1947 Kon-tiki expedition, the Plastiki's crew includes of David de Rothschild, accomplished skipper Jo Royle, and Olav Heyerdahl, Thor's grandson. Check back for updates here, or go to http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/plastiki/.

Photographs courtesy of Luca Babini

Actors, Musicians, Explorers Climb Kilimanjaro for Clean Water - Documentary Airs on Sunday

In January, a team of actors, musicians, and National Geographic explorers—Jimmy Chin and Alexandra Cousteau—set out to climb Africa’s tallest peak, 19,340-foot Kilimanjaro, to raise awareness about the global clean water crisis. (Read more from Chin and Cousteau in interviews we will post later today.)

According to the United Nations' Millennium Water for Life initiative, 18 percent of the world’s population doesn’t have access to safe drinking water and 42 percent doesn’t have access to sanitation, resulting in deadly waterborne diseases.

“Mountains are like the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter who anyone is or what they do,” says big-wall climber and photographer Chin, referring to the challenge posed to his fellow hikers, actors Emile Hirsch and Jessica Biel and musicians Santigold and Kenna, the Ethiopia-born singer-songwriter leading the Summit on the Summit initiative.