Water, Part II: Bottled Water Blowback

Welcome to Part II.

Who buys bottled water in the U.S.?

California is by far the biggest guzzler of bottled water, representing about 24 percent of the national market -- twice the consumption level of any other state...Nearly 70 percent of Californians drink bottled water, which nationwide is a $6 billion industry. And by the end of this year, bottled water will have moved past milk, coffee and beer to become the second most popular beverage behind soft drinks, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp.

Bottled water is a problem. Not a little one, a big one. And lately, the coolest most hip, most now, most all the rage restaurants are banning it. That's right. They are banning a commodity they formerly sold for profit. Think about it. In a capitalistic system, it takes a bit of something to motivate a company to do that.

Maybe you are already onto this new wave that refuses to be surfed by empty water bottles.

Here's the trouble with bottled water, broken down in a way that plastic water bottles may never be:

1. The bottled water industry is under-regulated.
2. Private companies are selling public resources for up to 5,000% profit.
   
3. Much of the water is simply drawn from the tap, and minimally processed, if at all.
4. The drain on water threatens the public management of our water supply.
   
5. The bottles flood landfills with plastic waste.
6. Chemicals leach out of the plastic and pollute the soil and water.

That's right, corporations profiting from tons of plastic, decomposing, seeping toxic substances into the soil, poisoning the water table...

Here's how the mayor of Salt Lake City describes the bottled water situation:

Bottled water "very clearly reflects the wasteful and reckless consumerism in this country," said Salt Lake City's Anderson in a conference call with reporters this month. "You really have to wonder at the utter stupidity and the irresponsibility sometimes of American consumers. These false needs are provided, and too often we just fall in line with what Madison Avenue comes up with to market these unnecessary products."

Some bottled facts:

• Much of the bottled water sold is the same as "tap water."
• Water costs bottlers almost nothing.
• 4 large corporations control much of the bottled water industry.
  
• Companies that pump water from ground water, streams, and the tap pay almost nothing in fees.
• A liter of bottled water purchased in a store costs up to 5,000 times what tap water costs.
• Water bottles feed the mass of plastic debris twice the size of Texas floating off the CA coast.
  
• The health hype is just hype.
  

Water Bottled, originally uploaded by Ooodit.

Bungle-
—Synonyms 1. mismanage, muddle, spoil, ruin; foul up.

• Bottled water is a big, bad bungle.

Blowback-
—By its original definition, blowback is the backwards escape of unexploded gunpowder when firing a handgun. In diplomatic terms, it is an unpredicted, negative response against a nation in regards to a diplomatic action that country has undertaken.

• I need to drink a lot of water throughout the day. I carry water with me everywhere I go. I put a filter on my tap when I moved in, and have been filling the same two Nalgene bottles for years. But I will confess to you now, I did these things to save money, not because I had been thinking about the blowback from bottled water.

Here's the bottom line for me:

A few large private companies have marketed public resources as a private commodity that is good for one's health, with the direct consequence of causing irreparable damage to our water supply, thereby threatening our collective Health. Irony.

In other words, bottled water blowback really bites.

For more, see SBT's fine post from February, The Uncool Quaff.

spin the bottle, originally uploaded by ShazzMack.

Without water the symphony fails:

Let the music play...

(P.S. A nice post on the topic of Part I, Shrinking Supply, and current legislation at "Down with Tyrrany".)

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This post is part of a series on Water:

• Water, Part I: Shrinking Supply
• Water, Part II: Bottled Water Blowback

Water Bottle, originally uploaded by Terry Bain.

NOTE: Post updated with floating plastic blob link from tireiron chef, and reusable water bottles link, inspired by Quaker Dave. /Tipping hat...

TAGS: Water, Scarcity, Environmentalism, Bottled Water, Green, Natural Resources, Blowback, Bittersweet Symphony, Pollution

Undo the Undoing

I want you to do something for me. I want you to think about these ideas. I want you to feel these emotions. I want you to experience this tension of intention and harvest on the horizon. Indulge me...

Once there were some people who thought about things.
They thought about things like what the future might be like for their children.
They started important conversations like this one:





Their children also were thinkers.
They thought about what their future might be like, too.
They thought about things like this, though they didn't always say it out loud:

The people sang a beautiful melody with haunting words:

Yes there comes a booming sound
It used to come from underground
Now it emanates
From a kind of welfare state
Of the soul
Yeah baby of the soul

And of the sweet sweet soul
Let's be certain
Of the deliberate monologue
As sure as if it will fall
Across you
Unto you
Will most certainly leave the doing undone

Come on undone

And we are doing
And we are screwing
Up our lives today
What's that we chanted
It's this we planted
C'mon progeny
~"Up with People", by Lambchop

That's right,
They knew what they were doing.
They kept singing the same songs, however.

₪

Are you listening to the things the children aren't saying out loud...yet?
Are the children singing songs to themselves?
If you wrote your own lyrics, what story would your song tell?
What song is the Bush administration singing? (Answer.)
And if government officials fail to provide protection, doesn't that make them enemies of our collective future?

I am struck by the juxtaposition of these two conversations.
Or are they really two monologues?

Here's what I think...

Having the foresight to think about the future is worth a lot;
paying attention to what matters most is priceless.

And, of course, there is the little matter of aligning the doing with the thinking.

---

P.S. Here is the original "Shift Happens You-Tube" (Pssst, SBT)

TAGS: Bush, Environment, Ecology, Global Warming, Demographic Shift, Shift Happens, Did you Know?, Greenpeace, Future of the Planet, Earth Activism, Intergenerational Conflict

Water, Part I: Shrinking Supply

The symbolism of water has always been meaningful to me, and the topic of water has always been important. Water has been weighing heavy on my mind lately, and the fires blazing in California only heighten my sense of reverence and concern.

Behold my reverence:

Lyrics here.

With special reverence every March.

Now my concern...

The Drinkable Water Supply is Shrinking

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, a Hungarian Nobel Prize winner has said:

"Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water."

Well, if that is the case, then "Life" is in trouble. Go ahead and make that a capital "T", because we are running out right quick. Four big reasons:

1. Pollution
2. Rising global temperatures
3. Population growth
4. Poor resource management
   

Locally, the California Department of Water Resources predicts that by 2020, that's 13 years folks, the state will face a freshwater shortfall nearly as great as, "the amount that all of its cities and town together are consuming today."

But across the country, in places like super wet Seattle, as well as arid Tucson, demand is greater than supply. I looked at a global water shortage map to get a sense of the big picture, and the countries that are experiencing physical or economic water scarcity make up, essentially, the entire Southern Hemisphere, with extreme shortage near the equator, and about 3 tiny exceptions in South America. Worldwide, the water crisis is most extreme in:

• Mexico
• China
• Africa
• The Middle East

In Northern China, the water level is dropping 1 meter per year due to over-pumping. In India, where more than 1 billion of Earth's 6 billion people reside, aquifers are being overpumped, and soil is becoming saltier. The frightening thing is that irrigation, the greatest source of water consumption, was responsible for increasing food production in India that now supports its still expanding population.

Some Facts

• Water demand is doubling every 20 years.
• Right now, 1.3 billion people don't have access to clean water.
• Right now, 2.5 billion people (40% of Earth's pop.) don't have access to safe sewer and sanitation.
• Right now, in Africa, 5 million people die each year for lack of safe drinking water.
• 80 Countries have have water shortages that threaten health.
• The biggest drain on our water resources is agriculture, which consumes 70% of worldwide water use.
• Neoliberal values contribute to our water problems by letting corporations privatized what once belonged to the public.
• The population is expected to grow from 6 billion to 9 billion by 2050, according to the UN.
• In fewer than 20 years the demand for fresh water will exceed capacity by over 50%.
• The World Health Organization estimates that at any one time, up to half of the human population suffers from one of 6 main illnesses associated with water shortage (diarrhea, schistosomiasis, trachoma, ascaris, guinea worm, and hookworm).
  

Some Solutions

• Conserving water on a global scale
  
• Curbing pollution
• Slowing population growth
• Managing supply and demand better
  
• Repairing ageing water infrastructure
• Developing desalination technology
  

Using a market approach to water management is held as both a source and solution to the problem. Lacking neoliberal credentials, perspective, and values, I consider turning control of water management over to corporations, who exist for the sole purpose of making a profit, and whose rights to do so may override my own rights to healthy living conditions, as fueling and not solving the problem. (Sort of like the Santa Ana winds during a fire...) (More on "corporate personhood" here.)

Australia, which is facing severe water shortages in cities like Perth, which has had a 21% decline in rainfall in the last decade, is increasingly turning to desalination, causing some to predict that half of Perth's water may come from desalination technology in the coming 30 years. But, desalination is costly, both to initiate and operate. And some hold the United States, which once led the world in such research, accountable for abdicating the role of leading research and development to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Japan. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of the roughly 11,000 desalination plants in existence are located in the Middle East.

Disaster Scenarios

Like population density and high agricultural demands, reduced water supply has a synergistic effect on the damage caused by other disasters, as demonstrated by the Indian Ocean tsunami and Kobe earthquake, and, as I fear, the current wildfire storm raging in Southern California. Should California experience an earthquake large enough to break water lines, densely populated areas are likely to experience widespread panic, as well as high rates of illness and death due to lack of access to fresh water. (And by the way, if you haven't seen Roman Polanski's Chinatown, see it. Great film about Los Angeles land and water conspiracies.)

The Future

A recent study reported by the Guardian has given us a glimpse into our possible future. Analysts have projected widespread conflict by 2015 (just 13 years) due to water shortage, including:

1. Civil unrest
2. Mass migration
3. Economic collapse

Based on these projections, three visions of the future were concluded:

1. "Misery and shortages in the Megacities and drought in Africa"
2. "China leads recycling rush as world moves to a new hydro economy"
3. "Water is the means of social control as floods and disease devastate world"
   

And in California, the desert still pretends to be an oasis...

Here beneath the moon tonight
So pale and fragile
Is that shining in the distance I see
Real or just imagined?
Imagined mirages of agua

What are you going to do about it?


(Part I of a Series.)

TAGS: Water Supply, Water, Shortage, Environmentalism, Natural Resources, Conservation

Chemical Love

Frankly, there is so much going on in the world to anger me, it really doesn't matter what topic I land on; I'm enraged. Here's another one:

Dangerous chemicals in personal care products compromise health. It's true. And the active ingredient in antibacterial soap is chemically similar to Agent Orange. (You're soaking in it...) That's right, you thought you bought a ticket to the Land Free of Germs, but you actually took a ride on the Nerve Damage Express. And it's not just antibac soap, but shampoo, too. But wait, there's more...

Mark Schapiro has written a book, Exposed: the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products. It's on my reading list. From what I have read about the book so far, here's the thrust:

The argument advanced by U.S. industry that making products safer would destroy our economy is a big fat life. (I'M SHOCKED!) That many American and international companies produce two product lines--a hazard free product line for the EU, and a toxic line for the US and developing countries--is the roiling revelation. That the EU economy didn't collapse after such toxic chemicals were banned is the evidence "calling the bluff" of U.S. industry.

Investigative journalist Mark Schapiro discusses why companies that manufacture hazard-free products for the European Union often produce toxin-filled versions of the same items for America and developing countries.

Photo by AtomicMak

Great news. Yes, Democracy, our Democracy, allows us to buy this poison, in both senses of the phrase.

Why is that? Why does the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act allow the industry to police itself?

Why do we worry about toxic products from China, but give American toxic products a free pass?

Why are we (i.e., the Fraud and Drug Administration) willing to protect the public, but only if it doesn't impede the profit of our corporations?

Why do we keep letting American corporations get away with sacrificing our health and safety? (Read this list; it will kill you.)

Why do we do this when we know children are particularly vulnerable?

And congress is going to represent our interests? Ha! Like when the senate voted to protect drug companies' right to hold a monopoly?

What could have prompted these 49 Senators to vote to protect the profits of drug companies? Follow the money and you'll find your answer. As it turns out, nearly every one of the 49 Senators who voted against drug reimportation has accepted money from drug companies.

Some helpful resources:

• Here's a nice overview (from the UK, btw) of some of the more problematic ingredients.

• Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, by Environmental Working Group, lets you look up individual Cosmetic products and provides a hazard rating for ingredients, products, and companies. Try it; you will not be comforted.
  

• The Household Products Database, hosted by the US National Library of Medicine, can be used to look up the safety of individual chemical ingredients as well as that of products by brand.
  

• Delicious Organics shares tips for reducing exposures to industrial chemicals and safety information about a LONG list of chemicals.

• The Cancer Prevention Coalition has a succinct health-focused summary of cosmetics, industry, vulnerability, and ways to safeguard our health.

Things that make my soft skin crawl.

Lou knew...


TAGS: Health Care, Green, Consumer Safety, Toxic Chemicals, Personal Products, Lou Reed