Bottled Water Banned.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 05:32PM 
A while back I was watching Lewis Black doing stand-up on Comedy Central - an insanely funny political comedian - when he was ranting about bottled water. I was in tears of laughter at how ridiculous he made the concept of bottled water look. And you know what? He’s right. Back in the day I played all day in the burning sun with my friends but we never set foot inside of our homes. For those of you that grew up in the black homes of middle class neighborhoods you know where I’m going with this
Mamas didn’t want our sweaty, musty, muddy nasty asses trampling around in their homes knocking over vases and dirtying up the good furniture in the living room, so we had to stay outside all day. Once you set foot outside of the house to play your only ticket back in the house was after a hot bath - hell naw - but what’s a kid to do about dying from thurst? There was two choices: Go in the house to get a drink of water and risk getting caught by mom, which meant taking a bath and never being able to return outside or drink from the hose. So we stayed outside and drank water straight from the water hose.
So I could easily relate to Black’s rant - back in the day you could drink crisp, cool water straight from the hose. Hell, even tap water straight from the sink was good. Now you have to go to the store and pay for it? The hell? Black’s routine got me to thinking back when this ridiculous phenomenon first happened. I thought it was the stupidest idea a human being could ever think of. How inconvenient is it to have to leave the sanctity of your own home full of faucets that gush water at the twist of a nob and travel to the store and stock up on - water. Next thing you know they’ll try to sell us oxygen. New and improved oxygen with less nutrisweet and more trans fat!
Well, at the time, Black’s routine had me rolling all over the floor but little did I realize how serious this issue could be until I came across an article about San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome banning bottled water from city departments and water coolers. The ban goes into effect July 1, and will extend to water coolers by Dec. 1. Over 40 million gallons of oil are used to make the plastic water bottles we purchase each year, according to mayor Newsome’s announcement. Like other uses of fossil fuels, the process of making plastic bottles releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that most scientists tie to global warming. Talk about life immitating art. The bottled water industry has had profound negative environmental effects, Newsome said, its plastic bottles requiring oil to produce, and releasing one billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. More than a billion plastic water bottles end up in California landfills annually, he said, taking 1,000 years to biodegrade and leaking toxic additives into the groundwater.
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Reader Comments (9)
Hmmm interesting. I know those little plastic bottles are not reusable, so they do create a lot of trash.I did not think about the making factor for them. Good insight and food for thought. We use filtered water from the big blue reusable bottles. I remember drink from the water hose. Back then it tasted like water, now... it taste like rusty nails. SOm eplaces are worst than others.From what I hear S.F. has a pretty decent water supply, but not all areas are so lucky. The water is light brown woth lots of stuff floating in it when you look a glass full.Some say though we have the safest water around...they treat it with everything. The public water system has a standard to pass, where Bottled water does not. It is hard to tell who speaks the truth, I guess one has to figure it out on their own. The truth is in the taste.
One thing for sure, we are drowning in our our crap, in the air, in the water, in the soil...
Yeah, I remember drinking from the hose when I was younger. Also, peeing behind bushes when no one was looking. Those two went hand in hand.
I cut down on my bottled water consumption because it is ridiculously expensive. A pack of 24 half liter Poland Spring water is about 8 dollars where I live. Meanwhile, reusing the 1 1/2 liter bottle from the tap in a BK apartment is nice and cheap.
You know what? The easiest way to avoid needing bottled water is to buy one of those Brita faucet filters or one of those water containers with a built in filter. Either way they pay for themselves over time.
Here's another thought: How about restricting sales of bottled water to convenience stores. I look at it this way, millions of people travel hundreds of miles away from home. It would be logical for those people to have a choice other than soft drinks and fruit drinks when they're far from home. Otherwise, water filters need to emphasized more in commercials and stores.
The Brita filters are good, we use one as well.
I also like to use/have a couple of 3 gal bottles of heavy filtered water on hand, living in an earthquake zone, one never knows...
Hey!!!! there is someone else here !! ;-)
PS, Yo Veng, I got my eye on a couples of Cats...
http://www.time-for-a-catamaran-adventure.com/catamaran-designers.html
Thanks for the link, Zen. I bookmarked it. But you know what I really need to be doing is taking sailing classes. I was reading up on the type of technology they have out there now to read weather patterns and navigation and whatnot. I've got to take a serious class one day.
The new techno stuff is great!!
Really Helps...But the best is balancing the two, feeling & tech, Like knowing a computer but also knowing the traditional hand art. Batteries die, some places eletros do not work. Uncle Sam sees to that!
I think once you really get into sailing nothing will hold you back.U R that type, kickn it from island to island :-)
Sailboat(cat), Suba, Honey... I can see ya now...Yo, Veng wait up...:-)
oops ...scuba
Yeah I gotta get certified to scuba too. I can see myself living on a boat. I love the hell out of water and I love exploring new places. What better way to explore than to take your home with you.