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Pam’s Commentary
February 14, 2006
www.pamkilleen.com
Re: Eau, no: Clean,
healthy and pure? Hardly. Bottled water is killing the
planet (story below commentary)
It’s interesting to see
that more and more people are exposing the dark side of
bottled water. As you read the story below, you’ll see
just how dark this story is. It’s sad that things have
gone this far. Just consider the downward spiral of the
beverage industry – from pop to juice to sports drinks
to designer drinks and now, to water? Bottled water is a
sign that we’ve hit rock bottom. We’ve gone from the
sublime to the ridiculous.
If they would take chemicals such
as fluoride and chlorine out of city water, maybe people
would be more willing to drink it. As I understand it,
there are safer, cleaner alternatives to cleaning
municipal water, but they continue to use chlorine. To
learn more about the dangers of fluoride, see my
interview with Dr. Paul Connett in the archives.
As long as water (either bottled or municipal) is not
“The Real Thing”, water filtration companies will
certainly retain or gain sales. This may not be such a
bad thing. When it comes to municipal water, I would
prefer to filter my water, avoiding fluoride, chlorine,
traces of medication and God knows what else.
This story below exposes the many
problems associated with bottled water. Maybe city water
is a better choice, but I think that it could be
improved. Unadulterated, clean, pure water. Shouldn’t
that be called, “The Real Thing”? Isn’t that what we
should all be striving for?
Dissing bottled water and
supporting city water still doesn’t resolve the many
issues related to the beverage industry. With Coke and
Pepsi pushing the sales of bottled water, I’m sure that
it will take a while before this story about the ‘dark
side of bottled water’ reaches the masses.
If water is as expensive, or in
some cases, even more expensive than gasoline, it should
be no surprise that the corporations are in line waiting
to make a profit. They say that future wars will be over
water, but I think a water war is going on right now -
the war over who can make the most profits on bottled
water.
So, what should we be drinking?
How does a story about bottled water distract us from
the truth or finding a solution? We should be drinking
fermented drinks such as kvass or rejuvelac. You can
find out how to make fermented drinks in Sally Fallon’s
cookbook, Nourishing Traditions or in Sandor
Katz’s book, Wild Fermentation. The other perfect
beverage is whole raw milk or kefir from organically
raised, grassfed cows.
Unfortunately for our children, it
won’t be any day soon before we find these types of
drinks in vending machines at the schools. (see story
below)
Eau, no: Clean,
healthy and pure? Hardly. Bottled water is killing the
planet
And our thirst grows, with 154 billion litres drunk
in one year.
By Jon Neale and Jonathan Thompson
Published: 12 February 2006
Bottled water, the
designer-look drink that has become a near-universal ac-cessory
of modern life, may be refreshing but it certainly isn't
clean. A major new study has concluded that its
production is seriously damaging the environment.
It costs 10,000 times
more to create the bottled version than it does to
produce tap water, say scientists. Huge resources are
needed to draw it from the ground, add largely
irrelevant minerals, and package and distribute it -
sometimes half-way around the world.
The plastic bottles it
comes in take 1,000 years to biodegrade, and in
industrialised countries, bottled water is no more pure
and healthy than what comes out of the tap.
The new study comes from
the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington-based
environmental group which has previously alerted the
world to melting ice caps, expanding deserts and the
environmental threats of a rapidly industrialising
China. It points out that the world consumed a
staggering 154 billion litres of bottled water in 2004 -
an increase of 57 per cent in just half a decade.
Emily Arnold, the
report's author, said: "Even in areas where tap water is
safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing -
producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast
quantities of energy."
Leading activists and
high profile environmentalists yesterday voiced their
approval of the study, and concern over the effect our
seemingly insatiable appetite for bottled water is
having.
Bob Geldof said: "Bottled
water is bollocks. It is the great irony of the 21st
century that the most basic things in the supermarket,
such as water and bread, are among the most expensive.
Getting water from the other side of the world and
transporting it to sell here is ridiculous. It is all to
do with lifestyle."
Dr Michael Warhurst,
Friends of the Earth's senior waste campaigner, said:
"It is another product we do not need. Bottled water
companies are wasting resources and exacerbating climate
change.
"Transport is the fastest
growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, and
transporting water adds to that. We could help reduce
these damaging effects if we all simply drank water
straight from the tap."
According to the EPI
report, tap water is delivered through an
"energy-efficient infrastructure", whereas bottled water
is often shipped halfway across the world, burning huge
amounts of fossil fuels and accelerating global warming.
In 2004, for example, Finnish company Nord Water sent
1.4 million bottles of Helsinki tap water to a client in
Saudi Arabia. In the same year, producing the plastic
bottles that delivered 26 billion litres of water to
Americans required more than 1.5 million barrels of oil
- enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year.
Peter Ainsworth, the
shadow Secretary of State for Environ-ment,said: "It
doesn't take a huge leap of the imagination to work out
that they're on to something here. It is obvious that
there are big environmental issues around bottled water,
and people need to be made more aware of them."
The UK is by no means the
biggest consumer of bottled water - the average Briton
drank 33 litres in 2004, a sixth of the amount drunk by
the typical Italian - but sales are rocketing. Coca-Cola
bought the Malvern brand in 1999, seeing it as a remedy
to falling sales of soft drinks.
The US's second most
imported brand, Fiji, which is shipped around the world
from the middle of the South Pacific, has been gaining
ground in the UK. Fashionable London restaurant Nobu
charges £5 for small bottles, and is even rumoured to
boil its rice in it. It has been featured in popular TV
series such as Sex and the City and Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, and is rumoured to be the choice of Tom Cruise,
Ozzy Osbourne, Heather Graham, Jennifer Aniston and
Renee Zellweger.
Bottled water, the designer-look drink that has
become a near-universal accessory of modern life, may be
refreshing but it certainly isn't clean. A major new
study has concluded that its production is seriously
damaging the environment.
It costs 10,000 times more to create the bottled
version than it does to produce tap water, say
scientists. Huge resources are needed to draw it from
the ground, add largely irrelevant minerals, and package
and distribute it - sometimes half-way around the world.
The plastic bottles it comes in take 1,000 years to
biodegrade, and in industrialised countries, bottled
water is no more pure and healthy than what comes out of
the tap.
The new study comes from the Earth Policy Institute (EPI),
a Washington-based environmental group which has
previously alerted the world to melting ice caps,
expanding deserts and the environmental threats of a
rapidly industrialising China. It points out that the
world consumed a staggering 154 billion litres of
bottled water in 2004 - an increase of 57 per cent in
just half a decade.
Emily Arnold, the report's author, said: "Even in
areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for
bottled water is increasing - producing unnecessary
garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy."
Leading activists and high profile environmentalists
yesterday voiced their approval of the study, and
concern over the effect our seemingly insatiable
appetite for bottled water is having.
Bob Geldof said: "Bottled water is bollocks. It is
the great irony of the 21st century that the most basic
things in the supermarket, such as water and bread, are
among the most expensive. Getting water from the other
side of the world and transporting it to sell here is
ridiculous. It is all to do with lifestyle."
Dr Michael Warhurst, Friends of the Earth's senior
waste campaigner, said: "It is another product we do not
need. Bottled water companies are wasting resources and
exacerbating climate change.
"Transport is the fastest growing source of
greenhouse gas emissions, and transporting water adds to
that. We could help reduce these damaging effects if we
all simply drank water straight from the tap."
According to the EPI report, tap water is delivered
through an "energy-efficient infrastructure", whereas
bottled water is often shipped halfway across the world,
burning huge amounts of fossil fuels and accelerating
global warming. In 2004, for example, Finnish company
Nord Water sent 1.4 million bottles of Helsinki tap
water to a client in Saudi Arabia. In the same year,
producing the plastic bottles that delivered 26 billion
litres of water to Americans required more than 1.5
million barrels of oil - enough to fuel 100,000 cars for
a year.
Peter Ainsworth, the shadow Secretary of State for
Environment, said: "It doesn't take a huge leap of the
imagination to work out that they're on to something
here. It is obvious that there are big environmental
issues around bottled water, and people need to be made
more aware of them."
The UK is by no means the biggest consumer of bottled
water - the average Briton drank 33 litres in 2004, a
sixth of the amount drunk by the typical Italian - but
sales are rocketing. Coca-Cola bought the Malvern brand
in 1999, seeing it as a remedy to falling sales of soft
drinks.
The US's second most imported brand, Fiji, which is
shipped around the world from the middle of the South
Pacific, has been gaining ground in the UK. Fashionable
London restaurant Nobu charges £5 for small bottles, and
is even rumoured to boil its rice in it. It has been
featured in popular TV series such as Sex and the City
and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is rumoured to be the
choice of Tom Cruise, Ozzy Osbourne, Heather Graham,
Jennifer Aniston and Renee Zellweger.
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