Story of Bottled Water

I came across this article today while reading news on the internet. I am so glad that people like Annie Leonard are taking the initiative to wake people up and break the common misconceptions we have about drinking bottled water.

I, for one, have always been an advocate of carrying around my Nalgene bottle filled with nice filtered water... yay!!! :) mostly for the environment. I try my best to reuse most plastic stuff, whether it is ziplocks or gladware or yogurt containers...but with bottled water, I refrain from buying bottled water except for when traveling or when I am not sure if tap water is safe to drink. Most restaurants, I just ask for tap water as well.. but now I have more than just one reason to not only continue my good habit of carrying my own water in a reusable, environment-friendly bottle, but also promote a lesser known fact -- BOTTLED WATER IS NOT NECESSARILY SAFER THAN TAP WATER...

The excerpt from the aritcle I found online is at the end of my post and also embedded is a nice cartoon video that brings to light certain truth about the popular bottled water brands like Aquafina, Dasani and Fiji (no, the water does not come from Fiji). Also, more often than not, water also does not come from some mountain springs, but is just plain old filtered water from the tap.

Its really amazing how these corporations have used the fear factor to get us to think that bottled water is safer than tap water and gotten us to keep spending our precious dollars to buy their nicely packaged and smartly advertised bottled water.

A big shocker for me was when I learned through the video that most plastic bottles are shipped to India where they are not recycled the way plastic is supposed to..more details in the video... do check it out... the best 8 minutes you will ever spend! =) seriously!!! :)

Annie Leonard's "Story of Bottled Water" Should Make Fiji Nervous

BY Ariel SchwartzMon Mar 22, 2010

Annie Leonard, the mastermind behind The Story of Stuff and The Story of Cap and Trade, has released the latest in her series of animations about environmental issues, just in time for World Water Day. The Story of Bottled Water breaks down the problems with our beloved water in signature Annie Leonard form, with juicy tidbits like: one third of bottled water comes from the tap! And enough oil and energy to fuel a million cars is used to make bottled water in the U.S. each year! Okay, so tap water enthusiasts might already know most of what Leonard discusses in the video, but it's worth it to gather your bottled water-loving friends around the computer for 8 minutes to teach them in an easily digestible animation just why their Fiji and Dasani is so unnecessary.

Encroachment of space

Today, we humans have become so powerful that we tend to take advantage of all the freedom we have...I recently came across an article where 2 tiger cubs were poisoned to death because they killed a couple of goats on the outskirts of the Ranthambhore National Park (India). The goat herders were so furious that they decided to poison the killed goats and leave them for the tiger to feed on... the tigers did so and later died due to poisoning.

Even though the Bengal tiger numbers are fast falling, there is no process in place to protect these tigers from extinction. Apparently, the loss the goat herders incurred due to the death of those two goats was close to rupees two thousand. While I do understand that this is a big number for these villagers, the question is... is it right for us to encroach upon their (the wild animals') space and then kill them later for them simply wandering about in their own territory and habitat?

Reading the article made me weak in the knees... it makes me sad that such has become the state of affairs not only in a country like India but all over the world where humans are taking over more and more of the wildlife space that belongs to the wild creatures....

leave them alone and they will leave you alone...

Here's is the detailed article:

http://www.dickysingh.com/2010/03/two-tiger-poisoned-in-ranthambhore-tiger-reserve/