Tuesday, February 13, 2007

THANK YOU!! I mean, why pay for it?!?

Do you live in a city/town/village with drinkable water?

I'm not talking about what your opinion is, I'm asking if your water is potable (suitable for drinking)?

One third (1/3) of the world does not have potable drinking water.

And we, the privileged, pay through the nose to carry filtered tap water from other towns in plastic bottles.

Via the ever-lovely Nag, comes this story of some ad agencies that are undertaking a monumental task -- to wean us from our bottled water.

Tie it in to Creatrix' post on Brita's incredibly misleading ad, and you've got your 8 glasses a day.

I don't know about you, but I'm thirsty.

Lori

7 comments:

Metro said...

On the subject of that "8-Glasses-Per-Day" fiction:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

And of course:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16614865/

Anonymous said...

Snopes is great for those hoax virus alerts, but they're not the best source for scientific information. MSNBC? Not really.

But yes, it's totally stupid to pay for water; the only reason I ever buy bottled water is that you can't keep those action-topped plastic bottles forever because you can't adequately clean inside them. Otherwise, I'd just wash the same damn one over and over.

Anonymous said...

I see the mayor of Coquitlam is also trying to wean people from landfill-clogging water bottles:
http://tinyurl.com/2dgt84
Good!

By the way, reuseable water bottles leach toxins into your water:
http://tinyurl.com/ynvrqs

Metro said...

What's wrong with Snopes? Especially when what they're pointing to here is that the "X glasses a day" we've been fed by Coca-Cola (Dasani) and Pepsi (Aquafina) is bull?

Anonymous said...

I drink about 2 litres of water a day - not sure how many glasses that makes. But people often comment on how much water I drink.

And yes, I do pay for bottled mineral water - about 50 cents for a 2-litre bottle. It comes from the mountains not too far from here.

This started when I first moved to Seville during a drought in 1993. There was water rationing and after awhile the drinking water was being taken from the river (gack!). And although it was still 'safe to drink' it stank so badly of chemicals that it was even awful having to shower in it, let alone drink it.

So by the time the drought ended I was so used to drinking mineral water that even now I can taste the chemicals in the tap water (though I use it for coffee & tea and cooking).

But even though I do recycle my plastic bottles I often feel guilty for using up so much plastic on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, what's with this Aquafina crap? It's just treated tap water.

Lori said...

I've not popped back into this comment thread yet, because I thought you'd all been doing just fine without me.

Metro and I buy water bottles if we're traveling in the car. We've bought cheap cases of the small bottles a couple of times, and kept them in the car, for liquid emergencies. I carry a big, wide-topped water bottle that I fill from the tap wherever I happen to be.

Az, I understand though. I think it was in Quesnel (a town further north) when I was a kid, the water reeked of sulphur. We were visiting friends, and I was shocked when a glass of water was put in front of me. I was expected to drink it? Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Pulp mill towns are a bit better now days (taller stacks; less sulphur emissions or better filters)but I remember what you mean. After I moved from Squamish I opened my trunk of winter stuff and was transported 3000 miles! Luckily our drinking water was from a mountain stream, very tasty. I have bought water in Mexico, nowhere else. Seeing grown adults sucking on their babaas being Chicken Littles gives me a good laugh though!