I met with Debra Anderson and Brian Stewart in McCloud, a small "town" just east of Mt. Shasta.
McCloud
is blessed with an amazing water supply: Water springs flow straight
from the ground, gushing more clean, cold, volcanically-enhanced (!)
water than the community can ever hope to drink.
And that's the problem...
Nestle wants to bottle that water and sell it to people elsewhere in the State.
Well -- the problem is NOT that Nestle wants to bottle the water but the terms under which Nestle wants to do so [Prior posts].
Debra, who is president of the McCloud Watershed Council,
spoke with a mixture of concern and outrage over the handling of
McCloud's water -- worrying that the local population is too enamoured
of a deal that promises the "good old days" [i.e., the company town
security that the saw mill provided] and/or has not considered how
Nestle may choose to interpret a contract [here] that gives it a lot of leeway.
Brian is involved in local politics but spoke as a "general member of the public."
Listen to our one-hour and six minute [23MB MP3]
chat to learn more about how a community of 1,200 people reconciles
political, economic and environmental concerns as it tries to maintain
and improve its quality of life. [By amazing coincidence, a caller
asked about McCloud when I was on KALW a few days later. I was very happy to have enough knowledge to answer his question.]
Bottom Line:
There are costs and benefits to every decision, and McCloud's people
are wrestling with a decision that could enhance or destroy their way
of life.
The
most ambitious environmental project of the new year is being built right here
in San Francisco! David de Rothschild is assembling a boat from water bottles
and other recycled materials. David is a huge environmentalist, heir to a
banking fortune, founder of Adventure Ecology and, according to “earthfirst,” the
number one green hottie (my colleague Lauren agrees). He’s been all over the
world on his quest to bring attention to environmental devastation.
His
plan is to set out sail in March from the SF bay and make his way across the
Pacific Ocean to Australia. He will make several stops to document
the environmental impact of nuclear waste, garbage, and global warming. The first
leg of his journey, and the most interesting part to me, will be through the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This patch is located right above Hawaii, it's the size of Texas and contains
millions of tones of garbage. The currents pick up trash thrown into water and
carry it to this area where it has been accumulating and growing for a while. The
decomposing materials are dangerous for marine life and many animals like
turtles swallow this garbage and choke.
I’m
glad David agrees that bottled water is a waste of resources and super damaging
to the environment. How many Texas sized garbage patches will it take before we
start making real changes?
So, this is slightly old news (June 08), but eh, it's interesting news. So I just recently read this article in the good old New York Times. The basic idea is that Mayor Bloomberg has now joined over 30 other cities across the US and Canada to start riding city government of bottled water.
The mayors, after getting back from the United States Conference of Mayors, found this to be one issue of interest. Here are some of the reasons they site:
1. Bottled Water costs the city mad cash- According to Think Outside the Bottle, 4,000-10,000 times as much as the tap.
2. Plastic bottles may be recycled, but shoot- somehow they keep ending up in landfills, and New York City trash ends up in other states anyway.
3. Taking a pledge to elimate a case of water here and there doesn't amount to much in such a huge industry- but think about the bottled water contracts cities take on. That's hundreds of thousands of dollars. Whew.
However, we can't have a conversation about this without hearing from the folks that are impacted: The American Beverage Association, Pepsi and Coca Cola. So what did they say when they went to lobby against these measures? Here are a few of their reasons:
1. “It’s myopic and shortsighted — it’s like banning rope until you need a
lifeline,” said Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the association. “We’re
not trying to compete with tap water here. We are trying to supplement
the water available to consumers.”
2. We should talk about better water infastructure, as well as recycling. These are the main concerns.
3. Bottle water is much better than the other, duh duh duh, destructive drinks!
From all accounts read, these seem to be the continual talking points from the industry. So while Bloomberg and the New York City government are taking a stand on promoting deliciously pure NYC Tap Water, the industry is looking to combat more cities from jumping on the bandwagon.
This issue will surely be interesting to follow as the power house of Mayor Gavin Newsome and Mayor Michael Bloomberg keep promoting that TAP!
I love the concept, which engages people around funding water wells in Ethiopia. Their goal is to fund 40 wells throught the proceeds they gain from people buying Volvic- a bottle water brand. I say a huge HATS OFF! to this organization in not only partnering with business, but also funding UNICEF in it's efforts. They have done an excellent job of bringing together partners that already work in the region and are providing not only wells, but community support in education efforts and sanitation classes.
The only thing I tend to ponder when seeing campaigns like this one and others like "Ethos Water" is why are we raising funds for water campaigns, and selling bottled water to do it? There has been a significant amount of evidence that the bottled water industry many times sells tap water at a much higher price. Not only that, but the amount of plastic that is used and wasted throught the process of bottled water is very troubling, especially when looking at where these resources go. Plastic bottles produce tons of unessary waste and energy.
So my question remains, is the best way to promote water campaigns through expensive tap water, wasteful, bottled water? I think it's good to start looking at this and maybe offer more alternatives. What do you think?
