Greenpeace

Recenlty in one of my courses at Flagler, we have been studying various articles from an excellent text titled Global Issues, Local Arguments by June Johnson. One of the articles in particular really caught my attention and informed me on an issue I was certaintly unaware of. I now know that an illusion has been created that bottled water is better for you then tap water, because it may advertise that it is from "a fresh spring stream" or what have you. But actually when the National Resources Defense Council released a four year study in 1999, it was found that one-fifth of sampled bottled waters contained known neurotoxins and carcinogens. Basically out of 103 brands of bottled water, one-third contained traces of arsenic and E. coli. I never knew that the bottled water industry was one of the world's least regulated companies. I think it is disappointing and unacceptable that these corporations are obviously only exisiting to make profit, instead of working to improve the quality of the drinking water that they are selling.

"When the prices and environmental costs of bottled water get too high, you may find yourself going to war over water."

I thought water was supposed to be a human right? The World Bank encourages the privatization of the world's water supply.

"Indeed it is a strange day when the same corporation that makes bombs and missiles also owns your water, an "industry" that putatively will be the major focus of this century's wars."

 So..the solutions this article provide to this problem....

We should all consider investing our money in a water filter for our own tap water, and invest the money that we would have spent on bottled water toward public infastructure or watershed protection. After reading all about this it has encouraged me to either read more into the companies that I buy bottled water from to ensure exactly where it is coming from. and/or simply stop buying bottled water and invest in a water filter.

I think I will be more inclined to drink the tap water once I make my move up to the mountains. Tap water there is so much better than tap water in Florida. It tastes so good :) We all here in America should consider ourselves extremely lucky to have the water resources that we do. I am very grateful for the water that I replenish myself with everyday.