Monday, September 26, 2011

Thinking Twice About Water

. . . This. . .?

Or This?

TaPPeD - The Movie from David Garcia on Vimeo.



12 comments:

  1. Linda, I've only watched half the video so far and will come back for the rest . . . but . . . in the meantime . . .

    I have been boycotting Nestle since around 1974, initially because of the way it inappropriately promoted dried baby milk above breast milk in developing countries. My family is not happy with me - especially when Nestle took over Rowntrees and we no longer bought many of our favourite confections.

    We have also been boycotting Coca-cola for many years because of the way it was stripping water from an area in India so farms were running out of water for their crops.

    We have been wondering about Pepsi . . . bother!

    The sight of all those plastic bottles bobbing about in the river . . . !

    I suppose the answer is along the lines of vegetables - local sourcing.

    Our tap water here is unpleasant. When we moved into our house it turned milk sour, instantly, in our tea. This, we understand was due to the reaction of the chemicals in it (chlorine?) with the plastic pipes. As the lime-scale built up, this problem has gone. However, for a long while we filtered our tap water (which is what the video says some of the bottled water companies do too). But then we read that germs easily build up in the filters so the water can become unsafe to drink - so we stopped.

    It's a challenge, this.

    I'll come back to the film later. Maybe I'll find, by the end, the answer is revealed. Meanwhile . . . bother, bother, bother . . Imagine if ordinary citizens wandered the world, taking basic resources for free . . . what if I walked into someone else's neighbourhood and decided to take all the leaves from the trees to make compost . . . bother, bother . . .

    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  2. Every time I turn on the faucet I think about the future and water. It's very troubling. gail

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're way ahead of me Esther. In the last couple of years I've become so much more conscious about many of these issues.

    My kids, when they were young, weren't always happy with me either! They would have loved to have sodas, white bread, all kinds of packaged junky sweet stuff in the house I either refused entirely, or bought only rarely as a treat.

    They thank me now, and all are very conscientious about the choices they make for their, and their children's diets, and for the environmental choices they make. Children generally adopt the values of their parents (after they rebel against them first. . . :) It was difficult at the time when the girls were growing up. Still, then and now I'm confident it was the right thing sticking to my principles and putting their health and their health habits ahead of their media/advertising hypnosis and peer pressure. Fortunately, they're wide-awake now and are strong, independent women who know how to think for themselves, and make informed choices about what they put in their shopping carts.

    You're doing a good thing for your family even if they don't always appreciate it in the moment.

    I understand the challenge of good tap water. It's an issue here too, and filters aren't the perfect solution. A few months ago I used findaspring.com and was fortunate enough to find a local source of artesian water that tastes good and tests clean. It's a pain to haul and store, and it's not a perfect solution.

    It seems to me the key is recognizing the problem, investigating the options, and working out the best solution for our particular situation.

    It's important to bring the issue of bottled water and the harm it's causing to communities and the environment, especially the oceans, and privatizing public water sources into mass public awareness. The issues in the film are under the radar for too many of us.

    Agreed Gail.

    We can all do our part, and think soberly about which companies we support with our dollars. I rarely bought bottled water in the past, and intend to buy even less of it in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's good that they are debating the issues - water resource and plastic. Thank goodness my tap water is still drinkable after filtered and boiled. I hope it stays this way for a long time to come. I don't like those bottled water also as I am aware of how harmful those plastic bottles can be.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm ashamed to say I used to be one of those bottled water drinkers until about four years ago. I started saving the bottles and one day I realized I produce more waste in just water bottles than I did regular waste that had to be taken to the trash.

    BTW, did you see the pictures of the woman in Pennsylvania who could set the water coming out of her faucet on fire? There's so much methane in the water supply from natural gas drilling in the area that the water is flammable! She has to cook and clean with bottled water.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think so too Stephanie.

    You're fortunate having good tap water!

    Nothing to be ashamed of MBT! When we know better, we do better.

    Oh, now don't get me started on fracking . . . it's really horrible what it's doing to drinking water, and the environment in general in the areas where it's practiced.

    It's encouraging that so many of us from all walks of life, kids to old folks, are waking up and objecting to business as usual. Some things are changing, some things will need a lot more people waking up and standing up before they change. Either 'civilization' will change, or Mother Nature will change things for us.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous8:13 AM

    Very interesting post today. Makes you really stop & think.

    ReplyDelete
  8. In Australia we have a very dry country usually but strangely lately we have had floods in the countryside and major cities (Brisbane) I was just buzzing in as I love gardens. Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a scary thought!! It's sad to think that this will happen if we don't get our act together.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mission accomplished Racquel! :)

    It's been a crazy weather year, Bee's House! Thanks for buzzing in!

    It's definitely past time for us to get our act together Rohrebot.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Water has been a commodity in our Great Lake state for a while--big debate as to whether we want to sell it. I have a bucket in my bathtub where I collect water as it's warming up and the excess left after the shower, which I use in the garden or in the laundry depending on the season. Same with dehumidifier and A/C water. Love White Stripes in video. Can't watch more than that tho cuz it's too depressing and I'm already doing what i can.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Monica, I celebrate your environmental awareness and all you do on so many levels in your environmentally-friendly practices.

    The dehumidifier water is recycled here too. I've thought I should adopt your practice of conserving tap water as it's warming up. Don't be surprised at the bucket in the guest bathroom next time you come to visit! :) Thanks for the reminder - time for me to act on that great idea.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by! Comments are welcomed, and while I may not always respond here, I'm happy to pay you a visit.

While comments are invited, links to commercial websites are not, and comments containing them will be deleted.

(Note to spammers: Don't bother. Your comments are promptly deleted. Hiding in older posts won't help - they're moderated.)