Hi. You might want to get into this article at the bottom, with the blindfold tests. The 99@ stores now feature Crystal Guyser gallons in full-page ads and it's obvious that bottled water has become consumed truly en masse. The major water companies not only buy up public water all over the country, but water quality has to suffer. This is predictably yet another ecological disaster in the making, in scarcity and cost, aside from our already paying for public water at pennies on the dollar. The least we should do is test similarly and improve quality where needed. At best, that's what the private companies do, and with less public accountability. What a waste. Ed
'Environmental Insanity' to Drink Bottled Water When It Tastes As Good from the Tap By Cahal Milmo June 29, 2006, the Independent / UK http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1129855.ece Campaigners have attacked Britain's £2bn thirst for bottled water as "environmental insanity" after a report showed that tap water in the UK is among the safest and purest in the world. More than two billion litres of bottled water fly off shop shelves every year and sales are growing at nearly 9 per cent a year - one of the highest growth areas in retail. At an average of 95p per litre, it costs as much as petrol, while the average cost of tap water in the UK is £1 per 1,0000 litres. Consumption of these products now doubles every five years in Britain and represent 16 per cent of all soft drinks sold in the UK, with Britons on average consuming 37 litres of bottled water a year. Worldwide it is estimated that 154 billion litres of bottled water, generating revenues of £58bn, are now consumed each year - an increase of 57 per cent over five years. Environmentalists seized on the annual figures from the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) showing that tap water met stringent quality standards in 99.96 per cent of cases in 2005 - up 0.02 per cent on 2004. Green groups said that the statistics served to highlight the damaging ecological impact of bottled water. The energy cost of producing a billion plastic bottles from by-products of crude oil, transporting the water over hundreds or thousands of miles and then disposing of the containers in landfill sites or incinerators made bottled water one of Britain's most wasteful luxuries, they said. Vicky Hird, senior food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "People are being sold an incredibly seductive image with bottled water - that it is the key to health and well being. But what is not recognised is the huge cost in wasted resources that bottled water represents compared to the very high-quality water that is sitting in our taps at an fraction of the price to the planet and to our wallets.'' The DWI, a publicly funded agency in charge of monitoring water quality, said in its annual report that it was satisfied that water companies, under fire in parts of the country for abysmal leakage rates at a time of drought, were meeting targets to improve water quality. The 0.04 per cent of water that did not meet all testing criteria was still deemed safe to drink but presented localised problems with iron, nickel and lead levels. Richard Ehrlich, the wine writer, said yesterday that he had always favoured tap water over bottled water. After carrying out a blind taste test of tap water versus Evian and Volvic, he praised his winning glass of Thames Water as "so pure and neutral it was almost sweet". Urging consumers to follow his lead, he added: "Do you really think that bottled water is purer than the tap water provided by your local water company? Chances are that it is not. The water coming out of your unloved kitchen tap is just as pure, if not purer." Britain imports about 25 per cent of its bottled water, the vast majority from France. The industry insists that the global figure for imported water is less than 5 per cent. But it amounts to an additional environmental burden caused by a profligate "throwaway" society at a time of global warming, according to campaigners. One recent study calculated that the bottled water industry in the UK generated annually about 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions through transport - equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 6,000 homes. According to industry figures, Britons consume about 1.5 billion litres of water each year from bottles made out of polyethylene terephthalate or PET - a plastic made out of crude oil extracts. Despite a reduction of 30 per cent in the amount of PET that goes into each bottle, only about 10 per cent of the bottles are recycled. Most go to landfill, where they take 450 years to break down. The Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based think-tank, said the situation in Britain was being replicated across the developed world with bottled water being transported across borders to reach consumers. Janet Larsen, its director of research, said: "Transporting water around the globe involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels and thus emitting greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. This contrasts starkly with tap water, which is distributed through an energy efficient infrastructure." While Britons drinkan average of 37 litres per person a year, the UK lags far behind the world's most profligate bottled water consumers. The French drink 141 litres, the Mexicans 169 litres and the Italians have the highest per capita consumption at 184 litres. Representatives of the industry insisted yesterday that consumers and manufacturers were paying the extra cost of bottled water through its elevated cost. A spokesman for the British Soft Drinks Association said: "Bottled water is a matter of consumer choice - it offers convenience, a choice of taste and composition and the fact that it is unprocessed. "There are environmental considerations. Recycling is an issue that encompasses manufacturers, consumers and local authorities but those factors are already included in the cost that people are paying for bottled water." Taking the taste test Scott Woods 51 Psychotherapist from Islington, London VOLVIC: Quite nice, not too sharp. TAP: There's nothing in the taste telling me it's tap. EVIAN: That's tap. "In London we are one of the few cities where people actually have to buy water when they are out. We should be putting water dispensers everywhere, especially on the Tube." Aride Cillia 36 Mother and housewife from Islington, London EVIAN: That's tap water. It tastes flat and lifeless. TAP: I think that's Volvic. VOLVIC: Ah, that's quite similar to the last one. "I do drink tap water at home but when I'm out I'll buy bottled. I've no concerns about tap water health-wise. Maybe people started using bottled water because they got the idea it's safer but I don't think that's true in this country." Jason Boon 35 Flower-seller from Regent's Park, London VOLVIC: Very soft, that's the tap water. TAP: Could be Volvic, it tastes rougher than the last one. EVIAN: Ah, that's really smooth, that's Evian definitely. "I buy bottled water all the time. I believe the advertising that they have minerals and are somehow good for me. Now that I've done this test and couldn't tell the difference, I think I should stop buying the bottled water!" ____________________________________________ portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left. To subscribe: http://www.portside.org/subscribe To search the portside archive: http://www.portside.org/archive *** Commentaries are sent to Sustainer Donors of Z/ZNet To learn more, consult ZNet at http://www.zmag.org Today's commentary: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-06/26shiva.cfm ================================== ZNet Commentary End of Cheap Oil, The Global Energy Crisis and Climate Change June 26, 2006 By Vandana Shiva The increase in oil prices has led to protests, which have moved to the center stage of Indian politics, displacing the protests against reservations in medical and engineering colleges. Increase in oil prices translates into higher prices of all commodities. As Hindustan Times reported oil price hike turns cereal killer (Hindustan Times, Wednesday, June 14, 2006, p.2 table). Yet the increase in oil prices in world markets is inevitable because the resource is dwindling and supplies have peaked, peak oil means the end of cheap oil, and an end to economies organized around the increasing availability of cheap oil. Oil is a non-renewable resource. We have always known that yet the world has been behaving as if oil is in endless supply. And we in India who have lived in a biodiversity and biomass energy economy are rushing into oil addiction precisely when the global oil supply is running low and prices are running high. The Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO), an umbrella organization of oil expects, mainly geologists who helped find oil fields are now warning us that there are only a trillion barrels or less of oil left, and the supply will peak within this decade. "Peak Oil", or the topping point, is the highest amount that can ever be pumped. Beyond "peak oil", there will be an overall decline in production and an increase in oil prices. Oil that costs $5 per barrel to extract could become $ 100 per barrel when confidence in supply erodes and demand increases, and there is recognition that we are in a world of shrinking oil supplies, not growing supplies. Why are we as a country tying our future to a resource that must shrink and become more costly? As we build more superhighways and mega cities, destroying the decentralized fabric of our socio-economic organization, we need to ask how long will this last? There is another reason to stop this frenzy of oil addiction, and that is climate change, or more accurately, climate chaos. Climate change is caused by fossil fuel emissions, and stabilizing carbon dioxide emissions is an ecological imperative. This is why the Kyoto Protocol to the climate change convention was signed. The insurance industry, which takes over $ 2 trillion in annual premiums, and is bigger than the oil industry, is now a major player in addressing climate change since they have to pay billions out in insurance as cities flood, cyclones such as Katrina uproot entire communities and heat waves kill. The costs of climate change to the people of India are extremely high. The 1999 Orissa super cyclone and the Bombay floods of July 2006 are just two better-known extreme events linked to a changing climate. This winter, we had no rains during the wheat season, and heavy downpours during the wheat harvest. Heavy rains before the monsoon in the catchments of the Ganga and Yamuna destroyed crops so that farmers did not even have seeds to sow. And in Sikkim, heavy rains led to land slides, which disrupted Gangtok's water supply. I was in Sikkim during the crisis and we lived on one bucket a day. The fossil fuel economy is based on two illusions - one, that we can keep up our oil addiction, and two, that substituting renewable energy with fossil fuel has only benefits, no costs. Climate change is very high cost of an economy based on oil. We are starting to eat oil and drink oil. Oil is at the heart of industrial food production and processing, and long distance food transport. The wheat, India is importing is not just bringing weeds, pests and pesticides. It is also carrying thousands of "food miles". Imagine a Tsunami or cyclone if our food supplies become dependent on wheat from U.S and Australia. And imagine the cost of wheat as oil prices rise, and wheat embodies more oil than nutrition. We are also drinking oil, not water. When Coca Cola and Pepsi pump 1.5 to 2 million a day to fill their soft drink and water bottles, and transport them to the remotest part of India, water embodies oil both in its extraction and transport. It is increasingly impossible to find clean water in our wells and springs. But Aqua Fina and Kinley has reached every village, selling water which has become oil, packaged in a plastic bottle made from oil. While the political parties protest against the hike in oil prices, society also needs to start taking a long-term view of the ecological, economic and social costs of our growing oil addition. We need to start addressing strategic issues of real and sustainable energy security in the context of peak oil, the end of cheap oil, and the climate chaos that the era of cheap oil has left as an environmental burden on the planet. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Groups gets a make over. 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