It's really hot today. Like 98 degrees. I am approaching six months pregnant and so I am sitting on my bed with the fan blowing on me while the girls are happily playing with their carboard box kitchen. As it was about as hot yesterday I spent this portion of the day in bed reading. ( doing anything from noon to three in this kind of heat represeants a work ethic that I do not posess and the best thing to do is be lazy until it cools off. )
So of course when you hot and grouchy and you are reading the Arlington Catholic Herald you undoubtably find something that you read that makes you really annoyed. This time there was an arlicle by that Glenmary Appalaicia priest about bottled water.
I didn't realize this but you know that Fiji water? The fancy expensive bottled water, that people drink. . . mostly I see them drinking it in California but I did see one of their bottles flug aside on the roadside here in Virignia amongst the Mcdonalds wrappers Front Royalians seem to love to fling from their automobiles. I guess it acutally comes from beautiful springs in Fiji and people who drink it think that they are getting only the purest best tasking mineral rich water in the world.
And they are!
But at what cost? Apparently the Fiji plastic bottles are produced in China then trucked and shipped to Fiji, then filled at their plant and shipped back to the states where people pay a ton for the water and then apparently chuck their bottle out of their car where it joins the rest of the trash gracing our highways and biways. The extreme cost and complexity invloved in getting this water is astonishing. But then on top of it. Many of the hardworking residents of the island of Fiji have lno acsess to clean water at all.
So next time reach for the Aquafina or the Dasani. . . which at the very least is good ol' USA tap water produced here. (I'm looking at you, Josepha!!!!)
Me? I'm a stingy bastard so I'll keep filling my Nalgene bottle with free tap water. And probably someday soon I'll break down and splurge on a britta filter.
Oh and if you type in "bottled water" into Wikipedia, (Ben's favorite) you'll find out way more than you ever wanted to know about bottled water.
Sorry for a complainy post. That just got my ire up.
7 comments:
I'm not going to complain about your spelling, but I have to ask...
Who is Jospeha?
Where is Chinia?
I learned of your blog from Regina Doman's houseartjournal. I am a mother of 4 little ones living in the Philly area. Anyways, I just wanted to give you a heads up on nalgene bottles. My husband brought this article to my attN in 2005 and it might be worth a read. Thanks for the fiji story. Ps: I love your clothes line!~Sarah A
http://www.mercola.com/2004/apr/7/nalgene_water.htm
I love FIJI water!!! Well, okay I don't really care about the water, it's more the square bottles that I love. They are so funny because they don't fit in cupholders, but they do stand up nicely on refrigerator shelves. I buy a bottle of Fiji water at Barnes & Noble sometimes and then keep refilling the bottle with tap water until I lose it, or until Baxter gets it, or until it starts to smell. We don't have a britta filter either but we've started buying those huge square containers of Ice Mountain water to keep in the fridge because they're less than $3 and they last a number of weeks. Then you've got really cold water ON DEMAND!!!
Amen, Amen...the irony of it all. The same folks who make Fiji, Italy, and France the largest suppliers of drinking water to the US are likely the same ones who talk so big about the environment, global warming, etc. They don't seem to make the connection, though, about the plastics they are introducing, the fuel they're using, and the carbon they're pumping into the atmosphere as their bottles, both empty and full, are being flown around the world. At the same time, they are spreading the myth that there is something wrong with our tap water, which is probably MORE healthful for them in the long run.
Anyone want to buy a bag of air?
Alright, since I always get all the grief for things....that Anonymous Post was NOT ME!!!! I think it was Sarah or Daddy. I agree with everything it said, but IT WAS NOT ME.
Love, Mama
PS I just found out the truth...it was DADDY!!!! And he would have let me take the blame for it. Anna, I'm not sure Daddy and your Dad should get together....they seem to both have the bad habit of letting their wives take the blame!!
SO true! I can't believe the fuss being made over Aquafina when you put it in perspective like that- I'll definitely reach for the Aquafina next time- you know it's bottled locally. Now if you could just get everyone to recycle.....
and be sure to recycle the bottle too! I'm not much of a tree hugger, but MAN--those landfills filled with clear plastic bottles are a little ridiculous!!!
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