A throwback: The real costs of bottled water

[TheAmazon]

I originally found this article in The print issue of September/October Yoga Journal 2005. The linked article can be found below:

http://www.yogajournal.com/views/1800_1.cfm

Guardian at the Gate

Vandana Shiva is an environmental activist, work she comes by naturally.

By Dayna Macy

She grew up in Dehradun, India, in the shadow of the Himalayas, where her father was a conservator of forests and her mother a farmer. She began her career as a physicist but felt drawn toward environmental and social justice work. Her latest cause is helping to save the world's freshwater supply, which is alarmingly low. Shiva (www.vshiva.net), the author of Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit (South End Press, 2002), believes we can reverse that trend with a few simple changes.

Why is today's supply of fresh water so low? Our entire development and technological models assumed we had limitless water, so we've increased water use way beyond levels that we can renew—and much of what's left is unfit for drinking. In addition, private ownership of water by companies like Suez, Veolia Water, and Bechtel takes it away from those who don't have money. I call it "hydro-apartheid."

What can we do to become more responsible water stewards? Eat food grown close to home, support organic farming, and diversify your diet. Foods like amaranth and millet need little water but can feed millions. Try not to put clean drinking water down the drain and urge your city to recycle gray water for household and garden use. Also, wean yourself from bottled water. For every bottle sold, ten times as much water is destroyed from where it was mined. That leaves local communities with polluted water or none at all. Plus, plastic bottles leach dioxins into our groundwater. We all have equal rights to water and equal responsibility for protecting it.

Has being a mother affected your environmental work? My son is a daily reminder of the future. And we have to think about future generations.

How are you able to maintain such a busy schedule? I don't calculate on the basis of "Am I doing too much?" I have to think of my obligation to the next generation.

How do you remain optimistic? There's a much bigger order out there, and it is our duty to learn to live in consonance with the planet's rhythms and processes. Just this basic realization teaches us humility and gives us reason to hope. To be really hopeful you also have to be deeply humble. We each must do all we can to allow our humility to flower.




September/October 2005




I didn't neccesarily make this post for bickering back and forth on insignifigant minute details,

strictly for the Awarness.

[TheAmazon]

I remember a similar discussion that went on..months ago

and i remember people not understanding how companies are literaly going over in third world countries and taking over water supplies and charging already horribly poor individuals for water they once could get for free

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/h...ive/html/5.stm

[TheAmazon]

the previous is a picture..but for some reason i'm not allowed to post pictures as once previous.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by TheAmazon

In addition, private ownership of water by companies like Suez, Veolia Water, and Bechtel takes it away from those who don't have money. I call it "hydro-apartheid."

Most people call it private property and industry.

Bottled water companies are racist huh? Is that what we're supposed to take from the remark? Or are we just supposed to take the word as amorphous condemnation through association?

Yes, we as residents of the planet need to use our resources more responsibly but irresponsible comments like "hydro-aparthied" are just stupid.

Anyway - my major beef with water irresponsibility... building cities in the fucking desert (Los Angeles, Arizona in general etc) and diverting and collecting most of a regions water resources to sustain it (and the lawns and golf courses.)

[Element4040]

Originally Posted by xian

Anyway - my major beef with water irresponsibility... building cities in the fucking desert (Los Angeles, Arizona in general etc) and diverting and collecting most of a regions water resources to sustain it (and the lawns and golf courses.)

Agreed, there is a good book on that as well, can't remember the name of it off hand. If you are interested I'll try to find out.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Element4040

Agreed, there is a good book on that as well, can't remember the name of it off hand. If you are interested I'll try to find out.

sufficiently annoyed without need for more.... everybody going to Coachella... check out the beautiful gold courses and polo grounds in the middle of that sea of sand... great example of what I'm talking about

[Element4040]

Originally Posted by xian

sufficiently annoyed without need for more.... everybody going to Coachella... check out the beautiful gold courses and polo grounds in the middle of that sea of sand... great example of what I'm talking about

Cadillac Desert: The American West and it's disappearing water.

Interesting read about the over development of the desert regions in Western America. Should be required reading for college students these days, as they will be the ones having to confront this very serious issue.

We saw it right here in our neck of the woods last summer. Our (man-made) lakes in this region got severely depleted and it won't be long before rationing turns into increased charges. Lake Lavon was down 20 feet last year right in our own back yard. Yet, Planoites blissfully ignorant kept right on watering their precious lawns. Lavon is 32 feet deep in the deepest part of the lake (which isn't much). Over 1/2 of the surface area of the lake was dry land.

[Nyteshade]

Some of the richer nations in the Middle East are doing worse than that now.

[Adam D]

Originally Posted by xian

Most people call it private property and industry.

Except that these companies aren't obtaining their control over water resources through typical business practices. Their obtaining them by bribing officials (where possible) or using their governments to coerce other governments into giving absurd contracts for projects to their companies. Bechtel has obtained a lot of its contracts by means of hard-nosed IMF policies (which is US-dominated) and the US trade officials that tie those contracts to other trade deals, MFN status, etc.

Anyway - my major beef with water irresponsibility... building cities in the fucking desert (Los Angeles, Arizona in general etc) and diverting and collecting most of a regions water resources to sustain it (and the lawns and golf courses.)

A lot of Arizona is actually reasonably efficient with water use. A lot of homes have yards with native vegetation which requires little to no watering, there's more restrictions on water usage, etc. Granted, the same can't be said for some of the wealthier areas around Phoenix that are full of golf courses and green lawns. But a lot of the water problems in that area, particularly with the Colorado River, stem from over-damming and moving water to California for the massive amount of agriculture in the state.

[TheAmazon]

Yea bussiness is great, but really, how much money do you need to make? is it neccessary to add another undue burden on people who are having enough trouble finding suitable housing and food?

Are they not making enough money from selling bottled water to richer people in other countries??

and yea, my dad lives in PHoenix and the only people with green grass are RICH people, everybody else has palm tree's and colored rocks and cacti.


but please don't get mad because somebody used a term that does not sit with you well, look at the bigger moral picture/ question.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by TheAmazon

Yea bussiness is great, but really, how much money do you need to make?

That depends but it isn't the job of the government to tell me or you that you've made enough and can earn no more... but, corporate responsibility and environmental stewardship should be important to corporations as well as profit

Originally Posted by TheAmazon

is it neccessary to add another undue burden on people who are having enough trouble finding suitable housing and food?

huh?

Originally Posted by TheAmazon

but please don't get mad because somebody used a term that does not sit with you well, look at the bigger moral picture/ question.

I'm not mad about the term.... its just stupid. She could well have said, I call it hydro-Nazism.. and it would have been just as stupid. When people use hyperbolicly derrogatory terms they undercut themselves and this issue is too important to permit a large portion of her audience write her off immediately because she's using such stupidly hot terms