I've been watching the hullabaloo over bottled water gain momentum over the last month or so, and I understand some of the concern. After all, here in the US, we have pretty reliable sources of potable water in most areas. Those who chose to live "off grid," and away from governmentally arranged water lines obviously still have to bring in their own potable water. But otherwise, most of us have water that's safe to drink coming out of every tap in our homes, presumably obviating the need for bottled stuff. I have, from time to time, been able to drink this water; most notably, when I lived in Chicago, I found the city water, once filtered by a simple Brita pitcher to remove the chlorine nastiness, to be plenty agreeable. But for most of my life, I've lived in Florida, and with very good reason, I've pretty much invariably drunk bottled water. I use tap water when cooking, or when making coffee, tea, or drink mixes, but the water down here, consumed alone, just tastes awful, and my Brita pitcher did not have the strength to remove that nastiness.
I did, when I owned a house, have a reverse osmosis filter installed under my sink. This REALLY spoiled me as regards the taste of my water. Over time, however, I've readjusted to the somewhat-mineralized taste of bottled waters again. Now, however, folks like me who prefer our water to taste like water (that is, to be tasteless, as pure water HAS NO FLAVOR) are being demonized. It costs more than gasoline, I've heard (true, perhaps, for the 12-oz bottles of Dasani to which my mother is partial, but I go for the 69-cent gallons of the local supermarket brand. Don't think I've ever filled my gas tank THAT cheap). For folks who have more dollars than sense to spend their money wantonly, however, has not yet been criminalized, to my knowledge (though whenever I encounter a Hummer or a redneck truck, I do tend to wish it would be). The bottles, folks say, are going to the landfill (I recycle mine whenever it's an option). Moreover, the creation of the bottles, the other packaging, and most notably the transportation, all cause mass expenditure of fossil fuels, contributing to global warming. These are the things that environmentalists seem to be screaming about most loudly. OK, they DO have a point. BUT.
Where have they been for the last twenty or so years? Am I missing something, or has not the soda bottling industry been culpable of all of these same sins for much, much longer, and on a scale as great or greater? More importantly, their product contributes absolutely nothing to the health of the nation; quite the opposite, it's been repeatedly proven a contributing factor to diseases such as obesity and tooth decay (and if groups such as the FDA ever get out of bed with the chemical lobby, I daresay substances such as aspartame and sucralose will eventually be shown to be even more detrimental). Yet who is screaming about their use of plastics, and the massive packaging and distribution network in place that pumps gazillions of tons of CO2 into the air annually? I hear nary a peep.
So let me get this straight; those of us who want to rot our teeth and bodies with glorified sugar water are A-OK, but those of us who prefer to go the healthier route of consuming purified water from the same sort of distribution system are evil? There's some great "liberal media bias" if ever I've encountered it...
