If you are passionate about the environment and your health, you've got to see the movie Tapped which highlights the environmental impact of bottled water on our community. As a former Culligan user, I ended my bottled water service several years ago, after reading an article about the potential dangers of bottled water. After watching this movie, sans natural disaster or nuclear attack, I am NEVER buying or drinking another bottle of water again.
Bottled water is not only posing a health risk to our community (this I knew). It is also posing a risk to our natural resources (this I really didn't get). Although companies like Nestle argue that bottled water accounts for only a small percent of the nation's usage, what they don't account for is that they are taking the natural resource from drought endangered communities...in all cases without paying anything back to the community.
According to TAPPED: "By the year 2030 two-thirds of the world will be lacking access to clean drinking water. This is a problem every single person will be dealing with regardless of where they live in the world."
Don't think it can happen? Ask the good people of Colorado, or Michigan, or North Carolina...all of whom have horrible stories about water rights and the plight currently facing their populace.
What can you do? Write to your elected officials (as I did today), switch from bottled to filtered tap water, invest in steel water bottles, recycle, and encourage local leadership to stop spending tax payer money on bottled water and adopt a Bottle Bill.
To download a copy of the letter I sent, Download Letter-to-leaders.
Altered Today: My awareness of a global epidemic, action on an important issue that matters to me, bottled water consumption, making my voice heard
Here's a great short flick about The Story of Water: http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/
Posted by: Carolyn | 01/22/2011 at 06:15 PM