Progressive Wednesday

The Case Against Bottled Water, Part I

Let me start by saying this: for nearly a decade now I’ve regularly consumed bottled water (hell, I’m drinking one right now). Let me continue by saying this: I think it’s safe to say that that’s about to change. Why? Well, this topic’s so big it’ll take a few posts, but how about this sobering statistic, courtesy of the fine rag Fast Company, about bottled water consumption in this here U.S. of A. of ours:

We–a generation raised on tap water and water fountains–drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we’re raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion.

Wait, there’s more:

We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water.

Oh, and here’s another factoid for the factoid fanatics out there:

Last year, we spent more on [bottled water] than we spent on movie tickets–$15 billion.

So, we spend more money each year on bottled H2O than the Gross Domestic Product of the Kingdom of Jordan. And the problem’s not really the money (though it costs us “two or three or four times the cost of gasoline“), but the environmental damage: carting water around on big-rigs pumps oodles of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas into ye ole atmosphere.

So, here’s reason numero uno to cool it with the bottled water: by drinking it, we damage the air we’re all trying to breath. Thankfully, there’s an easy alternative that we’ve already covered: filtered or distilled tap water. Just click this sentence to learn more.

Photo c/o this picture-clicker.

Keeping the Great Lakes great

A few months ago, Clergyman Charlie told us about the effort by the New York State Legislature to prevent waste disposal sites from opening up in regions where that waste could leak into Lake Ontario. The bill passed last year in both houses, only to be vetoed by governor Pataki.

But there's a new Governor in The Empire State, and Elliot Spitzer ran for office touting himself as a friend of the environment. The bill was immediately reintroduced in the Assembly and passed with only 11 votes against. It took some encouragement from his constituents (thanks to all those who wrote or called), but Senator Maziarz has finally reintroduced the same bill in the New York State Senate. Not surprisingly, the bill passed the Senate unanimously.

It stands to reason that this law, which in its official language “prohibits the siting of a disposal facility in a location with potential to discharge into the Great Lakes system,– would be signed into law by Governor Spitzer.

But I'm not willing to take the chance that “big money– won't step in and “persuade– the governor use his veto pen. I ask you to join me in contacting the Governor's office to let him know that this piece of legislation is important to us. You can do so via email by clicking here, or write or call him the old-fashioned way with this address and phone number:

This is not a left-right, conservative-liberal, red-blue, or Democrat-Republican issue; it's supported strongly from both sides of the isle, and it has to be solved at the government level. So contact Governor Spitzer and tell him to make sure the Great Lakes are a lot cleaner for our children than they were for us.

Thanks for the picture go to this lake-dweller

Save the Phytoplankton, save the world

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of trees and their role in the in reducing the greenhouse gasses that lead to global warming. A Google search for “global warming– and “trees– gets over five million hits.

But in case you have been living in Iceland (where trees are in short supply), here's what they do. Trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂), the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming, and through a process called photosynthesis, turn that carbon dioxide into back into oxygen. This is why there is less CO₂ in the atmosphere during the summer when the leaves are out in the northern hemisphere, than during the winter when the trees are bare and other plants are dormant. As Al Gore says in An Inconvenient Truth, “It’s as if the entire Earth, once each year, breathes in and out.–

But three quarters of the planet is covered by water. What if we could increase the plant life in the “Big Blue,– to plant trees in the ocean, if you will. According to the New York Times:

In an effort to ameliorate the effects of global warming, several groups are working on ventures to grow vast floating fields of plankton intended to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and carry it to the depths of the ocean.

Phytoplankton, like trees, use photosynthesis to produce energy. It is found at the surface due to the higher levels of CO2, but is also limited to the availability of iron in the ocean. There are, however, large parts of the ocean's surface that are inexplicably devoid of iron. That's where the research vessel, WeatherBird II, takes over.

The ship plans to dissolve tons of iron, an essential plankton nutrient, over a 10,000-square-kilometer patch. When the trace iron prompts growth and reproduction of the tiny organism, scientists plan to measure how much carbon dioxide the plankton ingests.

There is still a lot of skepticism as to whether or not this will have a positive long-term effect on CO₂ levels in the atmosphere, as well as any unforeseeable negative side effects. But the discussion has started and the wheels are turning. And the idea of turning to one of the world's smallest organisms to solve its biggest problem, well, it’s a rather serendipitous cinher for our cause. Isn't that what we're all about?

The Grandeur of Earth Day

Problem:

Earth Day is April 22, and recognizing and reacting to this day couldn't be more important. Why? Because the planet, as we know it, is dying, its heart is slowly stopping, and we needn't look farther than a mirror to see who's to blame.

But we're powerful. We're creative and resourceful and brilliant: lest we forget, we landed on the moon, we invent and reinvent language, we split the atom, we adopt forgotten children as our own. Most importantly, we are, at our core, good. And like metaphoric doctors with a metaphoric defibrillator, it's shocking how quickly we can bring the planet back to life.

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Make Progress:

Eventually, the bugs — blasted things that they are — are going to take over the planet. Our species is going to cease being. At Progressive Wednesday, we'd like to put that headstone for humanity off for as long as possible.

Much like our bodies, which regulate themselves to maintain homeostasis, the planet is one giant organism. Rain, bees, and rabbits help plants grow and reproduce. The plants help oxygenate the air, reduce greenhouse gases, and help protect glaciers and icecaps, the largest reservoirs of freshwater on the planet. Rivers thrive, so the fish thrive, so the bears thrive. Right now in a city near you, cats are killing rats. And the rats– ¦ well, we've got no idea what they do except keep alleys company. Let's just say that the interconnectivity of all species of life is a bit mind-boggling and that biodiversity lies at the core of this connectivity. We think it's safe to say humans don't even completely understand its importance.

To liberally quote the 19th Century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins:

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

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[But] all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

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And for all this, nature is never spent.

Nature is never spent. There's hope, my peeps. And because at our best we're stewards of the environment, it's time to right this ship of ours a bit. That's how we celebrate Earth Day around these here parts. That's how we celebrate our planet's unfathomable grandeur: we protect it.

• Earth
• Animals
• Air
• Water
• Plants

The Grandeur of Earth Day: Water

Water:

It turns out, our tap water's in a wee bit of trouble. According to data gathered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and analyzed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, as many as “56 million people [drink] water with arsenic at unsafe levels.– Those figures only represent the 25 states included in the EPA study. And, of course, that's just arsenic.

What else is floating around in my cup of homemade sweetened iced tea?

Chlorine is added to most tap water to kill bacteria, but it also morphs into trihalomethanes, which “have been linked to a wide range of human health maladies ranging from asthma and eczema to bladder cancer and heart disease, [as well as] higher miscarriage and birth defects rates.–

Then there's good old-fashioned fluoride. According to a peer-reviewed study conducted by Harvard, boys who drink fluoridated tap water are five times more likely to get a rare form of bone cancer.

Of course, and unfortunately, there's more. A study conducted by the Environmental Working Group “of tap water tests from 1998 through 2003 for more than 39,000 communities nationwide shows that 260 pollutants were detected in the nation’s drinking water.– That might not be a problem if the levels were limbo-stick low. But, of course, there's a “but.– But the study concluded that the population exposed to levels of contaminants over the health-based limits totals (ugly sounding drum roll please– ¦) 195,275,315. Let's put that into words: one hundred ninety-five million, two hundred and seventy-five thousand, three hundred and fifteen. That's approximately 65% of the country, my people.

Oh, and by the way, some tap water even contains gasoline and rocket fuel. Yes, you read that right. Rocket fuel.

Okay, okay, okay. Enough doom and enough gloom. What's a progressive like yourself to do? Well, to be honest, after shaking off the initial heebies and jeebies, we were stumped for quite a while because the problem is three-fold:

1. The federal government doesn't properly enforce the Safe Drinking Water Act.
2. The federal government doesn't have enforceable safety limits for 141 contaminants found in our drinking water.
3. Many, if not most, local water suppliers suck– ¦ hard.

So, this Wednesday do we work from the top down or the bottom up? We're going to choose the latter. Below you'll find a letter we recommend sending to your city or town council representatives, and your state senators and representatives.

Dear [Whomever]:

I've recently learned about studies conducted by the EPA and the Environmental Working Group that suggests most tap water contains unhealthy levels of contaminants. According to the EPA study, at least 56 million Americans drink and bath their children in water with unsafe levels of arsenic. According to the EWG, over 190 million of us drink water containing levels of contaminants over the health-based limits totals. The problem seems compounded because the EPA doesn't have enforceable safety limits for 141 contaminants found in our drinking water.

All this has me deeply troubled both for myself and my family, but also for those who live both in my area and across the country.

I'm writing to ask you to work toward providing my area with a water treatment facility that runs a reverse-osmosis filtration or a distillation of water. Both of these methods would remove most of the aforementioned contaminants without the need for other chemicals such as chlorine, which has been linked to raised levels of bone cancer in boys.

I would appreciate a response as soon as possible regarding the status of my water treatment facility, and what your office is doing to remedy this growing problem.

Sincerely,

[You]

What can you do in the meantime? You could hope you're not one of the 195 million, but we wouldn't recommend it. There's a lot of debate about filtration systems and distillation of water because these methods remove minerals in water that are good for us. Personally, we lean toward the contaminate-free agua over the mineral-free version. So, you can buy a home filtration system recommended by NSF International, The Public Health and Safety Company, a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization. By clicking this sentence, you'll be taken to the NSF's page regarding home water treatments.

As suggested by NFS International, we'd also recommend contacting your municipal water supplier and request a free copy of their Annual Water Quality Report (or Consumer Confidence Report). Once you have this in your hot little hands, you can “contact your local or state public health department, personal physician, or the EPA’s safe drinking water hotline at 1-800-426-4791 for further information on the health effects and potential sources of the various contaminants found in drinking water supplies.–

A toilet story worth reading

Have you ever wondered how your water supplier determines how much to bill you each month?  Well, I asked. And my water company works like this: rather than send someone out every month to read my meter (that costs them money), they use information from past meter reads at the house plus averages from other homes in the area to provide an estimate, and they charge the estimated bill.  Then two or three times a year they will come out and do an accurate meter read.  Your next bill will reflect the actual usage.  Sometimes it's a few bucks more and sometimes a few bucks less, but nine times out of ten (that's my own estimate) it's pretty close.

So imagine my surprise when I got my bill and it was three times what they were previously estimating.  How could a household with three people, one of them not yet using a toilet, use that much water? I was sure they had made a mistake.  But when I called customer service they assured me that the bill was accurate.  To her credit, the lady pointed out the most frequent cause of overuse, and explained how I could fix it. Now I'll pass it on to you.

The culprit in my case, as it is in so many cases, was a “silent leak– in my toilet. It doesn't sound very scary, but it is. According to this utility company:

A “running” toilet can waste two gallons of water per minute. A silent leak in a toilet can waste up to 7,000 gallons of water per month.

That's 84,000 extra gallons a year, which would double the average in the US.

To test if this “monster– is invading your WC, put a few drops of food coloring into your toilet tank.  That's the thing on the back of the toilet that you rush to remove the top of so you can hold up the floaty-thingy when the water races you to the top of the bowl.  Don't flush!  Come back and look in the bowl twenty minutes later.  If the food coloring has found its way to the bowl, you have a leaky flapper.

The good news is that there is an easy fix. Three bucks, a quick trip to the hardware store for a new flapper, and a two-minute installation later, and your problem is solved.  For more detailed information, check out this site.  The 30 second movie is worth the watch and the information at the end can save you big bucks and help the environment.

See?  You can even make progress with your toilet.