San Francisco Bans Bottled Water For City Workers (Plastics 2 / Humanity 0)

“San Francisco Bans Bottled Water for City Workers.” That was the title of a news brief I read in which San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an “executive order banning city departments from buying bottled water, even for water coolers. The ban goes into effect July 1, and will extend to water coolers by Dec. 1. The move was billed as a way to help stem global warming and save taxpayer money. In a press release announcing the decision, the mayor cited the environmental impact of making, transporting and disposing of the bottles and that more than a billion of them end up in the state’s landfills each year.”

I read this news brief and it reminded me of my blog entry (Plastics 1 / Humanity 0) where, in the Comment’s section, the suggestion was made that bottled water is as bad for our environment as plastic bags are. I had never even considered that before and as a bottled water consumer since I was in diapers in the 70s, I wanted to learn more.

It seems that a quick Google search will return thousands of articles discussing the petroleum usage associated with the manufacturing, transportation, distribution, and disposal of water bottles. This has been something that I have given very little thought to and have taken for granted…I’ve always considered these bottles to be an innocuous and convenient part of my life: I was wrong. I have been walking around with my brain turned off to this.

With more and more city and local municipalities taking measures to curb the use of bottled water, clearly the environmental impact of this specific refuse warrants action and the case for reducing the consumer-nonchalance toward plastic bottles seems to hold water.

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Estimates suggest that the manufacturing and transportation per each single bottle of water requires the use of:

• 6-7x the amount of water as is in the bottle;
• 1.0 liter of fossil fuels;
• 1.2 pounds of greenhouse gasses released into our atmosphere.

With 12-18 bottles per case, you do the math.

Plastic Bags 1 / Humanity 0

Here is an interesting excerpt from Bill Maher’s Blog:

“From now on Earth Day really must be a year round thing. And in honor of this Earth Day, starting Monday supermarket clerks must stop putting the big bottle of detergent with a handle on it in a plastic bag. I don’t mean to tell you how to do your job, but you see that handle you just lifted the detergent with? I can use that same handle to carry the detergent to my car.

“And stop putting my liquor in a smaller paper sack before you put it in the big paper sack with my other stuff. What, are you afraid my groceries will think less of me if they see I’ve been drinking? Trust me, the broccoli doesn’t care, and the condoms already know.

“Maybe you don’t’ need a bag when you buy a keychain. Americans throw out 100 billion plastic bags a year, and they all take a thousand years to decompose. Your children’s children’s children’s children will never know you, but they’ll know you once bought batteries at the 99 cent store because the bag will still be caught in the tree.”

(Source: Bill Maher’s Blog on the Huffington Post)

I wanted to share that on my blog, because ever since reading that, I can’t help but consider the irony of bagging large items (or any items) that have handles on them already; and I could barely keep my thoughts to myself today when, standing on line in an apothecary, I saw a checkout clerk lift a large bottle of detergent by its handle and place it into not one, but two ultra-thick plastic bags: it was obscene and I was appalled.

I have recently started refusing all plastic bags, and now bring my own bags with me when I shop. And when I don’t have my shopping bag with me, or my backpack, I take the items in my hand and carry them out the store with me: oh how primitive! Once you take on this “cause,” you may find that nearly everywhere you shop, people are trying to push plastic bags on you.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not implying that all plastics are bad…it’s the fact that plastic bags tend to be “single-use” items and are often not even needed. They are pervasive and frequently to do more harm than good and provide more of a burden than a convenience.

Should you take the time to stop and look around, I assure you that you will start to notice discarded plastic bags in trees, bushes, fences, and alleys—it’s distasteful and all too telling of a society that doesn’t care about the World that sustains them.

Global Warming: A Response to Reason or a Reason to Respond

I wrote what I wrote above as a response to a feverish “debate” I read yesterday morning. Someone uploaded a special on Global Warming and all the Neo-cons came out with their talking points (e.g., “Warming is natural and ok/there is no warming,” “then why was there so much snow,” “Al Gore didn’t invent the internet,” “weathermen can’t even predict the weekend weather,” “Democrats were on the wrong-side of slavery,” “there is no real science to prove it,” “this is a Liberal lie,” “the scientists are doing this for money,” or my personal favorite: “Get out of my country and move to France!“).

When did ridiculously absurd non-sequiturs begin to pass as rational thinking and counter-point debating in this country?

I welcome criticism on my writings, but instead of that, there was no debate other than: Global Warming doesn’t exist (mixed with childish insults and the occasional person tossing in how Glenn Beck is like a tall glass of water in a desert of Liberally-biased media); can we say “let’s parrot more Right-wing talking points?”

When did this country suddenly get invaded by intellectual lemmings? Silly me for thinking that disbelieving in Global Warming was a minority opinion. I posted my little rant on the MySpace forums and a couple other places on the net, and well, the same thing happened in each instance: the simple-minds came out of the woodwork and posted their absurd pre-canned attacks.

People should try to think critically about issues before drawing conclusions. Yes, I will say it: if you come to a conclusion before hearing out the issue from both sides, then you are a fool. If someone asks you what you think about “X,” it’s ok to say: “I don’t know enough about both sides of the issue to have a considered position.” Afterward, you have the option to go out there, get information, and let it stew in your head for a while, before you say something that is foolishly irresponsible or illogical.

An act of Logic and Reason is knowing, and executing, your right to say “I don’t know” without the fear of feeling stupid or unknowledgeable…after all you are not a polymath and nobody expects you to be one.

Global Warming: NEA, Christians, and the Political “Wrong”

Anyone who continues to confuse Religion with Right-wing Politics is drawing upon flawed logic and a misguided allegiance to a corporate dole from which they will never benefit.

On May 2 of 2007, CNN’s Glenn Beck, in his infinite disregard, aired “Glenn Beck Exposed: The Climate of Fear” a one-hour program which tackles what he calls the “media hype surrounding the global warming debate” and suggests, like Jim Inhofe, the former Republican Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, that Global Warming is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.

I am dismayed that so many people continue to vehemently tow the Republican Party-line in the name of God and in the faces of both Science and common-sense. The 1980s found a synergy of the Republican Party with Christian Evangelicals in this country, courtesy of astute political planning by both the NEA and Ronald Regan; since then, the two have been inexcisably linked. When will the Church realize that the Republican Party isn’t the party of the Christian church, but the party of the Oil, Automotive, and Gas industries—that the Republican Party just knows where its votes blindly come from, and abuse that power? The Church isn’t a foundation of the Republican Party, it’s a tool.

In late 2006, Bill Moyers, aired a special on PBS—a station which continues to maintain its integrity—entitled “Is GOD Green?” I highly recommend it to those with Religious affinities or not, whether you subscribe to Global Warming or not:

Bill Moyers’s Special Report: Is GOD Green?
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/green/index.html

VIDEO of the Entire Program
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/media_players/chapter2-1.html

It amazes me that people continue to deny that Global Warming is a reality. Whether it’s been influence by man or not is completely irrelevant: it’s a fact.

Shame on Glenn Beck. Shame on CNN. Shame, shame, shame on the Republicans and the Church.