USA Water Filter Blog

The Ponzi scheme whose ultimate success was achieved by Bernard Madoff (as in “made off” with your money) has become an easy way to separate money from clients who are either naive, greedy or stupid.

It’s simple. Promise huge returns on an investment. Keep the early birds happy with dividends from the later dupes. Eventually, the scheme will collapse. It’s uncertain as to whether the mastermind will go to jail but it is certain that his customers will be poorer and wiser.

One a similar level of duping the masses we present bottled water. Why would anyone buy bottles of water when a similar product — an equally tasteless, colorless, odorless product — is free. It’s a resource that you can literally tap.

The working stiff will have a bottle of water with him in his car and on the job. At meetings, the agenda at each place is flanked by a bottle of water. Athletic fields are awash in containers for thirsty football and soccer players. You can also find the drink and frequent swigs in the stands with cheering parents.

One would think that the nation is embarked on a safari in a jungle where no drinking water will be available. Someone described bottled water as the pet rock of this era, a useless fad that goes everywhere you go.

Yet water is free. There are drinking fountains in offices and parks with free water. The tap in your kitchen offers water that is virtually free since you need it anyway for the tub, the toilet, the dishwasher, washing the car and watering the lawn. Bottled water costs more than one dollar per container. Homeowners can fill five one-gallon jugs with tap water for one cent. Echoes of Ponzi! If the truth were known it is possible that the plastic bottles you buy is probably tap water run through a filter.

http://thedailynewsonline.com/opinion/editorials/article_2e4f38fe-9c6e-11df-8190-001cc4c002e0.html

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It’s definitely healthy to drink more water, but that doesn’t have to mean buying plastic bottles of fancy water that’s shipped all over the world. Not only do these little bottles have a huge carbon footprint, they’re not healthy for us and they often represent violations of someone else’s right to water.

Marketers spend a lot of money to convince us that bottled water is superior to tap. That’s laughable, since so much of the bottled water on store shelves is just filtered tap water. I recently ran across an infographic that really spells out a lot of bottled water’s pitfalls:

So what can you do to take back the tap?

Like the graphic suggests, one of our best weapons in the fight against bottled water is a reusable bottle. The other important step we can all take is to spread the word! Share this graphic with folks you know. If you think it would be more digestible, you can point them to The Story of Bottled Water.

How else can we help educate folks about the issues with bottled water? I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments!

http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2010/07/30/a-case-against-bottled-water-infographic/

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Aspenites come together today to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aspen’s Dancing Fountain with a “Water is Life Festival.” The festival will feature music, balloons, and several area water conservation and management groups, who will be on hand to meet the public and present their work.

The fountain, located on the Hyman Avenue mall in downtown Aspen, was built in 1979 by Aspenites Nick DeWolf and Travis Fulton. It was the first computer operated fountain of its kind.

Fulton was the sculptor, while DeWolf was the technological brains behind the fountain. Fulton had come up with an idea for a fountain that playfully spurted water when it was on and seemingly disappeared when it turned off, leaving no pool of water as evidence of its existence. But his idea lacked a location.

He was eventually inspired by a storm drain in front of the Wheeler Opera House. With the location and design decided, Fulton recruited renowned local technological wizard DeWolf to help with the fountain’s programming.

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/141776

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Same song: “The United States has a clear national security interest in eliminating the al-Qaedathreat in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Hollow and simple silly words when you look at real threats to our national security: The American Society of Civil Engineers gives America’s overall infrastructure a “D.” Drinking water, “D minus.” Roads,“ D minus.” Wastewater,“D minus.” The best, solid waste,“C plus.” If our infrastructure is falling apart, under these circumstances, I fail to see how al-Qaeda poses much of a threat. If al-Qaeda takes out a bridge or two that still leaves the rest to fall down through neglect. Al Qaeda is a small threat compared to having no clean drinking water.

To bring our infrastructure up to a minimum level (B) will require spending $2.2 trillion over the next five years. We have spent twice that in Afghanistan and have nothing to show for it.

U.S. debt tops $13.6 trillion.

Perhaps I need to say that with more force, $13.6 TRILLION. Interest payments,about $1 trillion.

Now how much is that $1 trillion?

• 40,816,326 new cars.
• 5,574,136 typical American homes.
• Salary for 14.7 million teachers.

See how silly it sounds when one talks about al-Qaeda being a threat to our national security.

There are 15 million people out of work, half of them more than six months. There are five people for every job opening. Can an unemployed nation be secure? How convoluted is the notion of “national security.” Consider health care and education. Could being sub-par cause any “national security” problems … rhetorical question.

“The average worldwide temperature for first six months of the year is the highest since record keeping began in 1880. The previous record was set last year.” At least when al-Qaeda “attacks” they won’t need a coat. Of course, we will be facing a host of problems that will overshadow all the fear of a “national security” threat al-Qaeda might present.

Elected officials, listen carefully.

Get “national security” straight. It must start here, at home.

Remember, we vote!

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2010/jul/30/we-are-our-own-biggest-threat-ar-355652/

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The UN made an announcement today declaring that clean water is a basic human right. According to BBC, the agreement between 122 nations will make strides to make sure every person has clean drinking water and clean water for sanitation.

Aside from the 122 nations who approved of the motion, 41 nations did not vote at all on the matter. Those who did not vote on the resolution said that it fell short and there needed to be a larger consensus between nations. In addition, the countries that did not vote said that it undermined the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva that was working on building a consensus on clean water among nations.

Those who did not vote on the clean water announcement included the United States, the UK, and Australia. Those who voted in favor of it included Germany, France, and China.

884 million people do not have clean drinking water and more than 2.6 billion people are not equipped with basic sanitation needs. 1.5 million children under the age of five die annually from disease caused by sanitation and water issues.

The decree states that clean water is a fundamental human right and all nations must, “scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable water and sanitation for all.”

http://tothecenter.com/news.php?readmore=13071

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No one can live without water. We like to think we’re blessed with an abundance of clean water in Canada, but we really don’t have a much larger sustainable supply of water than most places.

We can only sustainably use the amount that runs off on land. What we do to the environment – and not just to the water itself – affects everything from the amount of water we have to the quality of our water supplies.

Climate change is already having a tremendous impact on water supplies, shrinking glaciers and causing more frequent droughts and flooding. It’s an issue Canada’s provincial premiers must contend with when they meet in Winnipeg for the Council of the Federation from Aug. 4-6. The premiers plan to discuss the state of our country’s freshwater supplies and the impact climate change is having on them.

A Senate committee report from 2005, Water in the West: Under Pressure, puts the issue in perspective:

“Climate change means that precipitation is becoming less reliable, and more of it is expected to come as rain rather than as snow. What snow there is will melt sooner. There are likely to be more big storms and more severe droughts,” the report states.

The report, which was based on expert testimony, also notes that summer flows in many Alberta rivers are down by about 40 per cent from where they were a century ago.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1156058

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(NaturalNews) The President’s Cancer Panel (PCP) recently released its yearly report to the President outlining the status of cancer in America. This year’s report focuses primarily on environmental factors that contribute to cancer risk. According to the report, pharmaceutical drugs are a serious environmental pollutant, particularly in the way they continue to contaminate waterways across the country (and the world).

Many reports have recently appeared about pharmaceutical contamination of water supplies, rivers, lakes and other waterways, but spokespersons from the drug and chemical industries have denied that this pollution poses any risk whatsoever to the environment. But this report, issued directly from PCP, provides a stunning indictment of the dangers associated with pharmaceutical pollution.

http://www.naturalnews.com/029314_waterways_contamination.html

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Thirsty residents in the south of England are being urged to take a ‘tap water test’ in a bid to cut down on waste created from bottled drinks. Councils across Dorset are urging people to go back to tap as part of a new drive to cut waste and save money and energy.

Recycling teams are heading out across the region where they are setting up stands and inviting residents to rediscover the taste of fresh, clean tap water. Refillable bottles are being promoted as opposed to the single-use throwaways that are consistently filling up landfill sites.

According to the Dorset Reduction and Recycling Group, who are spearheading the campaign, most people can’t tell the difference between tap water and bottled water. Those savvy residents who do guess correctly in the tap water challenge, however, will be given a free refillable bottle to top up from home as many times as they like.

The campaign is designed to promote the ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ message among familes and young people, according to organisers. Group chairman Marten Gregory said many people grab a bottle of water from shops when they’re on the go in their busy lives. He added, however, that tap water tastes just as good, is safe, generates no packaging waste and creates no carbon footprint. He went on to say that it also only cost one penny per litre so is a great choice for those looking to save money.

The team are urging people to take their refillable bottles to work, the beach or when playing sport and to keep a jug of tap water in the fridge for warm summer days.

http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2459000.html

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Would you pay $30,000 for a sandwich? What if I told you that the bread is the healthiest bread available, flown in halfway across the world from the finest farmers? What if I gave it to you in a nice plastic box, keeping the sandwich clean and requiring nothing more than being thrown away after you use it?

Would you buy this sandwich? Probably not. You can get a sandwich at your local deli for about one five-thousandth of my price.

So why do we pay that much more for bottled water? We have readily available tap water which costs us on average $0.002 per gallon, yet we spend upwards of $1.00 for a 16-oz bottle of water. Sure, no one claims that the water from your tap comes from artisan springs in Fiji, but they aren’t demanding that you pay five thousand times more for the water either.

Bottled water companies very cleverly market their product, convincing consumers water from mountains in remote places is superior to tap water. In reality, the water quality is about the same. Bottled water is regulated far less strictly than tap water.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2010/07/29/bottled_water_hurting_environm.aspx

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The canteen will no longer stock plastic water bottles and the school also spent $7,500 installing water bubblers for the students to use instead.

The initiative will be launched today by sailor activist David de Rothschild who this week completed a voyage across the Pacific Ocean on the Plastiki, a boat made from recycled bottles.

Year 12 student Claudia Saunders says she hopes the ban will do more than reduce the school’s consumption of plastic bottles.

“It’s also about promoting it to Monte girls and getting the awareness out there how unnecessary these bottles are and the damage they can cause to the environment, both in their production and then in their disposal,” she said.

The school’s effort has been hailed as a model that can be rolled out across the country.

Jon Dee, founder of the environment group Do Something, says the campaign will significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste at the school.

“We’ll have 1,100 girls at this school who won’t have bottled water,” he said.

“Now if they can do that at Monte Sant’ Angelo there’s no reason why other schools couldn’t follow this example.

“It will set a great environmental role model for the kids but it will also show kids you can help the environment and you can save money at the same time.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/28/2966040.htm

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