USA Water Filter Blog

Filming a documentary about the world’s water crisis was scary enough, and the fact that no one seems to care about the crisis made it even more terrifying. So it’s understandable that there were times when Jessica Yu, director of “Last Call at the Oasis,” just wanted to hide under the covers.

“I had several of those moments,” says Yu, whose film opens Friday at the Landmark E Street Cinema. “It’s not on our radar that there are these water problems. We can slow down the destructive path we’ve been taking, but it’s just not on our register.”

With her film, Yu had to address a problem the makers of “Food, Inc.” — the 2008 doc that examined corporate food production — didn’t have to deal with. “There, they have kind of a bad guy,” she says. “Here, in a way, the bad guy is us.”

Humans might be the bad guy, but the film argues that much of our evil stems from ignorance. “A lot of times people don’t trust their tap water, so they think, ‘I’m going to drink bottled water.’ Now we know that bottled water is not as regulated as tap water. What we need to be looking at is upgrading our water infrastructure so we can take care of our populations.”

http://www.expressnightout.com/2012/05/crisis-crisis-everywhere/

 

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Loyola University Chicago began encouraging students to drink tap water by giving all freshmen reusable bottles last fall and installing more refill stations around campus throughout this past year.

Now it’s planning to ban the sale of bottled water altogether.

Starting this fall, the university will stop selling bottled water in its cafeterias and retail locations. Then in 2013, bottled water will be removed from campus vending machines.

Campus leaders believe Loyola is the first Illinois college or university to eliminate the sale of bottled water, though student activists throughout the country have rallied behind the issue this past school year, citing environmental concerns about the use of plastic bottles as well as awareness about ensuring fair access to drinking water globally.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/10/3605746/universities-banning-bottled-water.html

 

 

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In addition to the problem associated with bad plastics, a study by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) showed that about 25% of bottled water comes from a city water system. According to the Food and Water Watch Organization, nearly 40% of bottled water is actually tap water.

According to Wikipedia, “The vast bulk of bottled water sold is simply re-processed municipal water. Both Aquafina from Pepsi-Cola company and Dasani from the Coca-Cola company are reprocessed municipal water systems. Some bottled waters, such as Penta Water claim special health benefits, though these claims are considered pseudoscience and rarely backed up with any verifiable evidence.”

http://www.waterbenefitshealth.com/tap-water-vs-bottled-water.html

 

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From a macro standpoint, governments, companies, and other larger entities also try to mitigate their own GHG emissions. One way is through carbon offsets, where carbon emission is compensated by helping to reduce emissions somewhere else. This is typically achieved through investment in renewable energy projects such as wind farms and hydro-electric dams, or other projects that help to sequester GHG’s like reforestation efforts.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, many nations must cap their GHG emissions, and comply by trading carbon offsets. In addition to this mandatory offset market, a voluntary offset market exists where individuals as well as larger bodies can mitigate their GHG emissions through similar means. For example, individuals can choose to compensate the GHG emissions from their personal travel or retail purchases.

But even in our daily lives, we can reduce our carbon footprint with simple steps such as unplugging appliances that we are not using, or ditching water bottles in favor of water filters. Even embracing reusable bags at the grocery store or using cold water for washing laundry can help to mitigate your GHG emissions.

http://locallygrownnews.com/stories/Reducing-Your-Carbon-Footprint,28751

 

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Plastic bottles contain Bisphenol A (BPA), the chemical used to make the plastic hard and clear. BPA is an endocrine disruptor which has been proven to be hazardous to human health. It has been strongly linked to a host of health problems including certain types of cancer, neurological difficulties, early puberty in girls, reduced fertility in women, premature labour, and defects in newborn babies – to name a few examples. BPA enters the human body through exposure to plastics such as bottled drinks and cleaning products. It has been found in significant amounts in at-risk groups such as pregnant women’s placentas and growing foetuses. A study conducted last year found that 96% of women in the U.S have BPA in their bodies.

The good news is that you can have your BPA levels measured and make lifestyle changes to lower them, as demonstrated by Jeb Berrier in his film about plastic consumer merchandise, Bag It.

Bottled drinks also contain phthalates, which are commonly used in the U.S. to make plastics such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) more flexible. Phthalates are also endocrine-disrupting chemicals that have been linked to a wide range of developmental and reproductive effects, including reduced sperm count, testicular abnormality and tumors, and gender development issues. The FDA does not regulate phthalates or class them as a health hazard due to the supposedly minute amounts present in plastic bottles. This decicsion does not take into account the significant presence of plastics in the average American citizen’s daily life, the fact that phthalate concentration increases the longer a plastic water bottle is stored, or the fact that a bottled drink that is exposed to heat causes accelerated leaching of harmful plastic chemicals into the drink.

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/whats-the-problem-with-plastic-bottles/

 

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Loyola University Chicago is ridding its campus of bottled water.

School officials say bottled water will no longer be sold anywhere on campus starting in 2013.

A referendum was passed by students last week to phase out bottled water sales and reduce the university’s environmental footprint.  Students launched a year-long campaign to eliminate bottled water sales and draw attention to water conservation.

Officials say the goal of the campaign was to address issues of local water privatization and fair access to water globally.

Officials also report that Loyola’s administration has supported bottled water elimination efforts on campus. They’ve distributed reusable bottles, installed 35 bottle refill stations at locations around the Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses and implemented water conservation projects in buildings and on campus grounds.

http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/news/x1809307975/University-eliminates-the-sale-of-bottled-water

 

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Loyola University Chicago began encouraging students to drink tap water by giving all freshmen reusable bottles last fall and installing more refill stations around campus throughout this past year.

Now it’s planning to ban the sale of bottled water altogether.

Starting next fall, the university will stop selling bottled water in its cafeterias and retail locations. Then in 2013, bottled water will be removed from campus vending machines.

Campus leaders believe Loyola is the first Illinois college or university to eliminate the sale of bottled water, though student activists throughout the country have rallied behind the issue this past school year, citing environmental concerns about the use of plastic bottles as well as awareness about ensuring fair access to drinking water globally.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-loyola-bottled-water-ban-20120508,0,193174.story

 

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Paying for water

Bad move: Spending $1.50 for a plastic cylinder containing an abundant and freely available natural resource: water.

Better move: Buying an insulated water bottle and filling it yourself. Don’t trust your local water quality? Purchase a home water filter.

Buying into brands

Bad move: Paying $8.50 for 100 name-brand tablets of acetaminophen.

Better move: Looking a few inches further down the same shelf and getting the 500-tablet bottle of the generic brand with the same exact ingredients for $11.99, thus saving 70 percent. Read 7 Things You Should Always Buy Generic and stop contributing to some big company’s advertising budget.

Wasting savings

Bad move: Saving $500 a year being a little more frugal, then wasting it on a $2 coffee every weekday morning.

Better move: Whenever you figure out a way to carve a few bucks out of the budget, increase your savings by a like amount. Otherwise, you’re likely to fritter it away elsewhere – the financial equivalent of running in place.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-05-07/news/31605305_1_retirement-plan-student-loans-mistakes

 

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-05-07/news/31605305_1_retirement-plan-student-loans-mistakes

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The simplest of our children’s (and their children’s) basic human needs are being threatened every day. What are we going to tell them? Driven by comfort, habit, and fear, we continue to exhaust our resources beyond redemption. Some of it is simple consumption as the land that makes up our bread basket literally washes away. But much of it is consumption by pollution, as we slowly but surely create soil that will not grow food, contaminate the waterways that feed our drinking water sources, and poison the very air we breathe. What are we going to tell them?

Will we tell them that we…

…put toxic chemicals on our food and in our drinking water every day? More than 17,000 pesticide products for agricultural and non-agricultural use are currently on the market. Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to brain/central nervous system disruption, infertility, a multitude of cancers, and even changes to our DNA. And the Environmental Protection Agency has required testing of less than 1 percent of the chemicals currently in commerce. Some of these chemicals regularly show up in our water supply well above what are considered “safe” limits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/what-are-we-going-to-tell_b_1473847.html

 

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Watershed protection is the common thread that runs through these simple steps. We all live in a watershed — an area of land where the runoff from rain drains to a waterway. When it rains, some of the water soaks into the soil and becomes groundwater. Some of the water travels across the land to nearby streams and rivers. In its travels, this storm water carries any pollutants that are on the ground.

Six simple steps in our homes and yards can help reduce storm water pollution and protect Missouri’s water resources.

– Recycle and don’t litter.

– Remember that storm inlets drain to rivers. Don’t pour oil or chemicals in the street.

– Plant native plants. They support wildlife, help preserve our natural diversity and require no fertilizer or herbicides.

– Use lawn chemicals sparingly and follow directions.

– Plant a rain garden to capture runoff from rainwater.

– Join a local stream clean-up team.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/celebrate-drinking-water-week-2012-05-04

 

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