Comments on: Drought in China http://polizeros.com/2007/12/19/drought-in-china/ Musings on politics: anti-war, global warming, peak oil and otherwise Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:07:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: DJ http://polizeros.com/2007/12/19/drought-in-china/comment-page-1/#comment-146580 DJ Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:22:13 +0000 http://polizeros.com/2007/12/19/drought-in-china/#comment-146580 Fifty years ago, people also mostly drank tap water. These days, at least in this country (and in many third world countries as well because of sanitation issues) many people drink nothing but bottled products-- water, soda, juice, etc. These all orginate as groundwater, but because they're bottled and shipped, they (1) end up somewhere other than their source, thus helping to deplete local resources, (2) require far more water to be removed in order to inventory and warehouse the vast quantities people drink, and (3) though not directly relevant to drought, require transportation which, at 8 pounds per gallon, emits <a href="http://asymptoticlife.com/2007/12/15/tons-of-co2-in-carbonated-beverages.aspx" rel="nofollow">an enormous amount</a> of greenhouse gases. You've commented before about bottling plants that continue to take water from the Atlanta area despite shortages-- and ship it somewhere else. I calculated the <a href="http://asymptoticlife.com/2007/11/03/small-steps-18-no-more-seltzer.aspx" rel="nofollow">CO2 impact</a> of the bottled seltzer I drank and was appalled. Now I drink mostly locally-filtered water, which requires no trucking and returns to the watershed from which it came. Fifty years ago, people also mostly drank tap water. These days, at least in this country (and in many third world countries as well because of sanitation issues) many people drink nothing but bottled products– water, soda, juice, etc. These all orginate as groundwater, but because they’re bottled and shipped, they (1) end up somewhere other than their source, thus helping to deplete local resources, (2) require far more water to be removed in order to inventory and warehouse the vast quantities people drink, and (3) though not directly relevant to drought, require transportation which, at 8 pounds per gallon, emits an enormous amount of greenhouse gases. You’ve commented before about bottling plants that continue to take water from the Atlanta area despite shortages– and ship it somewhere else.

I calculated the CO2 impact of the bottled seltzer I drank and was appalled. Now I drink mostly locally-filtered water, which requires no trucking and returns to the watershed from which it came.

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