There's a big push to remove bottled water from the vending machines and conference refrigerators here where I work in the name of conservation and saving the planet and whatnot. Now, I don't really care one way or another and I certainly support conservation for the sake of conservation, but these people never cease to amaze me with their smuggery. One person-who was not opposed to the idea I have to stress-pondered what the environmental impact would be using water bottles, compared to the other options suggested (glass or cremaicware which would need chemical washing or paper cups which would also likely end up in landfills.). Here was the reply from one forum submitter:
Sure, we could get into the semantics of pro vs. con for every step of the process (using water in times of scarceness, chemicals, bacteria, etc.), but we should be addressing 2 issues that affect our environment.
1. Reducing waste that goes to the landfills. I see that ******* has a recycling program, so that shouldn’t be an issue. I don’t know where that money goes too, but I would think it goes back into the service of providing free bottled water and soda to the employees.
2. The other issue is what can ******* do to reduce greenhouse gases? Production and transportation of the bottled water more than cancels the environmental benefit of any recycling, manufacturer to the distributor, then from the distributor to EACH of ******** buildings. I think mention should be made here of the amount of electricity expended in running the number of vending machines on each floor at ********.
Americans are spoiled. Or I should say, people that live in America. They like things the way they are accustomed to. They like to have what they want (conveniently), and they don't want to sacrifice. They've never had to sacrifice much, and change is discomforting. And they don't want anyone suggesting that they change their ways. I remember when I was a kid, we used to drink out of the garden house while we played outside (yes, I did say played outside). We used the tap, with a water filter. So I guess what people are trying to say is, the government does not regulate our tap water to be safe or clean enough for consumption by millions of people, so we need to drink purified water? Well, most watered bottled is from the same source.
And we should definitely get rid of the paper cups.
I love the use of the word "semantics" right out of the gate to put the uneducated masses on their heels. Such a smart sounding word. And since when is wanting things to be convenient such a bad thing? But what else? Let's see:
Completely disregarding the person's concerns? Check!
Purporting to be an expert on every aspect of recycling, including production and finance? Check!
Attacking the Ugly Americans and their lack of hardship or sacrifice? Check!
Attacking the intelligence of the Ugly Americans? You bet!
Great stuff. All day every day for me here.
6 comments:
I love how tap water is now the new trend. Do you guys remember those crazy commercials when bottled water first started becoming popular? Ya know, the ones where a guy is sitting by a stream and says something like "hey, lets bottle this stream water stuff and sell it" and his buddy was like "Hah, selling bottled water is a dumb idea. It's just water" hahahahah, man that was great. That was obviously not a direct quote, but you get the point.
Actually, what is my point? Do I even have one?
To further compound my lack of point I will tell a story. A man laid dead in a desert due to dehydradtion with a canteen nearly full of drinkable water. The man felt it was more important to conserve than to use his resource and paid the ultimate price. As cynical as I am, that is what I see conservationists doing to us today.
Not conservationists, environmentalists.
To me, the plastic water bottle is not a conservation issue, its an environmental issue to these people.
Conserving makes sense. It saves money.
If people want to pay for something like bottled water, then let them.
Conservation is good when you have access to the resources, but then choose to conserve. We aren't even allowed access to our resorces because of so called conservation. No matter, conservation, environmentalism, we are on the same page with different wording.
I'd like to smack that guy in the mouth with my plastic water bottle.
It's shit like this that makes me want to light a fire with old styrofoam big mac containers lined with asbestos and burn kittens for fun, I mean food. Burn kittens for food.
CJ, let's have a bonfire in the middle of Berkeley :)
Post a Comment