Screenshot from the Tap Project

For World Water Day—an international day of observance to draw attention to the plight of 1 billion people who lack access to clean, safe drinking water—a new UNICEF initiative known as the Tap Project has rallied together New York City restaurants to help raise money for clean-water projects.

And so today, at hundreds of participating restaurants across the city, patrons will be invited to pay $1 for tap water usually offered gratis. But whether you’re dining in New York, NY or Sebeak, Minn. (population 710), you’re free to make an online donation directly through the Web site.

For a blast from the past, read what I wrote about World Water Day, a year ago.

Related articles:
1. Charity: Water
2. On the (New York) Waterfront

Help out:
1. EWG’s Project Bottled Water

Photo from Charity Global

I’m feeling ambivalent about Charity: Water. On the one hand, it’s helping draw attention to the fact that 1 billion people lack access to a safe supply of drinking water. On the other, it’s a $20 disposable bottle of water that, price aside, is going to contribute to just another embattled facet of the environmental-justice equation: landfill problems. (The non-profit is likely hedging its bets on our first-world lust for exclusivity with that price tag. WWOD?¹)

Unlike Ethos Water, however, where only 5 cents out of the $1.80 you pay per bottle actually goes to “helping children get clean water”—and leaving Starbucks coffers more than 20 times its much-hyped financial bestowment—Charity Global says 100 percent of your donation goes to fund clean-water-well projects in Africa. Each $20 donation provides one person with clean and safe drinking water for 15 years, it says.

To the non-profit’s credit, it won’t ship single bottles via its Web site. (You’ll have to purchase crates of 24 bottles for a cool $480.) You can also buy a “virtual bottle,” meaning you pay the 20 smackers but you don’t get to tote around the minimalist-chic bottle and flash your largesse to poor, ignorant plebs. Or you can make a direction donation and not appear tragically and insufferably bourgeois.

As cause-related marketing goes, Charity Global at least appears somewhat sincere. But, as I’ve said so before, if you want to give, simply give. Don’t merely buy something you don’t need under the guise of “doing charity.” It’s disingenuous, at best. And, nine times out of 10, it doesn’t do a dollop of good.

¹What Would Orlando Drink?

Related articles:
1. The Truth About Bottled Water
2. World Water Day
3. Must be Something in the Water

Photo by Tony Cenicola/New York Times

The “fabled deliciousness” of New York’s water, which the city isn’t required to filter, is under siege, according to the New York Times.

Increasingly stormy weather that comes with climate change, for one, is muddying the city water beyond what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems safe for direct consumption. Between September 2004 and last June, for instance, four major storms have dumped highly turbid (or cloudy) water into upstate reservoirs. The tiny particles suspended in the water can interfere with chlorine disinfection, while serving as food for disease-causing organisms.

Another culprit being fingered is industrial pollution. Much of Westchester has been paved over in the last five decades, diverting fertilizer, sewage, and road salt into reservoirs so that from 1989 to 1999, the city has had to increase the amount of chlorine it added by 35 percent.

If the federal agency does conclude that city water is too sullied to be consumed directly, New York will have to spend huge sums on filtering, close the book on 165 years of filter-free taps—and absorb a major blow to its hometown pride.

Instead of moping around for want of a husband—he’s been away for three weeks and counting—I went to the farmers’ market in Union Square to partake of some of fall’s bounty. From left: organic banana bread, homemade apple butter (I blame Amy), and organic spelt flour. Not shown: six luscious yellow peaches for my lonesome belly.

Here’s Chekhov’s takeout—really homegrown organic wheatgrass, but I get a kick every time he nibbles from it.

Today is the Eighth Annual Knit-Out & Crotchet, Too! Last year, I rocked out my Lorna’s Laces socks on the Union Square tarmac and spotted The Chin chain-smoking with abandon. Mothers, don’t let your daughters grow up to be short, egomaniacal, “champion” crocheters who filk about yarn.

In the news today:
1. California takes on global warming.

2. “Yes Virginia, there is a way for students to live green.”

3. 58 percent of consumers surveyed said they were “not green interested” and did not care about environmentally friendly practices, including recycling, corporate social responsibility, or natural and/or organic ingredients.

4. 40 percent of the U.S. is facing moderate-to-extreme drought, says NOAA.

5. Bottled water vs. tap water: “Paying hundreds of times more for something you’re already paying for is probably the silliest of all spending habits.” I think the word they’re looking for is “sucker”.

6. On PBS this October: Building Green features green building techniques and materials.

7. For some brevity, Lambert the Sheepish Lion! [via Hugg.com]

Photo by Bernd Opitz/Getty Images

Chez Chekhov is on the second floor of an apartment rental, and other than the jungle wilds of darkest Sumatra our laissez-faire landlord allows to flourish unbridled in the backyard, we have no greenery to speak of. Yet color me unsurprised when I discovered that lawns are the single most irrigated crop in terms of surface area in the U.S.—about 128,000 square kilometers or 40 million acres in all. NASA researcher Christina Milesi estimates we pour as much as 238 gallons of fresh, usually drinking-quality water per person, per day, to keep our lawns pert and verdant. Now consider that more than 1 billion people lack access to a safe supply of drinking water, holding water-related diseases responsible for 80 percent of illnesses—and the loss of 14,000 lives a day—around one thirsty globe.

Any carbon-dioxide-absorbing benefits lawn surfaces provide as they grow are offset by the 800 million gallons of gas burned annually by lawnmowers chugging along the grassy perimeters. And if people bag their lawn clippings and toss them into the landfill, instead of recycling the clippings on the grass, the oxygen-starved conditions actually increase the production of greenhouse gas methane.

We haven’t even touched upon the estimated tens of millions of pounds of fertilizers and pesticides homeowners often apply to their lawns at many times the recommended levels. “For what purpose?” Sally Kneidel kvetches on her blog. “Most yards don’t grow a single thing we use for food or clothing or fiber—they’re purely ornamental.” Nitrogen runoff from fertilizers is also a major source of water pollution, resulting in algae overgrowth and the development of dead zones where any chance of aquatic life is pretty much toast.

In most of the U.S., lawns aren’t natural, Milesi says.

When she had the ecosystem computer models generate a “control” scenario in which lawns were not irrigated or fertilized, she says, “The only places I could grow grass in the conterminous U.S. were a few areas in the Northeast and the Great Plains.” Everywhere else, lawns have to be coddled to keep them going and to keep weeds and other plants from taking over.

Now, a “delawning” movement is making its way across the country, replacing the ubiquitous lawn with native plants “from prairie grasses in suburban Chicago to cactus gardens in Tucson,” harkening back to an earlier period in history when yards were regarded as utilitarian spaces for raising vegetables and small livestock.

From the New York Times:

“Diversity is healthy,” [Fritz Haeg, founder of Edible Estates] said. “The pioneers were ecologically-minded out of sheer necessity, because they had to eat what they grew. But we’ve lost touch with the garden as a food source.”

Of further interest:
1. How to Convert a Lawn to a Native Meadow or Woodland
2. Native Plant Finder
3. Buzz Kill: Wild Bees and Flowers Disappearing, Study Says

Photo by Silvestre Machado/Getty Images

(Part of my Green This House program.)

I’m usually disinclined to order anything off the Internet these days because of the additional fuel and pollution burden this extra route creates, not to mention the typically unecological packaging the product is embalmed in. (Amazon.com, I’m looking at you.) Yet, possibly at this moment, a low-flow dechlorinating shower head that you can pause mid-lather is trucking its way to us from California—a genius of an attachment that has been on my to-buy radar forever. (I’ve been pretty crummy at conserving water in the shower because I’m loathe to “lose my place” once I’ve found the right delicate balance of hot and cold water, which makes me feel like a giant jerkwad.)

An article in Care2.com section on skincare also had this to say:

“The chlorine in tap water assaults your skin,” [Kat] James [author of The Truth About Beauty: Transform Your Looks and Your Life From the Inside Out] says. It’s irritating, it causes free radical damage, and it destroys the skin-nourishing vitamin E in your body. “A shower-water purifying filter eliminates chlorine and will give you the biggest skin-care bang for your buck,” she says. “You’ll notice changes in your skin that you couldn’t get with even the most expensive product regimen.”

I e-mailed Rainshow’r, the only company I was able to find that manufactured this mystical low-flow (it come with a polished chrome showerhead which uses only 2 gallons per minute), pausable, dechlorinating wonder, to find out if any retailer in my area sold its products. No dice. I had to go the online route.

Then I came across Green Home Environmental Store, an e-tailer based in California that doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar store, or any physical warehouses it keeps stocked. Instead, any goods you order are shipped directly from the vendors. The rationale behind this is, surprisingly, pretty green, which made me take heart in my decision:

Green Home takes the shipping of its products and the impact that we have on the environment quite seriously. When you order from most companies, the product you receive has been shipped twice—once from the manufacturer to the warehouse, and then again from the warehouse to you—and in many cases three times as it is moved from warehouse to warehouse. Green Home’s products are shipped directly. So although there can be an added environmental cost in having two shipments vs. one, Green Home’s model often cancels out—or improves on—existing wasteful shipping processes. Although more than one package may go to you, we saved on multiple shipments having to arrive at a centralized warehouse, where they would perhaps sit on shelves and need to get thrown out, or sent back. Also, we strongly encourage our drop-shippers to use a minimum of packing materials, and always try to sell our products in as large a grouping as possible.

Plus, Rainshow’r claims its shower head will reduce water usage up to 50 percent, and that’s probably not even taking into account the gallons I’ve been wasting while I soap up. So long, shower guilt, hello purdy skin!

From the New York Times, “Chicken with arsenic? Is that OK?”

Arsenic may be called the king of poisons, but it is everywhere: in the environment, in the water we drink and sometimes in the food we eat.

The amount is not enough to kill anyone in one fell swoop, but arsenic is a recognized cancer-causing agent and many experts say that no level should be considered safe. Arsenic may also contribute to other life-threatening illnesses, including heart disease and diabetes, and to a decline in mental functioning.

Yet it is deliberately being added to chicken in this country, with many scientists saying it is unnecessary. Until recently there was a very high chance that if you ate chicken some arsenic would be present because it has been a government-approved additive in poultry feed for decades. It is used to kill parasites and to promote growth.

…

Because there are still many more arsenic-fed than arsenic-free chickens for sale, consumers can reduce their exposure by buying from companies that have stopped using arsenic, or by choosing chickens labeled organic or antibiotic-free. They can also remove the skin from the chicken treated with arsenic, which reduces levels significantly.

In other happy-to-be-vegetarian news, “USDA: Mad cow testing by single company bad for international trade” [via Accidental Hedonist]

Concerned about levels of arsenic in drinking water? Bottled water is no safer, and is often just filtered tap water. (The EPA sets higher standards for the quality of tap water than the FDA does for bottled water.) Instead, buy a filter for your faucet. Grist has helpfully provided a comparison chart of some of the more-popular brands. You can also find a wealth of information on filtration systems at Consumer Reports.

Today is World Water Day, and we’re facing a global water crisis.

Over 1 billion people lack access to a safe supply of drinking water. The leading causes of deaths in the world, water-related diseases are responsible for the loss of 14,000 lives a day and 80 percent of illnesses around the globe.

Increasing pollution is making existing water sources undrinkable, and our demand for water is rapidly outstripping its availability. Water is being privatized and commoditized as bottled-water and soft-drink giants are draining the groundwater of drought-stricken indigenous communities, even as they publicly laud their own water-advocacy efforts, dem scurvy scallawags!

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Starbucks has even branded its image of water responsibility, selling its Ethos Water with the promise that 5 cents from the $1.80 sale of each plastic designer bottle goes to “Helping children get clean water.” The normal profit margin on bottled water is an astounding 50 to 200 percent, which leaves Starbucks with a per-bottle profit more than 20 times its much-publicized largesse.

Pious Starbucks isn’t alone. On World Water Day, multinational water companies have their public relations departments working overtime selling their clean, pure, healthy water “product,” while the companies make billions, deplete aquifers and pollute the environment with, among other things, 30 million plastic water bottles a day in the United States alone.

While a lack of political will is partly responsible for the mismanagement of water resources and the worsening crisis, surely our first-world fixation on bottled water, in countries where tap water is safe to drink, is preventing available water from reaching populations that need it more.

Drink from the faucet today. And tomorrow.

Rinse, repeat.

Bottled-water concerns hit the mainstream press.

From The New York Times:

1. Bottled water is all about hype

First of all, water is water is water,” said Dr. Nestle, author of the forthcoming “What to Eat” (North Point Press) and a frequent critic of food marketers. “Second, tap water in the developed world is not only cleaner than bottled water, but it has fluoride, which most bottled water does not.

“Mostly, you are paying for the convenience of the bottle,” she added.

“More than any other product, the buying and selling of water is an industry based on nothing,” said Menno Liauw, a Dutch advertising executive and a founder of the Neau Foundation.

2. Bottled water creates landfill problems

The plastic used for bottling water is food-safe PET, polyethylene terephthalate, which is itself made from crude oil. It was the invention of PET in the 1970’s that made the portable water bottle possible. Now, according to the Container Recycling Institute, a California-based group, about 90 percent of PET bottles tossed out by Americans end up not in recycling centers but in landfills, at a rate of 30 million a day. “There is a huge amount of byproduct associated with bottled water,” said Kellogg J. Schwab, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Water and Health.

3. Bottled water could cause health problems

PET is considered safe for the drinking public, and can be washed and reused, but nutrition activists have raised concerns about its long-term health risks. Dr. Schwab says that little is known about water stored in PET over long periods and at high temperatures.

4. Bottled water makes ordinarily sane people completely lose it

Gretchen Rubin, a writer in Manhattan, says that bottled water has gone from a pet peeve to a crusade for her. “I absolutely refuse to buy it and once shocked a group of parents when I wouldn’t buy water for my daughter at the playground,” she said. “Remember water fountains? This is America! Our water is drinkable!”

To those about to drink, I raise my SIGG bottle and salute you.

Citations:
Moskin, Julia. “Must Be Something in the Water.” The New York Times 15 Feb 2006.

Cartoon by Suzy Becker, author/illustrator of I Had Brain Surgery, What’s Your Excuse? and All I Need to Know I Learned from My Cat. Originally published in Grist.

Bottled water is getting its name dragged through the mud.

A study published in the August 2005 issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that the level of plastic molecules leaching into food and beverage containers—and accumulating in our bodies—was higher than previously thought. In fact, they were higher than equivalent levels in rats that impaired their brain chemistry, reproductive functions, and immune systems.

Fetuses can be exposed while still in the womb, and babies during breast-feeding, according to the researchers, who are pushing for further studies. Of course, bottled-water-guzzling adults aren’t immune either.

A story published this week by the nonprofit OneWorld also brought some pretty hefty allegations against the bottled-water industry.

The CliffsNotes version of the article:

• An estimated $100 billion is spent every year on bottled water. (Other sources I found online cite more conservative figures, though they may be outdated.)
• 1.1 billion people lack a secure water supply.
• For a fraction of what we spend on bottled water, the entire world could have safe drinking water and proper sanitation.
• Bottled water has to be transported across long distances—one-fourth of it across national borders—by vehicles that consume tremendous amounts of fossil fuels. (Though 94 percent of the bottled water sold in the U.S. is produced domestically, some brands are shipped some 9,000 kilometers from Fiji and other “exotic” locales.
• Most water bottles are made with polyethylene terephthalate, which is derived from crude oil.
• U.S. demand for bottled water consumes 1. 5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. (Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.)
• 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the U.S. becomes trash. Incinerating used bottles results in toxic product such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals. (Bad for us, bad for Fido.)
• Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.
• Roughly 40 percent of bottles earmarked for recycling in the U.S. are exported to distant countries such as China—resulting in even more fossil fuels being burned.
• Meanwhile, communities near the sources of our bottled water are running dry. For example, over 50 Indian villages have complained of water shortages after bottlers began extracting water for sale under Coca-Cola Co.’s Dasani label. Similar problems have been reported in Texas and in the Great Lakes region.
• Bottled water isn’t necessarily healthier than tap water. Roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water, fortified by minerals that may not have any added health benefits.
• In much of the developed world, more regulations govern the quality of tap water than bottled water.
• The EPA sets higher standards for the quality of tap water than the FDA does for bottled water.