The snob appeal of tap water. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine

The snob appeal of tap water. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine: Lots of goodies in this one...
Today, bottled water is just another cog in the carbon-spewing, globe-warming industrial machine. There is a growing conflict between those who want to drink clean, pure water and those who want to breathe clean, pure air.
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And it seemed pretentious to believe that our overburdened palates should be forced to develop a preference for what is generally presumed to be a tasteless substance.
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Over the past century, we've seen numerous examples of products that, so long as they were available only to a select few, were viewed by those elites as brilliant, life-improving developments: the automobile, coal-generated electricity, air conditioning. But once companies figured out how to make them available to the masses, the elites suddenly condemned them as dangerous and socially destructive.
As a personal anecdote, I recently received a wedding gift of silverware packaged in paper, for reasons of being green. Using the special paper, they were able to use smaller packages, which meant more packages per delivery, which meant less delivery trucks, which meant less carbon emission. The fact that the product was manufactured in China (and shipped half-way around the world) was not addressed. Nor was the fact that more boxes meant more weight, which means lower gas mileage, which means more carbon emission per delivery. I'm all for being green, but it takes more than switching from plastic to paper.
Reblogged May 13, 2007 at 04:42 PM #

Something More Than a Machine