I've often wondered:

How far would sea level rise if we poured out the contents of every bottle of water. Would floods and pestilence ensue?

Would the unleashed h2o add to our supposed green house gas problem, or would placing the water back in the wild solve our GW problem?

Evian is Naive spelled backwards.

The bottling of water is just another source of water vapor; the most potent ghg.

I love the irony of bottled water. The average red state denialist wouldn't know what to do if you handed them a bottle of water while Laurie David has, without a doubt, purchased enough bottled water in her lifetime to fill her Gulfstream IV twice over.

Ah, the magic of pure spring water. It seeps down through soil, sand, and gravel, or rock; exits the subsurface through a spring; and for some strange reason this water is better for you. Especially, after coming in contact with gazillions of bacteria and other foul creatures in the subsurface. This water has been treated and filtered much the same way that bottled tap water is treated and filtered. After all, the bacteria does have to be killed.

And you idiots pay $1.29 for a 20 ounce bottle and at the same time complain about the high price of gasoline.

Great marketing ploy!!

I would like to point out that the IPCC report has taken no position on bottled water and the potential contribution to global warming.

Never the less, sea level had been nearly constant for 3000 years. Since 1900 sea level has risen 8 inches. The current rate of rise is slightly faster at about an eighth of an inch per year. Sea level rise is due to thermal expansion of the oceans and melting ice, which is due to the emission of green house gases (Carbon dioxide and methane primarily).

It has notihng to do with the bottled water.

rbnyc,

This red state denialist would gladly accept your bottle of water and subsequently mix it with a fine Kentucky bourbon.

"Evian is Naive spelled backwards."

Hilarious!

Bottled water was the biggest scam going until carbon offsets came along. There appears to be no limit to how gullible some people can be.

Don't worry about those pesky plastic bottles guys.

Capitalism and entrepreneurship in a free society has a way of taking care of these problems.

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12141-giant-microwave-turns-plastic-back-to-oil.html

SM,

Sounds like a winner to me. I wish I had a Gulfstream IV add to my enjoyment.

I have seen bottled water in glass bottles too, you know how much CO2 that takes to melt glass!!! LOL, this one is good.

BTW Andrew,

Don't forget to light candles to your IPCC shrine. Honestly dude, LIGHTEN UP!!!

Paul,

All I buy for my house is bottled water and thats because the tainted water that comes from the Musconetcong Sewage Authority (recyled toilet water) to my house has rust in it among other things.

I am not an idiot. I would rather buy bottled water that came from the ground naturally on earth than water that was once used to flush a toilet. And by the way a 24 pack of water (shoprite brand) costs $4.99 thats about .21 cents each.

And bottled water is not the cause of global warming. That's just dumb. Deniers like myself and believers of AGW will all agree on that one. Only mother nature can change our climate, not us, not bottled water, not beef, not CO2, not solar jackets, and not even the big guy himself (Al Gore). LOL

This is an easy fix, all we need to do is create a product called "instant water".

Would save on the packaging and transport costs. Funny cause I was thinking about that on the way back to the office as I followed an aquafina truck trudging up an onramp blowing soot out of its' pipes.

The instructions onthe side would read "just add water to cup". D'OH

LOL

Darren M.,

I drink only filtered water, myself. All I'm saying that bottled water, whether from a spring or from a treatment plant is still treated. The tap water has much of the chlorine removed prior to bottling, hence the taste.

Andrew - surely you are aware the 2001 IPCC report found no significant acceleration in sea level rise during the 20th century? And that the 'recent acceleration' began, as best as they can say, well before the 20th century?

Realizing, of course, that the former point is inconsistent with their precious model predictions, they went on to point out that when the models were run at the locations of the tide gauges, the subsampling induced greater variability so that the increase could not be detected and thus the models were not necessarily wrong.

Great scam, eh? An effect which cannot be observed, a theory which cannot be falsified.

This is not science.

Darren M,

There's this thing called a water filter. You can use it at home and *gasp* not have to waste money on bottled water.

It'd be nice if more people actually recycled all those plastic water bottles. Or, if not, then at least keep them in the trash instead of throwing them on the ground. People that are so lazy and apathetic to throw bottles on the ground deserve to be smacked upside the head.

The key word in the statement is
PURIFIED. Tap water is full of Chlorine and other additives to make it supposedly safe to drink which is a questionale practice in itself. Local water here is from a reservoir that is used for fishing and boating. The bottled water issue is just a distraction for the little people so the big people can keep on wrecking things in a big way while we figure out how we can help a process we cannot affect at all. Particularly as long as our own industry can just pay fines to escape compliance with the regulations we have voted for and emerging industry has no regulation at all. Drink up everyone while you can still get it.

I didn't know where to post this. Aisde from "bottle gate", there was a disturbing article in CCN's science section talking about a "solar shield". There may be serious talk about trying to put something in space that will block about 1% of the sun's energy. The one the article focused in on is putting large amounts of sulphur into our atmosphere (yikes).

The fact we have people who are proposing things like this as viable is the scariest thing I have ever read.

It seems we would rather jeopardize every living thing on our entire planet than move inland.

Our adaptability is one of the traits that has made us a successful species. If we don't stop trying to control our climate and start using our adaptive skills to deal with the change, we will destroy our planet faster than any rise in CO2 will ever do.

Purified water is not the same as tap water, because it has been "purified." Just as most rain water sourced from the ocean, but through the process of distillation is no longer salty.

Tap water is the source of many serious medical conditions, and a simple solution to the pollution problem described above is to use your own hard plastic containers to hold the water, instead of the throw away soft plastic bottles they sell at the store. Many food stores offer higher quality filtered water for sale which you pour into your own container. There was a scandal in the UK three years ago when they discovered that Dasani was above the UK limits for several toxins.

Soft plastic is in itself a source of toxins which leach into the water, so it is healthier to use hard plastic bottles any way.

Buying bottled water in the US or Canada is the epitome of gullible! Can you just imagine what the rest of the third world thinks of us fat North Americans sitting on top of the greatest available supply of fresh water in the world, and here we are too lazy to fill our own containers to bring with us so we buy it! My wife buys it for the kids so they won't drink pop and it works pretty well, but when I find an empty bottle with a cap around the house I just rinse it out and refill it from the tap and put it in the fridge. The kids know I do it and they don't care. I have yet to buy a bottle of water personally and can't ever see doing so. That alone probably makes me greener than the AWG proponents.
And Andrew, the expansion of the oceans and melting of polar ice isn't caused by rising CO2 levels. It's caused by natural variability in the climate which we have proven to have happened many times over the millenia through ice core samples and even written history(LIA and MWP).

Andrew,

How much is the IPCC paying you? :) I hope it is a great deal since you must have sold them your soul. Since you are apparently such an expert regarding the IPCC, can you answer a few questions about http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/465.htm please.

What does "The combination of natural external forcing (solar and volcanic) and internal variability is unlikely to account for the spatio-temporal pattern of change over the past 30 to 50 years, even allowing for possible amplification of the amplitude of natural responses by unknown feedback processes. " mean?

I attempted to decipher it, tell me if I'm close. Natural Global Warming is unlikely to account for the changes in space-time patterns over the last 50 years, even allowing for and an increase to the maximum effect of NGW by phenomena that do not exist to our knowledge.

Or "Anthropogenic greenhouse gases are likely to have made a significant and substantial contribution to the warming observed over the second half of the 20th century, possibly larger than the total observed warming. "

AGHG's are likely to have made abundant and abundant increases to the warming seen from the 1950's, possibly more than the total observed warming. It goes on to say that NGW is to blamed for per-1950 warming.

Wow, a third grader would likely give a queer look and then go back to the playground, but these jokers are reaching into my wallet, I will not be so dismissive. AGW is a joke that is not funny anymore. Tell a new one.

Regards,

Steve

Why do some of you care what others do? You being self righteous will only piss others off and they will ignore your point.
Dasani and Aquafina aren't really bottled what but bottled poison that tastes like crap. Why would I love "splurging" on a $3 bottle of Vox bottled water every once in awhile, the answer is simple, I can taste the difference as I do not smoke. It is my choice and I do not make any difference on the impact of the environment.
For everything you recycle there are 100s of others not recycling or caring to do so. America is filled with a bunch of self serving jerks--get used to it!

NGW Steve,

What does "The combination of natural external forcing (solar and volcanic) and internal variability is unlikely to account for the spatio-temporal pattern of change over the past 30 to 50 years, even allowing for possible amplification of the amplitude of natural responses by unknown feedback processes. "mean?

That is classic "technobabble". It is derived from a later version of "legalese" which allows the writer to "weasel" out of most arguments. Although it looks similar to the English language, the way the words link together prevents deciphering.

Paul,

Have you read the IPCC's "Scientific Basis"? The whole thing reads like that. It is the biggest hunk of BS I believe I have ever read and these silly idiots recite passages from it like they are giving a sermon dictated by God.

The sad thing is that many of us are so comfortable that we allow these weirdoes to gather a "consensus" and put pressure on our ignorant leaders to legislate more money out of our pockets. This needs to stop.

Regards,

Steve

This is getting a bit silly. Associating everything with "global warming" is nonsensical. Soon we will be focusing on the role of exercise in contributing to CO2 emissions and damning those who hold gym memberships or have some other venue of exercise. Of course, in the spirit of offsets and caps and other such silliness one could take the cue of a former president and proclaim that 'I didn't exhale."

I think it's time to get a grip folks.

"People that are so lazy and apathetic to throw bottles on the ground deserve to be smacked upside the head."

I believe that is called "assault" in most states.

No, Michael, it's called deserved punishment for breaking a law.

Here's my favorite phrase:

"...even allowing for possible amplification of the amplitude of natural responses by unknown feedback processes. "

If these feedback processes are unknown, how can one estimate their possible amplifications and 'allow' for them? This is nonsense.

At least in their own words, they admit the science is not settled. That's a start - now let the science BEGIN.

"No, Michael, it's called deserved punishment for breaking a law."

Really? Based on which state's laws? I'm betting it's still called "assault" even in blue states as well as red. Care to put it to the test?

"Really? Based on which state's laws? I'm betting it's still called "assault" even in blue states as well as red. Care to put it to the test?"

Littering is against the law in most states, Michael. Glad to see that you're so well-informed.

Lol, and like the skillful debater that he is, Mark completely dodges the "assault" issue. Bravo!

Purified water is not the same as tap water, because it has been "purified." So the water in bottle is the purified water which they filter. For more information just log on to...
Bottled Water