Recently I watched the documentary “FLOW (for love of water)” which unexpectedly at the end of less then two hours shifted my outlook on water and made me vow to never drink bottled water again. I think before I thought as long as I recycle the bottle then, it’s an o.k. thing to do. I mean it’s better then drinking high fructose corn syrup, right?! Well for my body yes water is the better choice, for the environment tap water should be the ONLY choice!  After watching FLOW, I’m thinking bottled water should just be outlawed all together. This whole bottled water thing not only affects other countries negatively (which we’re kind of pros at) but we’re even destroying our own back yard for this one, gasp!   That’s right, Nestle is currently devastating / flat out draining parts of Michigan so that it can pump millions of gallons of water out of the ground to bottle. Then there’s the little tid bit that bottled water is WAY less regulated then tap water and often times more dangerous to drink … and we’re talking seriously dangerous sometimes. So, I’m thinking my palette can withstand the sometimes not so pleasant tap water if it means I’m not contributing to severe devastation of my own country and other countries (ie. earth).

I really think you should watch ‘FLOW’ and come up with your own conclusion. However if you don’t thrive off educational documentaries, I totally understand. So, below is a shorter 8 minute lamens version that you and your 5 year old can understand in under 10 minutes.

If this article is all the time you have then please, just trust me on this … you really, really, really don’t want to drink bottled water unless it’s an absolute emergency! It’s so not cool and I feel pretty bad for not understanding the consequences of my bottled water drinking sooner.  If you want natural clean water in your future then you will stop drinking bottled water immediately.   For, all my office managers out there it’s up for you to educate your employers on how taboo it is and get a water filter and pitchers instead to serve to clients and employees!  You can do it

Here’s a first hand account by Goldman Prize winner Maria Gunnoe describing first hand the devastation residents are facing.

Mountaintop removal mining study will test Obama’s commitment to science
Just days after the Environmental Protection Agency approved the expansion of a massive mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia, a dozen prominent scientists published a landmark study documenting the severe environmental and human health damage caused by the practice — and called on the government to impose a moratorium.
The findings will test the Obama administration’s stated commitment to basing policy on science instead of politics.

Titled “Mountaintop Mining Consequences,“ the study by some of the nation’s leading environmental scientists appeared in the Jan. 8 issue of the journal Science. It takes a broad look at the impacts of the practice, which involves clearing upper-elevation forests, stripping the topsoil, and blasting the rock with explosives to get to the coal below. The resulting waste is pushed into the valleys, burying headwater streams.

The researchers found that mountaintop removal mining operators have destroyed around 500 peaks in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky, and about 2,000 miles of streams. They also found that efforts to restore the damaged sites have not prevented metals and other contaminants from moving into waters downstream. The study documents deformities found in young fish in water contaminated by mountaintop removal mine runoff — as well as higher disease and mortality rates in the coal fields’ human residents.

The authors include Emily Bernhardt, a biologist with Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in Durham, N.C.; Dennis Lemly, U.S. Forest Service research biologist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.; plant biologist Peter White of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Michael Hendryx with West Virginia University’s Department of Community Medicine; and William Schlesinger, the former dean of Duke’s Nicholas School who’s now with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.

via The Institute for Southern Studies

Visit the National Resources for Defence Council to TAKE ACTION and send a message to Congress.

More First Hand Accounts from Kentucky residents and miners.

Carl Shoupe talks about Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Kentucky

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