Part of the problem is that our socialized, monopoly municipal water suppliers provide unhealthy, bad tasting water.
Bottled water 'is immoral'
11–20 of 45 posts
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#12"Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, according to a government adviser" Yeah, and I think that telling other people what to do with their lives in order to prevent the emission of miniscule amounts of CO2 should be as unfashionable as smoking too, but hell, what would I know?
I have a little theory about this. When one issue moves into the mainstream, the avant-garde of the self-righteous find a new issue to focus on. They need to, in order to preserve their identity of being distinct from (morally superior to) the masses. It's analogous to music hipsters who immediately discard a band when it becomes popular.
if you cause harm to others, and are aware that you do so, you act immorally.
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#13What exactly causes the 600x CO2 increase from production of bottled water vs. tap water? Creating the plastic bottle?
Presumably driving it around in trucks?
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#14Well the way I look at this, we're paying for it right? Supply and demand, people.
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#15"Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, according to a government adviser" Yeah, and I think that telling other people what to do with their lives in order to prevent the emission of miniscule amounts of CO2 should be as unfashionable as smoking too, but hell, what would I know?
If there are externalities, they should be fixed. That is not telling other people what to do with their lives, it is telling them to not steal from others.
Not sure why the CO2 aspect doesn't get regulated through the prize of fuel, though.
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not clear to me that conspicuous conservation has that much to do with morality.
Exactly. I think it has to do with identity: "I'm the kind of person who..." We seek ways to distinguish ourselves from other people because differences produce meaning, or at least a feeling of it. Constructing an identity to fortify one's ego is an intrinsically selfish activity (I mean "self-ish" literally, i.e. concerning self), which may be why the morality-based identities seem more often to be hypocritical. By…
I just made up "conspicuous conservation" on the spot, although I doubt I'm the first to do so. In this case it seems almost obvious.
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#17Part of the problem is that our socialized, monopoly municipal water suppliers provide unhealthy, bad tasting water.
A bigger part of the problem is the placebo effect.
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#18Part of the problem is that our socialized, monopoly municipal water suppliers provide unhealthy, bad tasting water.
My water tastes good and given the small amount of residual chlorine, is unlikely to be unhealthy. That's in the UK; whereabout are you talking about?
If the taste of the water really bothers you, in the UK they sell large water jugs which fill through charcoal filters (Brita), which remove any chlorine taste and only needed changing monthly or so.
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#19FTFA:
'A BBC Panorama documentary, "Bottled Water: Who Needs It?", to be broadcast tomorrow says that in terms of production, a litre bottle of Evian or Volvic generates up to 600 times more CO2 than a litre of tap water.'
And?
How much CO2 does a liter of tap water generate, and of all the ways I could reduce C02 generation, where does bottled water fit in?
Does the use of bottled water create more C02 than, say, raising farm animals for consumption?
Is it more harmful than printing newspapers? Reading Web sites?
This is not to argue for or against drinking bottled water, just that the choice of battles to fight seems goofy.
Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a little theory about this. When one issue moves into the mainstream, the avant-garde of the self-righteous find a new issue to focus on. They need to, in order to preserve their identity of being distinct from (morally superior to) the masses. It's analogous to music hipsters who immediately discard a band when it becomes popular.
if you cause harm to others, and are aware that you do so, you act immorally.
Then "immorality" is so prevalent that calling something immoral is pointless.