“In Philadelphia, there are 3,300 miles of water mains in the city and they replace 20 miles a year. They're on 160-year replacement cycles. One of the officials from the Philadelphia water utility said to me 'We want to make sure we get the 20 miles right.' That's not a question of money, it's a question of public resistance to digging up streets.'”
—Charles Fishman on the antiquated municipal water systems in the United States.
Bottled water is a rip-off only because we're willing to pay for it.
Or at least too lazy to resist the temptation to buy it!
Listen to this report and read about why we pay billions of dollars a year for bottled water.
“I think bottled water actually represents a kind of caricature of… the global economy… It provides people in the developed world with 20 or 30 varieties of something for which there is no actual variety.” - Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst
Water is Cosmic Juice
Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst, was interviewed on NPR today. Fishman’s research has led him to create a fresh position on water usage:
“All the water on earth was formed in space, in interstellar gas clouds. It was delivered here when the earth was formed or shortly thereafter, in exactly the form it is in. So, all the water on earth… is 4.3 or 4.4 billion years old. No water is being created on earth, no water is being destroyed on earth.
“What that means is, the whole debate about reusing waste water, is kind of silly because: all the water we have right now has been used over and over again. Every drink of water you take, every pot of coffee you make is dinosaur pee because it’s all been through the kidneys of a Tyrannosaurus Rex… many times. Because all the water we have is all the water we have ever had…
“Water is incredibly resilient. It’s unlike fuel or other natural resources: it can be used over and over again. And it emerges, except for needing to be cleaned, ready to be used again: exactly as water.
“Water is cosmic juice that came from interstellar space.”
Hear Fishman’s entire interview, here: freshair.npr.org
“Places like Chicago [will] start using their water supplies to woo companies...these huge corporations have water security on their top-five lists of critical issues.”
—Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst, talking with Salon about the economic advantages of urban water policy.“Free You can “own” a glass of water, but only until you drink it and pee. Once you pee, you don’t own that water anymore. —Mike Young, water economist, University of Adelaide, Australia”
—Charles Fishman
(via mike lloyd)
“You can “own” a glass of water, but only until you drink it and pee. Once you pee, you don’t own that water anymore. —Mike Young, water economist, University of Adelaide, Australia”
—Charles Fishman
(via mike lloyd)
