A Blog we Recommend - Great Lakes Blogger: it ain't just bottled water

September 6th, 2008
in

We started this site simply because we woke up to the waste created by bottled water and its carbon and environmental impacts.  But it did not take long for us to realize how many other issues that water leads us to.  Not the least of which is the ongoing privatization of what have long been considerd public goods.  This is a concern that relatively few Americans seem to even think about.  Probably because of the over arching mythology that we all absorb about the power and value of private property - a myth perpetrated by the largest property holders, no doubt, for obvious reasons.  Bottled water (always) does come from some *place* - someplace rural and easily taken by large corporations.  Maine is one obvious example.  The Great Lakes is another. 

As the Great Lakes Blogger says -

And now perhaps also a target of bottled water companies.  Check out the latest post on Great Lakes Blogger at http://daviddempsey.typepad.com/davesblog/2008/09/it-aint-just-bottled-water.html.   From their latest story - (this is an important issue):

"Although the news media continues to characterize it that way, the issue is not just bottled water. The issue is private ownership and sale of water. The Compact's "product" definition is extremely dangerous -- and was not in the Compact until the final draft. It says water is a product if produced through mechanical or human effort and intended for intermediate or end use consumers.

A separate section then allows states to treat bottled water (in containers 5.7 gallons or less) more stringently than the Compact.

But the bottom line is, the Compact makes Great Lakes Basin water put into any size container and intended for consumers a product. That's new under the sun in law for the Great Lakes. It's dangerous, it's foolish, and it's not what the public wants."

It's time for Americans to think long and hard about where we are headed - private ownership of public resources is not conducive to our long term survival.  Yes, it goes against some of the deepest held beliefs of almost all of us to question this concept.  But it does not mean there has to be *no* private ownership, but rather limitations on the scope of corporate power. 

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1089161/33089736