“Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful,” Alex Williams for the NYTimes, 11 August 2007

I too find myself hesitating to buy bottled water lately especially when traveling, or worse when standing in front of the refrigerator faced with the option of Brita-perfectly-filtered water or the ever convenient single serve Evian/Fuji bottled water. What is one to do? Make a conscious effort to help reduce waste, conserve, help our environment one by one, collectively supporting a much larger effort or selfishly consume? Alex Williams gives a bit of humor to the question. We’re not quite as endowed as Roma’s ancient but efficient potable acquifer. Someday, perhaps?

NYTimes feature continues
“…but what do you on a recent family vacation in Cape Cod, Jenny Pollack, 40, a novelist and public relations associate from Brooklyn, did something she knew she would come to regret. She did it on the spur of the moment. She did it because she felt desperate. Besides, the giant illuminated Dasani vending machine was just standing there, like a beacon.

So, with her reusable plastic Nalgene bottles dry and her son Charlie working up a thirst in an indoor playground, she broke down and bought a bottle of water. To most people it would be a simple act of self-refreshment, but to Ms. Pollack it was also a minor offense against the planet — think of all the oil used to package, transport and refrigerate that water.

“Something about it felt like a betrayal,” said Ms. Pollack, who otherwise does not consider herself an ardent environmentalist. She said she decided to stop buying water after hearing friends talk about the impact of America’s bottled water habit. And now she is doing what she can to spread the word.”

FULL STORY cont’d.

“In Dusty Archives, A Theory of Affluence,” Nicholas Wade for the New York Times

Wanted to insert this story to point out one of my favorite authors, Jared Diamond, whose quote within this article is mentioned and used as a focal point for this much larger in-depth look at where civilization evolved. Worth placing in today’s maggiesmusings’ journal. From those 2,000+ year-old terra cotta soldiers in X’ian, pottery in general from ancient Greece to China, to ancient writing and man-made tools, all must have come from somewhere, no? Though I do not wholly agree with Wade’s assumptions, he misses the mark in some respect since he is implying that the industrial revolution NOT man’s placement geographically — is it an accident? — in the fertile crescent is where a debate can ensue here, but I won’t go there. I shall leave it to the reader to decide, or just pick up the book, “Guns, Germs & Steel.” You won’t be able to put it down.

By NICHOLAS WADE for the New York Times
Published: 7 August 2007

For thousands of years, most people on earth lived in abject poverty, first as hunters and gatherers, then as peasants or laborers. But with the Industrial Revolution, some societies traded this ancient poverty for amazing affluence.

Historians and economists have long struggled to understand how this transition occurred and why it took place only in some countries. A scholar who has spent the last 20 years scanning medieval English archives has now emerged with startling answers for both questions.

Story continues, here