America's new found beverage love... Water

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

It was not all that long ago that America had a serious love affair with all things soda. Now, a new drink, which is in fact an old flame, is taking the country's heart by storm.

As New York City grapples with the legality of a ban on the sale of large cups of soda and other sugary drinks at some businesses, one thing is clear and that is that soda has run as the nation's beverage of choice has fizzled out like a flat Coca Cola. In its place we find a favorite for much of history, namely plain old H2O, also known simply as water.

But, while this is a great move, no doubt, the problem is that in most cases this water still has an enormous impact on the environment as it is, more often than not, bottled water, drunk in the belief that it is healthier than tap water, this is but a myth. This myth is, however, being perpetuated by the bottled water suppliers, including soda companies such as Coca Cola and Pepsi.

For more than two decades, soda was the No. 1 drink in the U.S. with per capita consumption peaking in 1998 at 54 gallons a year, according industry tracker Beverage Digest. Americans drank just 42 gallons a year of water at the time.

But over the years, as soda increasingly came under fire for fueling the nation's rising obesity rates, water quietly rose to knock it off the top spot.

Americans now drink an average of 44 gallons of soda a year, a 17 percent drop from the peak in 1998. Over the same time, the average amount of water people drink has increased 38 percent to about 58 gallons a year. Bottled water has led that growth, with consumption nearly doubling to 21 gallons a year.

It was not too far back in history that tap water was the top drink but then in the 1980s, carbonated soft drinks overtook tap as the most popular drink, with Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc. putting their marketing muscle behind their colas with celebrity endorsements from the likes of pop star Michael Jackson and comedian Bill Cosby and, I guess, that everybody thought that if those people endorse it then it must be good. Not considering that the main ingredient in both of those colas is phosphoric acid, an industrial cleaning agent and one which, when mixed with chlorine bleach, turns into phosgene gas. Lovely stuff, eh?

The problem with the new found love affair of the American nation is that the water that they are consuming predominately is not tap water but bottled water that the advertising agencies suggest to them to be purer and cleaner than tap. And who are the greatest water bottlers? Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc., and their best-selling waters are, wait for it, from municipal sources; in other words nothing more than tarted up tap water. And the consumer pays a hundred times more for it per liter than for tap. Nice marketing ploy.

There is no “smartwater” or “vitaminwater”... it is water, period and if you do not like the taste of your tap water – and the chlorine can be tasted at times – then use a Brita filter or similar and if you want to really go the whole hog as to safety then use a water distiller such as the Megahome Water Distiller. But go for tap and use a reusable water bottle. Your wallet and the Planet will thank you.

© 2013

It is not radical Islam that worries the US – it is independence

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

It is not radical Islam that worries the US – it is independence that worries them and not just independence of states where the religion is Islam; it is independence per se.

Why was there a problem in the 1980s in Central America when the Nicaraguans had thrown off the yoke of the Samosa dictatorship and had brought the Sandinistas under Daniel Ortega into power? It was because America was losing its influence and United Fruit and such like their backyard.

The claim, however, was that the Western world was in need of being rescued from a Soviet-inspired communist takeover and they went even thus far as to claim that the Sandinistas were supplying the El Salvadorian rebels with arms via a land route. There was just a slight problem with that claim; there were just a few miles – more that just a few miles to be honest – of Honduras between thus making the land transport a little problematic. But that did not stop the company from continuing with this claim.

And, because in El Salvador the people were getting rather close to overthrowing the dictator in that country and, once again, the interests of American companies were under threat the, apparently, biggest threat had to be removed and was gunned down just outside the Cathedral of El Salvador by company assassins. The victim was none other that the saintly Archbishop Arnulfo Romero.

Independence is a real threat to the interests of the United States all over the place, real independence, and I am sure Britain also would come under pressure should the people here ever decide that they no longer would want the government to maintain the special master/poodle relationship between the USA and the UK, with the UK being the poodle.

Several times already in history and not even that long ago American pressure was put on the British government to go along with this or that and if not then sanctions might be considered and Britain nicely obliged and obeyed, just like a well-trained and well-behaved poodle.

Independence is the greatest of worries in the eyes of the powers-that-be; independence of the people especially, as well as of nations, and we are talking here of an independence from America and its influence and its controlling power.

That just cannot be allowed to happen, as far as the powers-that-be are concerned. Everyone must dance according to Washington's tune or, obviously, face the consequences of being regarded the opposite of a friend.

God defend me from my friends; from my enemies I can defend myself.

© 2011

American way of life put at risk through climate change

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has come under fire for, apparently, discounting the impact of climate change, has now come out and said global warming poses real risk to human health and the American way of life.

Risks include, according to the EPA in a new report, more heat-related deaths, more heart and lung diseases due to increased ozone and health problems related to hurricanes, extreme precipitation and wildfires.

"Climate change poses real risk to human health and the human systems that support our way of life in the United States," the agency's Joel Scheraga said in a telephone briefing.

The report does not specify, however, how many people in the United States could die due to climate change, because that number can be changed by taking action, Scheraga said.

There is one problem with that equation, as I have said in other articles already, and that is that we will have a problem with that theory if, as I, and many others, believe that Climate Change is not so much cause by the action of Man but more a cyclic event of the Earth itself. If it is the latter than we must take other actions as well so as to minimize the impact and to learn and live with the changes in our climate on a local as well as worldwide level.

Climate change is expected to affect water supplies across the United States, as well as other countries, with reduced water flow in rivers, lower groundwater levels and more salt creeping into coastal rivers and groundwater.

People who live along the coasts will face the consequences of rising sea levels and severe weather events while city dwellers can expect higher energy demand to cool buildings -- though the demand for heat will probably decline – if we are lucky.

We must do two things... and that is to (1) look at reducing anything that could be a contributing factor to climate change and (2) prepare for the possibility climate change is not man-made and that there is nothing or little that we can to stop it. That is to say that this, more than likely, a cycle that the Earth goes through every so many centuries and if that is the case, as I believe it is, we must prepare for this at the same time.

I am not saying that we should not reduce any pollution and emissions and should not work on renewable energy and such. We must do so indeed and the same as regards to recycling, waste reduction, reusing, upcycling, and all those steps.

Let's go and do it...

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008