Mixed Health Signals from the Half-Naked President-Elect
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You know it's a slow news day when a photo of Barack Obama shirtless in Hawaii makes the front page of The Huffington Post. But you know what they say: no news is good news. No terrorist attacks, plane crashes, or giant corporation closing its doors? That's a good day.
So let's take the lull as an opportunity to dig a little deeper and find out what message our future President is conveying here. Because, like it or not, at this moment he is the most visible role model in the world.
Photo by Bauer Griffin.
What's the first thing that hits me? Man, this guy is in good shape! The second thing? This is the President? Seriously, when was the last time we had a president with abs like that?* The press should have nicknamed him Joe Six-pack!
But look a little closer, and what do we see?
Oh, say it ain't so, Joe! Bottled water? I'm disappointed, Mr. President-Elect. The message now becomes: Hey, kids! Want to be healthy and look great in a swimsuit like Barack Obama? Exercise for 45 minutes every morning and drink plenty of Aquafina (or Poland Springs, or whatever the hell).
Let me get one thing out of the way: I don't drink bottled water. Never have. And the reason is this: I am cheap. Why would I pay 2 bucks a pop for something that gets piped into my home for free? It's ludicrous. The height of decadence. I refuse to be a part of it.
There are other considerations, of course. The poor communities that get their blue gold piped literally out from under them without compensation, the chemicals in the plastic, the petroleum used, the mountains of waste, the energy involved in their manufacture and transport…
Photo by Brett Weinstein.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I expect more from our half-naked President-Elect.
*Mm, maybe Hamilton.
You know it's a slow news day when a photo of Barack Obama shirtless in Hawaii makes the front page of The Huffington Post. But you know what they say: no news is good news. No terrorist attacks, plane crashes, or giant corporation closing its doors? That's a good day.
So let's take the lull as [...]
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Really? Of all the things in the world to complain about, you choose bottled water?
First off, I drink bottled water. I drink it for two reasons.
1) It's convenient.
2) Water from the tap contains a few additives to make sure the water stays pure enough to drink - Sulfur among them. You know that hard white build up on your drain in your bathroom sink? That stuff hurts my throat. If it didn't, I would have no problem drinking tap water. I even have a filter for when I'm at home.
But when I'm on the go, which is frequent, it's either a bottle of soda or a bottle of water. I drink the water.
If you "expected more" from a president than drinking bottled water, you may want to pull your nose out of the air and back to earth.
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:00 am
Yeah, you expect him to be a god who does no wrong. Give me a break. I think he has more important things to worry about right now. But maybe you can send water bottle to the White House for Christmas.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 am
It's nice to see that the President-elect is doing what most Americans enjoy doing - exercising freedom of choice. The choice to drink something that doesn't contain sugar, artificial sweeteners and flavorings…something HEALTHY. Better yet, having that freedom of choice is not something to be taken lightly. Why don't you move to a place where they don't allow you to live your life the way you choose…like the Middle East, Russia, China…California! That's right, I drink bottled water by CHOICE! If you REALLY need something to complain about, then look at all the other food containers in your home, like soft drink containers, ketchup bottles, mayonnaise jars, salad dressing bottles… Open your eyes to your pantry and fridge and then perhaps you'll see that the attacks on bottled water really are based on nonsense and minutia when compared to the real issues this country faces!
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
Neither Hamilton, nor Hamilton's six-pack were ever president. He was prohibited from the presidency due to being born outside of the U.S. There's a lot of freaky conspiracy theorists who believe the same about Obama. All you're doing here is feeding their bizarre citizenship fetish (as opposed to their less-bizarre ab fetish.)
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Hey now! Relax.
First, the fight against bottled water is a legitimate issue. Not only is it wasteful and unnecessary, but it sets a chilling precedent for the 'corporatization' and control of our other natural resources.
Second, this article is obviously meant to be humorous. For example: "I've said it before and I'll say it again: I expect more from our half-naked President-Elect." C'mon! Laugh! It's tongue-in-cheek.
I would hope we progressives and environmentalists could relax our knee-jerk reactions long enough to find humor in our struggles. There's a big difference between defensive and pre-offended.
And yes. Obama rules.
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Where do all these people come from who think that bottled water was handed down on Mount Sinai? No one here suggested imposing any kind of eco-Stalinism: "anyone caught with bottled water will be shot on sight!" But you'd think dpacheco was boiling babies and puppies in his beloved tap water from the replies his should-have-been-obviously light-hearted post has received.
Does Obama have more important things to worry about than bottled water? Of course! He also has more important things to think about than almost anything you can think of. Does that mean he shouldn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom? After all, what's the big deal if he spreads a little e. coli around the White House staff? A few bouts of diarrhea and all's forgiven. Should Obama spend time trying to get the Chinese government to release political prisoners when there are any number of "more important" issues to attend to, such as the potential death of tens of millions of people from climate change?
God that he is, Obama has the capacity to walk and chew gum at the same time. Bottled water hurts so many more people than it ever helped, and that doesn't mean that the people who are helped by it shouldn't have access to it, but it does mean that it would be great if Obama would model some model behavior. If it he doesn't, no big whoop, but why beg him to do worse than the best? What if he'd been drinking Robitussin DM or (God forbid!) Coors? Neither would be illegal, and neither would be the most important thing he could worry about in his role as President, but neither would be a great message for the masses, many of whom, like jsmcdougall apparently, are apt to be influenced by what Obama says and does.
In short: less bottled water = a better world, and less reactionary commenting on basic and indisputable facts like these = a better blogosphere.
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Lettuce–
My bad. I meant Andrew Jackson. That dude was ripped.
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:16 pm
If people want to make statements that do not tell the entire story, then they are usually seen via a person's one dimensional media programming…(Viva la Blog)
So let's go deeper and really waste our time in analyzing this MAJOR issue. Did people stay and watch what he did with the bottle AFTER he drank the water? I often refill my bottle if I'm using it for the convenience factor. Other reasoning is seen in several of the previous blogs regarding health. I believe that true environmentalist see this as non-sense and know there is much larger issues.
Maybe if we see that the President is drinking bottled water at all times and locations with consistancy…and NOT recycling the bottle if using it as needed…we could have an issue of moral responsibility at that time.
December 24th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I'm a big Obama supporter, but I agree that he should set a better example by not drinking bottled water. Here are five good reasons to drink tap water:
Bottled water is healthy water, right? In fact, most bottled water actually comes from a tap. And there’s nothing healthy about plastic waste.
Bottled water is healthy water — or so marketers would have us believe. Just look at the labels or the bottled water ads: deep, pristine pools of spring water; majestic alpine peaks; healthy, active people gulping down icy bottled water between biking in the park and a trip to the yoga studio.
In reality, bottled water is just water. That fact isn’t stopping people from buying a lot of it. Estimates variously place worldwide bottled water sales at between $50 and $100 billion each year, with the market expanding at the startling annual rate of 7 percent.
Bottled water is big business. But in terms of sustainability, bottled water is a dry well. It’s costly, wasteful, and distracts from the brass ring of public health: the construction and maintenance of safe municipal water systems.
Want some solid reasons to kick the bottled water habit? We’ve rounded up five to get you started.
Bottled water isn’t a good value
Take, for instance, Pepsi’s Aquafina or Coca-Cola’s Dasani bottled water. Both are sold in 20 ounce sizes and can be purchased from vending machines alongside soft drinks — and at the same price. Assuming you can find a $1 machine, that works out to 5 cents an ounce. These two brands are essentially filtered tap water, bottled close to their distribution point. Most municipal water costs less than one cent per gallon.
Now consider another widely-sold liquid: gasoline. It has to be pumped out of the ground in the form of crude oil, shipped to a refinery (often halfway across the world), and shipped again to your local filling station.
In the U.S., the average price per gallon is hovering around $3. There are 128 ounces in a gallon, which puts the current price of gasoline at fraction over 2 cents an ounce.
And that’s why there’s no shortage of companies which want to get into the business. In terms of price versus production cost, bottled water puts Big Oil to shame.
No healthier than tap water
In theory, bottled water in the United States falls under the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration. In practice, about 70 percent of bottled water never crosses state lines for sale, making it exempt from FDA oversight.
On the other hand, water systems in the developed world are well-regulated. In the U.S., for instance, municipal water falls under the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency, and is regularly inspected for bacteria and toxic chemicals. Want to know how your community scores? Check out the Environmental Working Group’s National Tap Water Database.
While public safety groups correctly point out that many municipal water systems are aging and there remain hundreds of chemical contaminants for which no standards have been established, there’s very little empirical evidence which suggests bottled water is any cleaner or better for you than its tap equivalent.
Bottled water means garbage
Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. According to Food and Water Watch [ http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled ], that plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce. And while the plastic used to bottle beverages is of high quality and in demand by recyclers, over 80 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away.
That assumes empty bottles actually make it to a garbage can. Plastic waste is now at such a volume that vast eddies of current-bound plastic trash now spin endlessly in the world’s major oceans. This represents a great risk to marine life, killing birds and fish which mistake our garbage for food.
Thanks to its slow decay rate, the vast majority of all plastics ever produced still exist … somewhere.
Bottled water means less attention to public systems
Many people drink bottled water because they don’t like the taste of their local tap water, or because they question its safety.
This is like running around with a slow leak in your tire, topping it off every few days rather than taking it to be patched. Only the very affluent can afford to switch their water consumption to bottled sources. Once distanced from public systems, these consumers have little incentive to support bond issues and other methods of upgrading municipal water treatment.
There’s plenty of need. In California, for example, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated the requirement of $17.5 billion in improvements to the state’s drinking water infrastructure as recently as 2005. In the same year, the state lost 222 million gallons of drinkable water to leaky pipes.
The corporatization of water
In the documentary film Thirst, authors Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman demonstrated the rapid worldwide privatization of municipal water supplies, and the effect these purchases are having on local economies.
Water is being called the “Blue Gold” of the 21st century. Thanks to increasing urbanization and population, shifting climates, and industrial pollution, fresh water is becoming humanity’s most precious resource.
Multinational corporations are stepping in to purchase groundwater and distribution rights wherever they can, and the bottled water industry is an important component in their drive to commoditize what many feel is a basic human right: the access to safe and affordable water.
What can you do?
There’s a simple alternative to bottled water: buy a stainless steel thermos, and use it. Don’t like the way your local tap water tastes? Inexpensive carbon filters will turn most tap water sparkling fresh at a fraction of bottled water’s cost.
December 24th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
This is a completely absurd article, no wonder it has a mere 10 diggs. If the writer got paid for this article the person paying them would have been better off giving their money to Madoff. What would you have said if there was no bottle of water? "He looks mighty dehydrated, this is a bad example for our youth blah blah blah." You could even have a close up of sweat beads on his chest!
Bottled water is convenient and reliable when there is no source of potable water. Get used to it, the US just starting using bottled water in the last couple of decades, second and third world countries have a lot of catching up to do and bottled beverages are on the list. Fixing the environment is a touchy subject because on the scale of human necessity and a healthy planet the two areas collide. Even if the president and his entire staff were to stop consuming bottled water, it wouldn't make a difference. Manufacturers of food stuffs especially bottled water wouldn't even be effected by a boycott. The water can last for at least 3 years in optimal condition before corrosion could potentially occur. So if you don't buy it, someone will, or they can re bottle it, or of course send it overseas. Part of the Tsunami aid was sending over 100 million water bottles to Southeast Asia. There is nothing that is going to stop bottled water from replacing tap in the next several decades unless a clean, safe, effective water delivery system with PUBLIC access points can be built. However large industrialized populations can prohibit this from being built due to pollution and the such.
I will agree on the point that the delivery method of most bottled water is dangerous and awful for the environment. Most bottles are milled from polyethylene terephthalate because it is cheap and can be partially reused. But hating on portable potable drinking water and it's drinkers is ridiculous, hate on polyethylene terephthalate manufacturers who are taking in big profits on cheap shit, which seems to be a reoccurring American theme.
As for Ekdog I'm only going to make one comment for you since your post is riddled with inaccuracies and you clearly don't understand how conservation and environmental engineering work.
"Multinational corporations are stepping in to purchase groundwater and distribution rights wherever they can, and the bottled water industry is an important component in their drive to commoditize what many feel is a basic human right: the access to safe and affordable water.
What can you do?"
There are almost 7 Billion people on earth, take a look at India as an example of where too many people are in contact with thier "free spirited" non regulated water.
We are turning into a global society rather then a series of separate ones. Obama is the beginning of this transition for us as Americans, everyone needs to start recognizing this or they'll get left behind.
Bitch about soda, how many can's of coke do you think have been consumed in the last 100 years globally?
December 24th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
it's because tap water contains sodium floride second most poisonous isotope on the planet the only ingredient in many rat poison and the active ingredient in prozak.. Do you want a president on prozac??