Most Good, Least Harm by Zoe Weil

Author:Zoe Weil
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2009-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

If one is concerned about chemicals in tap water, or heavy metals and bacteria in well water, it’s easy enough to install a countertop water filter, a far less expensive measure, both personally and environmentally, than buying bottled water. San Francisco has led the way on this issue, too. Because of citizen efforts, the mayor issued an executive order in 2007 banning the purchase of bottled water with tax dollars. Seattle, Washington, followed suit in 2008.

There are times when bottled water is a necessity. In areas where ground water is polluted, during droughts, and when electricity fails, bottled water is a lifesaver, but we do not need vending machines selling bottled water next to water fountains, and we do not need to drink bottled water when we have access to perfectly adequate tap water. If we want ready access to water, we can simply fill a stainless steel water bottle or canteen and carry it with us.

If we begin to look at all of our purchases—even the most mundane like those mentioned above—through the MOGO lens, we inevitably begin to make MOGO product choices. We can also begin to envision and then invest in the production of products that offer better choices so that we won’t be in the uninspiring position of weighing the bottled beverage and our desire to drink it against the earth and its inhabitants. Imagine a container for beverages that is made of a biodegradable nutrient. Where I live, apple trees are abundant. Perhaps one day local cider will be pressed into containers that can be composted and dug back into people’s gardens when the cider is finished. Currently, there are companies producing such biodegradable plastics for bottling water, some that include built-in filters, and one day “bio-plastics” may be the norm for packaging.

Most of us in industrialized countries consume enormous quantities of fossil fuels. Between home heating oil, automobiles, and trips on planes, our high-consumption, mobile lifestyles are drying up oil wells. We fight wars over oil, and we despoil the earth and its oceans with oil spills. We pollute the air and contribute to global climate change by burning coal and fossil fuels. With awareness and commitment, however, we can reduce our use of these fuels by choosing different products and lifestyles. We can also move far more quickly to create model societies that are not oil dependent.

Many companies are working toward transforming our energy economy, even some of the big multinationals that have been notorious for pollution and excessive resource consumption in the past. By supporting such companies in their transformation, we can contribute to a more rapid, responsible change. There’s a difference between blindly accepting corporate greenwashing, in which the biggest polluters try to persuade us that they are now “green,” and supporting those corporations making the shift toward responsible and sustainable production.

Whether or not General Electric and Ford Motor Company (as two examples) are sincere in their commitment to invent sustainable products and systems—as their CEOs have stated—is yet to be

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