22 June 2007

Nectaur of the Gods

I love beer. I don't drink it as much as I used to b/c I spend my money on other stuff and Tara says I snore (louder) when I drink. Is that too much info? Anyway, there are all sorts of cultural considerations with beer and ecological ones - it is made with grain which means you can grow organic ingredients. Of course, there is also the microbrew factor...local product, blah blah woof woof.

My suggestion is drink local. There is not a state in this union, I imagine, that doesn't have a local brew. Most cities do...

Good Anglican, Bad Anglican.

Over on Blog Blog Woof Woof, I've talked about the crappy part of my Episcopal Heritage but here we see the good side.
Richard Chartres, the 132nd Bishop of London, is one of the Church of England’s most outspoken members on climate change issues. We recently featured news of his personal attempts to cut his own carbon emissions, but how is his fast progressing? The Guardian recently visited him to see if his home life was as green as he is trying to make the entire church.

20 June 2007

To bottle or not to bottle

The great water debate.

I have never been a bottled water kind of person, except when it comes to sparkling...I love me some San Pellegrino (at least they use glass bottles). If I was on a road trip or out for awhile I would probably buy a bottle but only b/c of portability.

Tara is a filtered water kind of person but she learned somewhere along the lines to buy in bulk. She would buy a jug, fill it up at one of the health food places and refill her drinking bottles from that. When we remodeled the kitchen we decided to get a filter and drinking water spigot for the kitchen sink. We use it for cooking and drinking and the filter is changed once a year. Tara talks about a whole house system but I don't know why. I don't know why, I just don't think its justified.

Below are 2 articles that discuss bottled water.

Is bottled water safe?
The next time you feel thirsty, forgo the bottle and turn to the tap. You’ll not only lower your environmental impact but also save money—bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water. And because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for tap water are more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration’s standards for bottled water, you’ll be drinking water that is just as safe as, or safer than, bottled.
There is also the environmental impact. Which is an extremely ugly part of our consumer, appearances-mean-more culture