COVID-19: Why Most Don’t Need to Stockpile Bottled Water
The world is facing an unprecedented public health crisis and people are understandably scared, but one thing you don’t have …
COVID-19: Why Most Don’t Need to Stockpile Bottled Water MORE
The world is facing an unprecedented public health crisis and people are understandably scared, but one thing you don’t have …
COVID-19: Why Most Don’t Need to Stockpile Bottled Water MORE
Nearly 780 million people worldwide do not have access to a source of clean water (water that flows through a …
12 Facts That Show Why Bottled Water Is One of the Biggest Scams of the Century MORE
While the Internet fawned over Fiji Water Girl, one of the models hired to pass out bottled drinks and photobomb …
Fawning Over ‘Fiji Water Girl’ Ignores The Evils Of Bottled Water MORE
Turn to the nation’s most objective and informative daily environmental news resource to learn how the United States and key …
Bottled Water and the Damage Done: Coping With Plastic Pollution MORE
7.21.16 -U.S. Bottled Water Consumption on the Rise: What Does It Mean?
By Pacific Institute Staff Sales and consumption of bottled water have skyrocketed in recent years. From 1988 to 2002, the …
Bottled and Sold: What’s Really in Our Bottled Water
Bottled water is just one aspect of the global water issues Peter Gleick addresses as one of the experts featured in the new documentary Last Call at the Oasis from Participant Media, producers of the groundbreaking documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. Read Participant Media’s interview with Dr. Gleick on the implications of bottled water here.
In an article published in the February 2009 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters, the Pacific Institute analyses the energy requirements for various stages in bottled water production, including the energy to manufacture the plastic bottles, process the water and the bottles, and transport and cool the final product.
The Pacific Institute finds that it took approximately 17 million barrels of oil equivalent to produce plastic for bottled water consumed by Americans in 2006—enough energy to fuel more than 1 million American cars and light trucks for a year. The widely cited 1.5 million barrel statistic is an error, the result of a miscommunication between a journalist and a researcher in 2003. That researcher and others now stand by this updated assessment.
The growing consumption of bottled water raises questions about the product’s economic and environmental costs. Among the most significant concerns are the resources required to produce the plastic bottles and to deliver filled bottles to consumers, including both energy and water.
The 2004 volume of The World’s Water discussed the growing phenomenon of bottled use around the world, particularly in regions where high-quality tap water is available, as in most of North America and Western Europe (Gleick 2004). This “In Brief” updates recent events and provides new data on bottled water use.
Sales and consumption of bottled water have skyrocketed in recent years. But users should not assume that the purity of …
According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, bottled water was an $18.5 billion industry in the U.S. in 2017….
For the Santa Clara Water District, the recent resolution promoting tap water over bottled water was a clear choice–a choice largely bolstered by Pacific Institute research. The District’s recognition of the economic and environmental impacts of bottled water led them to ban the sale of bottled water in district facilities.
Research from Pacific Institute and DigDeep underscores intensifying need to ensure basic water and sanitation for millions OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, Jan. 30, …
By Laura Feinstein and Morgan Shimabuku of the Pacific Institute, and Greg Pierce of Luskin Center for Innovation at University …
When Utilities Shut Off Water for the Poor, We Are All at Risk MORE
watwater Originally published in The Hill. The coronavirus pandemic is shining a spotlight on the weaknesses of social, economic and …
To subsidize drinking water bills for poor households, California regulators recommend new taxes on bottled water and incomes above $1 …
California Water Board Outlines $606M Bill Assistance Program MORE
One million plastic bottles are sold around the world each minute. Most are used for bottled…
6.22.17 – Make Public Drinking Water Fountains Great Again
03.08.17 – National Geographic ScienceBlogs: National Water Infrastructure Efforts Must Expand Access to Public Drinking Fountains
On the back of an envelope: That glass of water in a restaurant?
Rural Water Systems Struggle in the Good Times and the Bad
Sink Spit and Shockers: Communications in the Water World
The World’s Water, Vol. 7 was released as the Pacific Institute headed into its 25th Anniversary year. Institute President and series editor Peter Gleick, with coauthors Lucy Allen, Juliet Christian-Smith, Michael Cohen, Heather Cooley, Matthew Heberger, Jason Morrison, Meena Palaniappan, and Peter Schulte of the Pacific Institute, address the timely and pressing issues in the management of our most precious resource. Topics range from water and fossil fuels, China and dams, and U.S. water policy to international water quality, transboundary water and climate change, corporate water management, and drought and water management in Australia. Nineteen data tables provide an invaluable resource for analyzing the state of the world’s water, accessibility, sustainability, attitudes, and more including top environmental concerns and bottled water consumption stats. There is also a fun Water Brief on “Water in the Movies.”
On the subject of water, three key trends confront us: climate change will affect rainfall and runoff patterns and seriously impact our water supplies both in the United States and abroad; 780 million people in the developing world still don’t have access to clean drinking water – and pressure from pollution, wetland destruction, and climate change is threatening to make this worse; and the dangers of water privatization demand greater scrutiny from governments and the public.
In The World’s Water 2006-2007, Pacific Institute President and series editor Peter Gleick convened Pacific Institute staff and others in presenting the fifth edition, covering some of the most significant current worldwide water issues: * water and terrorism, * preserving and restoring instream water allocations, * an update of seawater desalination, * the growing risks of floods and droughts, * environmental justice for water, * water risks facing industry, and * updated information on bottled water, international disputes over water, and the discovery of water on Mars.
This essay was originally printed in The San Francisco Chronicle on January 5, 2005. The tragedy that has unfolded over …
After the Asian Tsunami Disaster, Water Crisis Will Remain MORE
In this fourth volume of his highly regarded series, Peter Gleick and his research team focus on the most significant …
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide drought emergency. The declaration relaxes previous environmental regulations to facilitate emergency drought …
California’s Drought Emergency Puts the State’s Vulnerable Communities at Risk — Again MORE
By Cora Kammeyer, Peter Gleick, Heather Cooley, Gregg Brill, Sonali Abraham, and Michael Cohen The American West has entered another …
The 2021 Western Drought: What to Expect as Conditions Worsen MORE
Pacific Institute staff members give talks and lectures, conduct workshops, and participate in panels far and wide. Here are some …
6.12.17 – Mobile Apps to Quench Your Thirst: A Review of Public Drinking Fountain Finders
National Geographic ScienceBlogs: The California Drought: Almonds and the Bigger Picture