Resolution
Mar. 14th, 2008 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vcmwAs sort of a follow up to the post about the John Perkins book, I've got a resolution for myself - I'm going to try to quit drinking Coca-Cola. This is going to be much harder for me I think than quitting smoking cigarettes was (I've been drinking Coke products since I was a toddler, and there's a soda machine in my laundry room for easy 24-7 access).
But I don't think I should be consuming products that profit companies that are participating in the big water-grab that's happening in tons of third world countries right now. There's been a lot of stuff written, here and there in the political press landscape, about water as the next big "commodity" like oil - something that is owned internationally and shipped internationally. This just terrifies me when I think about it - it sounds like the first step towards one of those science fiction worlds where you have to pay for your air, and when you run out of money you stop getting to breath. Human life isn't possible without potable water. Obviously we do pay for water hookup in a lot of cities and towns, but it's usually a public utility, not a for-profit company. And if you live in the country you usually have the option for well water, and companies are supposed to refrain from contaminating your well water.
If it should happen over the next few years that Coke comes up with a service model that doesn't involve chromium and lead based sludge getting into the water supplies and being spread over the fields of other countries, I'd be really happy to start drinking their products again. Because Coke is a really really tasty product of which I have many fond memories. But in the meantime, I'm going to try to stay quit.
Oh - if you do a Google search for "Coca-cola" along with the terms "environmental" and "social" you get a really fascinating alternating back and forth on the top page between articles maligning Coca-cola, and articles produced by Coca-cola discussing their positive social and environmental policies.
the top link:
(from June 2007)
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1046.html
the Dec 2007 Coke spin:
http://www.cokefacts.com/PressCenter/Press_Release_Coca-Cola_India_Foundation_set_up_4th_Dec_07.pdf
But I don't think I should be consuming products that profit companies that are participating in the big water-grab that's happening in tons of third world countries right now. There's been a lot of stuff written, here and there in the political press landscape, about water as the next big "commodity" like oil - something that is owned internationally and shipped internationally. This just terrifies me when I think about it - it sounds like the first step towards one of those science fiction worlds where you have to pay for your air, and when you run out of money you stop getting to breath. Human life isn't possible without potable water. Obviously we do pay for water hookup in a lot of cities and towns, but it's usually a public utility, not a for-profit company. And if you live in the country you usually have the option for well water, and companies are supposed to refrain from contaminating your well water.
If it should happen over the next few years that Coke comes up with a service model that doesn't involve chromium and lead based sludge getting into the water supplies and being spread over the fields of other countries, I'd be really happy to start drinking their products again. Because Coke is a really really tasty product of which I have many fond memories. But in the meantime, I'm going to try to stay quit.
Oh - if you do a Google search for "Coca-cola" along with the terms "environmental" and "social" you get a really fascinating alternating back and forth on the top page between articles maligning Coca-cola, and articles produced by Coca-cola discussing their positive social and environmental policies.
the top link:
(from June 2007)
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1046.html
the Dec 2007 Coke spin:
http://www.cokefacts.com/PressCenter/Press_Release_Coca-Cola_India_Foundation_set_up_4th_Dec_07.pdf
