Quote:
Saber Cherry said:
I could go through all the examples. But at the end of the day, it's personal choice. Most people prefer to use coal power, Wonderbread, rock-hard strawberries, canned/frozen orange juice, LCD monitors, tapwater, console games, television, and fast-food chains. If you are in the minority that believes the alternatives to be superior, regardless of their disadvantages, accept that they will cost more - that's how an efficient (and/or free market) economy works.
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What's wrong with tapwater? Bottled water is a strain to the nature, requiring transportation over long distances via ecologically inefficient means and producing plastic waste in the form of discarded bottles. Additionally, I understand a large minority of bottled water is actually tapwater in bottles (something like 40% if memory serves).
In many places the quality of tapwater is more regulated than is the quality of bottled water, if you're worried about contaminants. Of course there are also areas that lack regulations or follow them laxly, so I don't think generalizations apply to either side of the argument: for some the use of bottled water is the only viable choice, whereas for others it's only rational to use tapwater. Easy for me to say, seeing how great the quality of tapwater is in most of Finland. It could be that I've been told to 'like the crap' but then again your preference of alternatives over tapwater might quite as well spring from someone telling you that it's better. Not knowing what the tapwater is like in Crystal Tokyo, I'd better not hazard a guess.
Of course, if the alternative isn't bottled water but a natural spring nearby (like I have where I go for Summer) it's all cool.
Other things in your little rant I have to agree with, although admittedly many higher-quality alternatives for common things aren't ecologically as effective as the lesser-quality alternative. Like LCD-monitors: they use less energy compared to a CRT of same screen-size (1/2 to 1/3 unless I'm mistaken) and when discarded are far easier to dispose of since they contain less ecologically harmful materials. Of course, LCD-monitors are also more expensive than CRTs (which might indicate a larger ecological strain in the production process: I don't really know), so maybe you've got some other alternative that you prefer over either?