Water!

Wow, Water is turning up everywhere in the news this week. It's crazy!

First we find out from AP that yucky Halliburton has been giving gross (but chlorine-treated!) water to our soldiers in Iraq:
"A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq." That is disgusting.

Then it turns out that the water we're drinking here at home is full of chemicals and waste products that we didn't bargain for when we (as a nation) started ingesting tons of chemicals. A fair amount of the waste in the water we're drinking, DAILY, is un-metabolized drug products, like hormones and psycho-tropics, according to the article. And there is little research on the long-term (though lower dosage) exposure to these types of chemicals, especially for children! And don't forget, it's not just tap water they're talking about, but bottled too! Since it all comes from the same place.

And here's the NYT's "DotEarth" blogger's take on the whole thing. See this is where radical change needs to happen in how we deal with our environment, in my opinion. [I was going to say (free!) radical! change! but that might be a dorky science joke that I myself don't really understand.]

Seriously, though, I watched a totally over-the-top, baby-boomer-focused "documentary" about Pete Seeger last night on PBS. Now, I love Pete Seeger. I think he's great, I like his singing style. I used to sing along with his Sesame Street album (the duet with him and Oscar singing, "The World is Filling up with Garbage!" was a classic!). But he has a great outlook: instead of relying on big government or mega-corporations to take care of us (yeah right! look where that's gotten us!) he thinks the answer is tons of teeny, grass-roots organizations, working locally, to get stuff done. I was impressed by his campaign to clean up the Hudson River. And while Joan Baez and other boomers were proclaiming how great they all were at stopping the Vietnam war, I did see that w/the Hudson River example, it's true that a small group of dedicated people CAN change things. And we post-Boomers, and younger, can see that. Yay us. Here's hoping We Can Fix it. Dare I say, "I Hope We Can!" ??