Bottled Water - Bad for the Earth and Your Wallet?

The habit of buying bottled water is now firmly ingrained in the US and in many other countries. The feeling is that bottled water is safer and better for one's health than the water that comes from the tap.

Unfortunately, that almost always isn't so, and the bottled water habit is producing mountains of unneccesary trash and consuming vast amounts of energy.

At $10.00 (U.S.) per gallon, bottled water is about 10,000 times more expensive than the water that comes from the tap. Add to that the cost to the environment from the transportation of bottled water (sometimes as far as 2,700 miles from source to buyer) and bottled water becomes an even worse deal for us all.

It's easy to buy a safe, reusable bottle and fill it with your own tap water. And simple, inexpensive filters that attach to your faucet or sit on your countertop can easily remove any off smell or taste your tap water might have.

Is Your Coffee Killing Birds?

Coffee drinkers - are you enjoying your daily java at the expense of the habitat of millions of song birds?

Coffee growers in Central and South America are destroying forests to plant a new variety of coffee bush. This is leaving migratory birds without a southern home, and possibly contributing to their demise.

A trend toward growing a new variety of coffee bush, called Robusta, rather than the traditionally grown Arabica variety is to blame. Arabica coffee is grown in shade, beneath the canopy of established forests. The new Robusta variety requires full sunlight, which means that in order to grow it, the forests that migratory song birds call home must be destroyed.

Those who are concerned about this should look for - and start requesting - "bird friendly, shade-grown" coffee.

See this site for more information about the many bird species that are affected. http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/shadecoffee.html