Dear American Bottled Water Drinkers: Put Down the Bottle

Dear American Bottled Water Drinkers: Put Down the Bottle

Global warming has become an issue that many people hear about on a regular

basis. It has become a cause célèbre among many politicians and famous personalities. For

example, former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, has established a foundation in

regards to global warming. His foundation, The Alliance for Climate Protection, is in place to help make people more aware of the global warming issues the world is currently facing and ways to combat it. Global warming issues can also be found in the current news sections of sites like Fox News, CNN, and ABC News. Furthermore, one can sit and watch the evening news and may or may not even realize that what is being discussed can be linked to global warming. For instance, in the last few years many Americans were hearing about the drought affecting many parts of California, and at one point the Californian governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared a state of emergency. Also, in recent years there has been more tropical activity in many oceans that led to the development of devastating hurricanes, like Hurricane Katrina in 2005. These are just a few examples of events happening today as a result of global warming and we are hearing more and more about these issues because of the impact they are directly having on our everyday lives. Americans are not only hearing about issues such as excessive use of fossil fuels, population growth, and industrialization, which are all contributing the global warming, but they are also hearing hundreds to maybe even thousands of ideas on how to thwart or slow down this process. In Bruce Friedrich's essay, "Eating As If the Climate Mattered," he says "By choosing vegetarian foods, we're making compassionate choices that are good for our bodies, and we're living our environmental values at every meal". In this article, Bruce Friedrich is suggesting that choosing vegetarian foods and cutting meat completely out of their diet will have a huge and positive impact on combating global warming. He believes the meat industry is leaving a huge carbon footprint by the transportation of the animals and the energy needed to operate slaughter houses and farms. An article titled "National Survey Reveals 80 Percent…,"states "According to a national survey, 80 percent of Americans eat meat an average of 4.2 times a week; that's 218 times a year". Americans are eating meat! Asking Americans to become vegetarian would be a drastic change for hundreds of millions of people. One may have meat in their diet simply because they enjoy the flavor as another may consume meat because of the energy and fulfillment their body exhibits from it. Many people are not willing to give up