U.S.: Killing the Earth?

Hello, and welcome to a world that is a bit different than what you’re familiar with.

Long ago, in the early 1940’s, the world was bedazzled by the invention of a new commercial product – carbonated soft drink bottles, also known as - Plastic Bottles.

Pretty quickly, plastic bottles replaced glass and invaded our everyday lives. Nowadays, everywhere you go - in every shop, in every house, in every fridge - you’ll find them, gazing back at you with big plastic smirks.

Little did we know, these plastic soft drink bottles only appear to be innocent. Transporting these bottles to stores requires millions of gallons of oil and causes the vast release of CO2, harmful to the environment.
They are the cause of the oblivious back damage resulting from consumers carrying these heavy bottles home from the store. These not-so-innocent bottles can then be found polluting water reservoirs and adding to the endless piles of plastic waste. After all, it only takes over 400 years for a single plastic bottle to decompose. Yes, you can actually leave your great-great-great-great-great-grandson a message in a plastic bottle, perhaps you can tell him that there really was once a thing called an ozone layer.

But what if we told you that it doesn't have to be this way?
What if we told you that Soda Stream™ has all the solutions you need to stop using those plastic soft drink bottles once and for all? What if we also told you Soda Stream could save you hundreds of dollars each month?
Caught your attention? Let's go inside and have a look.
Try the link..
www.worldwithoutbottles.com

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Hello, all
I am not one to shy away from soda, but I have been trying to cut down/cut it out completely this year. One alternative I love is carbonated water, or club soda or seltzer, or “bubbly water” as my kids put it. I feel like I’m getting that carbonated soda-y feeling without the caffeine, sugar, or sodium. What I don’t like is buying bottles and bottles of seltzer and, even though I recycled the bottles, just felt like there could be an alternative to all the liters of water.
Sodastream is doing just that - liberating people from plastic bottles and soda cans by allowing people to make their own sodas and carbonated water at home. If the average American consumes almost 600 cans or bottles of soda every year, more than bottled water - doesn’t it make sense to stop the cycle and make your own, avoiding the waste? Here are the amazing environmental benefits of a soda maker -
• No batteries or electricity
• Reduces energy used to manufacture bottles and cans
• Reduces gas and pollution from shipping packaged beverages
• Eliminates pollution from batteries
I have the Pure home soda system, and I LOVE it. It doesn’t use electricity or batteries to work - just the power of carbon dioxide injected into their special water container. It’s very easy to use - install the carbon dioxide canister, fill the bottle with cold water, attach it to the system, and inject the CO2. You can leave the carbonated water as is, or add Sodastream’s large variety of soda-flavored syrups or natural essence water enhancers to give it great flavor.
Try the link..
www.worldwithoutbottles.com

right, Kanut. it is not a concrete project, but it points the way. it calls on people to start thinking up concrete proposals, and such proposals are already being presented. the debate is open ! join in, everybody !

I am still pissed at the dinosaurs for creating the ice age. It was probably overeating the forests.  Our earth has been changing ever since its birth. That is the one fact no one can argue. I think it wil get to the point where not much of any animal or plant will survive.  Kind of like mars. When? who knows.  When politicians start pouring our money into an industry called global warming their b.s. reaches new levels. We better figure a way to build an environment so save our own species.

What ever happened to love of country, loyalty, etc.? Put your efforts toward promoting the country's leadership in new, advanced technologies. You think Russia or China give two craps about changing technology at this point?
Be an Ameri-can not an Ameri-can't.

anyone who "blames everyone" for "everything" is just ignorant, uneducated or just plain brain dead. Every issue on the planet can be connected to MANY sources. But, no, its so easy to "blame the USA". People across the world have been jealous of our accomplishments but I agree that we have brought that on by our "chest-beating, chanting USA constantly , in-your-face attitudes". We need to back off the arrogance and put on a humble, grateful face and be a real leader for the free world. People will be less resentful

Petarro. It is so. The UK is an overcrowded little island, with a population of only 60,000,000. The rise on rise of the sale of gas guzzlers has to be seen to be believed.

Why is the USA blamed for everything? Yes we contribute but think about many other INDUSTRIAL countries like China, Russia, and many parts of the world. We need to clean it up together and stop the USA self hatred!

Petarro, good comment. However, the same attitude prevails in Europe. There are plenty of buyers with more money than sense.

Heh, are US Citizens really making themselves this question? hehe... of course you are. Specially since you invented the "American Muscle" cars that eats the gas amount of 4 cars.

WHILE YOURE ALL HUGGING TREES THE MUSLIM RADICALS ARE PLOTTING TO KILL EVERYONE ON EARTH. THIER NUMBERS ARE GROWING FASTER THAN ANY OZONE HOLE. ISLAM IS A GLOBAL CRISIS!
CHECK OUT NO BALLADS' "KILL ALLAH" ON YOUTUBE

Some points here to think about. There is no such a thing as clean coal. Wind power creates acoustic hums in the air affecting the personal health of the people so it needs to be faraway from the residential neighborhoods. No else, if you really want to be green, go solar!

Now here`s a chance for the high tech enviromentalist to develope state of the art living and use it, affordably.

Once proven, sell it to the aspiring nations in a trade encouragement basis.

McCain - Nuclear - budget unknown
Obama - Green - budget 150bn
Bank Bailout - cost 700bn and counting.
War fund - cost 600bn

Does anyone see misplaced priorities here?

McCain is crazy to promote nuclear power. It is expensive, the waste is nasty AND it's a limited resource.

We have no time for such folly.

It is time to repower America by cutting energy waste, investing heavily in wind and solar, and modernizing our national power grid (connecting where clean, carbon-free energy is made to where it is used).

Obama is on the right path, but he, and McCain, need to give up on "clean coal." It's science fiction. Wind and solar are here, now.

It's amazing that now-2008 the "earth" is one of the biggest issues on the plate of politicians.In 1962 the year I was born the issues from what I have read and been told were for Cuban missiles, warfare, and other foreign policy's. Who could reach the Moon first. Who could be the country with the biggest military, and on, and on, and on.Back in the 80's the issue of "GLOBAL WARMING"hit the market yet not one politician cared.We now can feel the effects and can see the effects, so I guess we should now reverse it.This country needs to forsee into the future more and stop now what will effect us later.Do not procrastinate.

capitalism's polluting the world away... not just the US, everyone's working together on that better than they work together on anything ...

Kinda... but there are still others contributing. We should still focus on ourselves first, then the others when we're done fixing our own problems (as in with our enviromental issues and stuff)

EDIT:: So they can't complain about us bossing them around for what they're not doing. We don't have to completely finish fixing our problems to start complaining about theirs though. We could start complaining to them about what they need to fix while we're fixing our issues, but they're not going to start taking action unless we actually start because they'll see us as hippocrates, thus our word would be meaningless to them.

So, uh, what's new?

i think in last few decades CHINA has been a major contributor a lot of that.

but overall it is a combination of everyone not doing their part on the world stage.

its not just u.s. it every one! but its not like we are not to blame. and if so we should be the cure and not the syntom!!

In addition to loving Derrick Shore I am loving the CJ specials. Hope there's more to come in 09. Keep it folksy, folks.

I think right now the U.S. does play a big role in the environmental crisis, but the biggest issue is whether "booming" countries like China and India are willing to hinder economic growth, and in turn, help reduce carbon emissions. If this happens, more pressure will be put on the US to do the same.