7 ms·

I have a way to monetize this: start charging Nestlé. Currently they are extracting billions of gallons of water every year from California aquifers for free s

I have a way to monetize this: start charging Nestlé. Currently they are extracting billions of gallons of water every year from California aquifers for free so that they can sell it back to us for two dollars a bottle. Put a stop to this now.

WalterBright 5y ago
So don't pay $2 a bottle. Buy it for $.03 per gallon from your taps. The only time I buy a bottle of water is when I need a "canteen".
labster 5y ago
Nestlé sold most of its water businesses, including those in California, to BlueTriton. Nestlé still owns the European brands, but not Arrowhead Puritas or Nestlé Pure Life.
vkou 5y ago
> Currently they are extracting billions of gallons of water every year So, they are a rounding error in California's overall water consumption? And you think curtailing that is going to fix unsustainable water usage in a desert state?
rkhassen9 5y ago
Groundwater is so important. It's part of a system we do it fully understand. In our area, the groundwater where the wells draw from have become contaminated with saltwater because the freshwater was too low, and the saltwater seeped in and we no longer have a key way of providing water to the community. Many people including myself got sick and had to start buying water, something that was enjoyed by countless previous generations. Fixing it isn't straightforward either, it would take decades to fix, according to the hydrologists. 37% percent of people reply on groundwater as a source, and I wonder how many plants and animals in the system do as well. If only we could think of the earths resources as a single body or systemthat we share, I think we could make some steps. I feel like we are still at the stage where collectively we are selling our kidneys for iPads, and our lungs(forests)for gas money and think we'll still be able to function as well when the vital organs are gone.
- imtringued 5y ago
  "But man, unlike the plant, cannot remain satisfied with part of the earth; he needs the whole; every individual needs the whole undivided earth. Nations living in valleys or islands, or shut off by tariff - barriers, languish and become extinct. Trading nations, on the other hand, that spice their blood with all the products of the earth, remain vigorous and populate the world. The bodily and spiritual needs of men put out roots in every square foot of the earth's surface, embracing the globe as with the arms of an octopus. Man needs the fruits of the tropics, of the temperate zones and of the north; and for his health he needs the air of the mountains, the sea and desert. To stimulate his mind and enrich his experience he needs intercourse with all the nations of the earth. He even needs the gods of other nations as objects with which to compare his own religion. The whole globe in splendid flight around the sun is a part, an organ, of every individual man. How, then, can we suffer individual men to confiscate for themselves parts of the earth as their exclusive property, to erect barriers and with the help of watchdogs and trained slaves to keep us away from parts of the earth, from parts of ourselves - to tear, as it were, whole limbs from our bodies? Is not such a proceeding equivalent to self-mutilation?" page 54 of https://www.naturalmoney.org/NaturalEconomicOrder.pdf https://www.naturalmoney.org/NaturalEconomicOrder.pdf
- edmcnulty101 5y ago
  What area are you?
taktoa 5y ago
This seems pretty innumerate to me. Just off the top of my head: ordinary people use over an order of magnitude more water in showers and toilets and lawn sprinklers than they drink (let alone the amount of _bottled_ water they drink), and farms in California use an order of magnitude more water than ordinary people and businesses (which is why low flow faucets and the like are not really doing much for California's droughts).
- mike_d 5y ago
  The biggest consumer of water in the state (about half) is environmental concerns. Trying to maintain wetlands, fish populations, etc. Agriculture is 40%, and all consumer/urban consumption is 10%. The solution to the water problem is trivial, but quite unpopular. Tax crops by the gallons per human calorie. That would eliminate a lot of the feed crops that we grow using our water and ship overseas, as well as dumb shit like almonds.
  - r00fus 5y ago
    Almonds pale in comparison to meat use of water. Your plan would work but CA milk/beef production would collapse - almonds would just get costlier (CA makes most of all almonds in the world).
    - yetihehe 5y ago
      > Your plan would work but CA milk/beef production would collapse Yeah, better to make beef for 10 more years and change your place into desert.
      - rhinoceraptor 5y ago
        Beef actually has a pretty moderate groundwater footprint, from what I've read it's less than half that of almonds per pound. That number is even smaller for grass finished beef. The numbers cited for water use for beef include rainfall that is incorporated into the grass that cattle graze, which is highly misleading.

WalterBright 5y ago

So don't pay $2 a bottle. Buy it for $.03 per gallon from your taps. The only time I buy a bottle of water is when I need a "canteen".

labster 5y ago

Nestlé sold most of its water businesses, including those in California, to BlueTriton. Nestlé still owns the European brands, but not Arrowhead Puritas or Nestlé Pure Life.

vkou 5y ago

> Currently they are extracting billions of gallons of water every year So, they are a rounding error in California's overall water consumption? And you think curtailing that is going to fix unsustainable water usage in a desert state?

rkhassen9 5y ago

Groundwater is so important. It's part of a system we do it fully understand. In our area, the groundwater where the wells draw from have become contaminated with saltwater because the freshwater was too low, and the saltwater seeped in and we no longer have a key way of providing water to the community. Many people including myself got sick and had to start buying water, something that was enjoyed by countless previous generations. Fixing it isn't straightforward either, it would take decades to fix, according to the hydrologists. 37% percent of people reply on groundwater as a source, and I wonder how many plants and animals in the system do as well. If only we could think of the earths resources as a single body or systemthat we share, I think we could make some steps. I feel like we are still at the stage where collectively we are selling our kidneys for iPads, and our lungs(forests)for gas money and think we'll still be able to function as well when the vital organs are gone.

imtringued 5y ago
"But man, unlike the plant, cannot remain satisfied with part of the earth; he needs the whole; every individual needs the whole undivided earth. Nations living in valleys or islands, or shut off by tariff - barriers, languish and become extinct. Trading nations, on the other hand, that spice their blood with all the products of the earth, remain vigorous and populate the world. The bodily and spiritual needs of men put out roots in every square foot of the earth's surface, embracing the globe as with the arms of an octopus. Man needs the fruits of the tropics, of the temperate zones and of the north; and for his health he needs the air of the mountains, the sea and desert. To stimulate his mind and enrich his experience he needs intercourse with all the nations of the earth. He even needs the gods of other nations as objects with which to compare his own religion. The whole globe in splendid flight around the sun is a part, an organ, of every individual man. How, then, can we suffer individual men to confiscate for themselves parts of the earth as their exclusive property, to erect barriers and with the help of watchdogs and trained slaves to keep us away from parts of the earth, from parts of ourselves - to tear, as it were, whole limbs from our bodies? Is not such a proceeding equivalent to self-mutilation?" page 54 of https://www.naturalmoney.org/NaturalEconomicOrder.pdf https://www.naturalmoney.org/NaturalEconomicOrder.pdf
edmcnulty101 5y ago
What area are you?

taktoa 5y ago

This seems pretty innumerate to me. Just off the top of my head: ordinary people use over an order of magnitude more water in showers and toilets and lawn sprinklers than they drink (let alone the amount of _bottled_ water they drink), and farms in California use an order of magnitude more water than ordinary people and businesses (which is why low flow faucets and the like are not really doing much for California's droughts).

mike_d 5y ago
The biggest consumer of water in the state (about half) is environmental concerns. Trying to maintain wetlands, fish populations, etc. Agriculture is 40%, and all consumer/urban consumption is 10%. The solution to the water problem is trivial, but quite unpopular. Tax crops by the gallons per human calorie. That would eliminate a lot of the feed crops that we grow using our water and ship overseas, as well as dumb shit like almonds.
- r00fus 5y ago
  Almonds pale in comparison to meat use of water. Your plan would work but CA milk/beef production would collapse - almonds would just get costlier (CA makes most of all almonds in the world).
  - yetihehe 5y ago
    > Your plan would work but CA milk/beef production would collapse Yeah, better to make beef for 10 more years and change your place into desert.
    - rhinoceraptor 5y ago
      Beef actually has a pretty moderate groundwater footprint, from what I've read it's less than half that of almonds per pound. That number is even smaller for grass finished beef. The numbers cited for water use for beef include rainfall that is incorporated into the grass that cattle graze, which is highly misleading.