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No, not Waterworld Day (which I have just now invented and will fall on my birthday, September 19—only 181 shopping days left!). World Water Day is a slightly less awesome day to raise awareness about, like, water and stuff. Some countries don't have good water. This country does.

Over at Huffington Post, Annie Leonard [EDIT: who reads tonight at Powell's!] has put up a piece about bottled water and how horrifically wasteful it is, in virtually every sense—cost and environmental impact, obviously, and studies show it actually tastes worse than most tap water. This is all stuff you probably know already, or at least sense subliminally, even if you don't consciously think about it. But yeah, buying bottled water really sucks. Leonard has made a goofy, short animated movie about it, in the vein of her The Story of Stuff. The Story of Bottled Water is kind of ridiculously earnest, but it's good information, clearly presented, and it has moving drawings and stuff.

Do you drink bottled water? Does your office have a water cooler? The Mercury office thankfully has a filter system that hooks up directly to the water supply, but in the past I've worked in offices that have gone through dozens of five-gallon plastic jugs daily. I myself just bought some bottled water yesterday at the airport, which felt like an unavoidable necessity. I have also been guilty of buying cases of water bottles from Fred Meyer in preparation for camping/road trips. Barring these unavoidable scenarios (and maybe they are avoidable, I am just not trying hard enough?), bottled water blows, and Leonard's piece is worth reading.