Bottled Water, The Consumer, And The Environmentalist

Hannah Rosenblatt

Haydee Smith

Muir 40, Section A28 (811381)

Synthesis Write: Final Draft

17 November, 2014

Bottled Water, the Consumer, and the Environmentalist

Both Barnett 's “Business in a Bottle” and Gleick 's “Selling Bottled Water: The Modern Medicine Show” support the general claim that the creation and advancement of the bottled water industry has made an unnecessary commodity out of a naturally occurring resource, and is detrimental to human and environmental well-being. However, the authors justify this claim by operating under different frameworks: Barnett uses evidence demonstrating the exploitation and alteration of natural water sources by bottled water companies, viewing the problematic nature of bottled water from an environmental perspective, while Gleick focuses on the implications of aggressive advertising by water companies on consumers, and describes the impacts of bottled water proliferation from an economic standpoint. Together, these perspectives provide a more holistic conception of the impacts of water privatization, and more fully support the idea that the bottled water industry can be damaging to individuals as both consumers and organisms, during production and marketing processes.

Both Barnett and Gleick support the claim that bottled water is ultimately unnecessary to the general public by focusing on different aspects of the bottled water industry. As Barnett offers evidence describing the destructive impact of the production of bottled water on the surrounding environment, and consequently people, Gleick highlights the faultiness of the advertisements utilized by the marketing side of water companies. Barnett provides several unsettling examples of allegedly clean bottled water being conta...

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...ces provide a multifaceted justification for why individuals should care about this growing industry, and how they are directly affected by it, by highlighting the detriment caused in both the economic and natural worlds. Barnett and Gleick support each others general claims by providing new insights from different conceptions of the bottled water industry, creating a more all-encompassing understanding of the bottled water industry, and raising awareness of its harmful, but unnecessary practices.

Works Cited

Barnett, Cynthia. “Business in a Bottle.” Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. Ann Arbor, MI. University of Michigan Publishing, 2007. 128-144. Print.

Gleick, Peter H. “Selling Bottled Water: the Modern Medicine Show.” Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water. Washington D: Island Press, 2011. 109- 130. Print.