Over the Ed

March 24 - April 7 2010

Volume 16, Issue 13

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Tyler Clarke/ Production coordinator

Benjamin Button and The Stitches, comprised of UNBC students, perform at this year’s Jezebel’s Jam, in celebration of International Women’s Day March 8 at
Art Space, the venue above Books and Company on Third Avenue downtown. See Page 5 for more...

Avoiding bottled water on campus

Students learn the environmental stupidity of consuming bottled water

Shelby Peterson
News editor

On Thursday, March 11 UNBC hosted its first ever Bottle
Water Free Day. Hosted by the Canadian Federation of Stu-
dents, the Sierra Youth Coalition, and the Polaris institute, stu-
dents were implored to ditch the bottle and turn to the tap. The
event was nationwide with University Campuses participating
across the country.

From 10:00am-3:00pm there were information booths
along the Wintergarden providing students with all the details
on the harmful ramifications of drinking bottle water. Some of
the tables included the City of Prince George Water Conser-
vation Society and the Recycling Environment Action Planning
Society.

Most interestingly, students were also able to participate in
a taste test to see if they could differentiate between bottle

water and tap water. After glancing at the tally on the white-
board, it was clear that most students could not tell the differ-
ence between the two. As one would expect there was also a
Bottle Water Free petition for the students to sign which moves
to make the campus bottle water free.

Along with the information tables, there were also lectures
held throughout the day to better inform students about the
cause. First, the health impacts of bottled water were dis-
cussed by Matthew Shumaker who is the Environmental
Health Officer from Northern Health and by Dr. Margot Parkes
from UNBC. Second, UNBC student Danielle Smyth, who is
the UNBC Green Research Manager, spoke about her vision
for a bottle water free UNBC. Finally, the social and environ-
mental impacts of bottle water were discussed by UNBC pro-
fessor Dr. Zoe Meletis.

Finally, the daylong event closed with a screening of the

film Tapped. Tapped is a film that takes a critical look at the
bottle water industry and the negative impacts it has on all of
us. The film argues that bottle water is not only bad for the en-
vironment because of all the petroleum that goes into making
the bottles and transporting it around the world, but that bottle
water is also bad for our health. The film suggests that bottle
water is toxic for human beings because the plastic bottles that
the water is contained in leech out chemicals into the water.
Moreover the film says that over 18 million liters of oil is used
to transport water across the United States in one year. Prob-
ably what shocks people most is the fact that most bottle water
comes from the tap and not some majestic stream high up in
the mountains.

For more information on bottle water you can visit bottle-
waterfreeday.ca of contact Danielle Smyth at the Students for
a Green University office.