
Inside the bad math that lets Coca-Cola say it gives back all the water it uses - f3f3_
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/31/17377964/coca-cola-water-sustainability-recycling-controversy-investigation
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etskinner
The article talks about water as if it's an exhaustible resource, but it's
not. What's the big deal if my quarter pounder requires the flow of hundreds
or thousands of gallons of water, it's all released to the atmosphere at some
point, right? I could understand if they were talking about the power needed
to pump water (assuming artificial irrigation), but they don't mention that at
all.

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detritus
I've never really understood the outrage over this point either - in my
country, at least.

I could appreciate the criticism if we were discussing livestock in the Sahara
or Golf courses in Nevada - but when its aimed at grass-reared cows or
chickens in Britain, one of the rainiest places on Earth* , it doesn't compute
for me.

* only a slight exaggeration

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coaxial
My understanding is that this water needs to be produced, that is taken from a
source, processed, cleaned, pumped into pipes, etc. It means that you
eventually have to divert and dry up rivers, lakes, or underground reserves to
produce the water. This can destroy ecosystems because they're not getting the
water anymore. It is possible to use more water than comes it and thus empty
the buffer.

The other issue is that it displaces water. For example, California has a
water problem. Most of the water used to grow vegetables is then shipped away
in the produce to far away where they're consumed: the water will never make
it back to California. It puts even more strain on an already tapped out water
supply.

Finally, used water becomes polluted. Some chemicals are very hard to remove
from water (some fertilizers, antibiotics, antidepressants...) and so the
water is not exactly as it was, it's degraded.

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detritus
Nice answer, thanks - although as I say, I mean more when the argument is
raised here in Blighty. Where we're concerned, farm run-off is a problem, but
an understood and solvable one.

I wonder if, in the future, our trade might increasingly become more of a
dualistic swap between Northern cold and wet countries and their water-based
product, to more equatorial countries, dripping in solar energy. Atoms for
electrons.

