For Immediate Release:

Environmentalists and University Students Launch “Message in a Bottle” Campaign in Support

TORONTO, October 29, 2009 – Today NDP MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) submitted a new Private Members Bill – Bottled Water Spending Act, 2009 – to restrict government spending on bottled water. If passed, the Bill would make Ontario the first province in Canada to restrict bottled water.

At a press conference to announce the Bill, environmentalists joined with university students to launch a new “Message in a Bottle” campaign in support of its passage. The campaign kicked off with the delivery of 107 empty bottles of Nestle Pure Life stuffed with a message to every MPP.

Michael Hawthorne, October 20, 2009, The Chicago Tribune--The Obama administration is cracking down on BP as the oil company overhauls its massive refinery in northwest Indiana, one of the largest sources of air pollution in the Chicago area.

In response to a petition from environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday ordered Indiana regulators to revamp a new operating permit for the Midwest's biggest refinery. The groups, along with elected officials in Illinois, contend Indiana had allowed the oil giant to avoid stringent requirements under the federal Clean Air Act.

Tougher pollution limits could help relieve problems with lung-damaging soot and smog in the metropolitan area that stretches around the tip of Lake Michigan.

In a 24-page order, the agency directed Indiana to take a new look at several sources of air pollution at the Whiting refinery, 15 miles southeast of downtown Chicago. The results are due in 90 days.

The Corporate Stranglehold over the United Nations: How Big Business Already Wields Significant Power over the UN Water Agenda is a new REPORT from the Polaris Institute that outlines how water multinationals play an increasing role in controlling the United Nations' agenda on water issues.

The report deals with the corporate stranglehold inside the UN by water services companies, the food and beverage industry, plus numerous other large water using multinational corporations and their business associations.

Read the full report HERE

Excerpt from the Introduction:

Patti Lynn, October 14, 2009, MinutemanMedia.org - Things aren’t looking pretty for drinking water these days. Recent articles from The New York Times and the Associated Press have exposed unchecked pollution, grave gaps in oversight, decaying infrastructure, and concerns about emerging contaminants.

Yet one voice sees the decay of our water infrastructure through a rose-colored glass. “We’re bullish on water in the next 10 years,” said Nestlé Waters North America CEO Kim Jeffery, on a recent call for analysts. How exactly can he say this, given recent reports?

On the occasion of the recent G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, the Polaris Institute along with 130 international organizations signed a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama urging the United States to make bolder efforts on climate change.

Please find the final letter and list of signatories below:

September 24, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Paul Gallagher, The Observer, October 4, 2009 - London may soon follow in the footsteps of Bundanoon, the Australian town that last week banned bottled water and set up drinking fountains for thirsty locals.

The capital's first water stations will be set up this month in a move that could have serious repercussions for the £1.5bn-a-year bottled water industry, with companies finding it increasingly difficult to justify their carbon footprint as the quality of tap water improves.

Thames Water, Britain's largest privatised water company, with 13.6 million customers, has had talks with the Greater London Authority and Transport for London to install water machines in the capital. In the first trial, Hydrachills will be installed at Hammersmith bus station and at the Tower Bridge museum. The machines can fill bottles of up to 500ml with chilled water for a 20p charge. All proceeds will be donated to Waste Watch, a charity working to change the way people use natural resources.

The Polaris Institute has launched a new non-partisan public outreach campaign encourageing residents of swing ridings to use their unique voting position to call for strong federal regulations that address the pending climate crisis. From September to December 2009, the campaign will involve door-to-door canvassing in targeted neighborhoods, public events, phone banks and online outreach to encourage residents to ask all political parties to take the lead on addressing climate change and stop dirty tar sands developments.

Visit the new national campaign website at www.YourVoteTheirFuture.ca

Ranjit Devraj, October 1, 2009, Inter Press News Service - As India faces its worst drought in four decades, a dispute over water resources between farmers in the Kala Dera area of western Rajasthan state and a Coca-Cola bottling plant located there has sharpened.

Farmers and activists in Kala Dera who have been campaigning for the closure of the bottling plant operated by the global beverages icon said that if they do not succeed in closing down the Coca-Cola plant in this drought-hit year, they probably never will.

Kala Dera is located 40 kilometres outside Jaipur, the capital of arid Rajasthan state, one of the main attractions of which is the Thar Desert, considered the world’s seventh largest desert and Asia's third.

Valentine Low, The Guardian, September 24, 2009 - When the first public drinking fountain was unveiled in London 150 years ago, a large crowd gathered at St Sepulchre’s Church at Snow Hill to witness an engineering marvel that for the first time would provide the city’s poor with cold, clean, fresh water (and, the authorities hoped, would also keep the toiling masses out of the pub).

A rather smaller crowd gathered in Hyde Park yesterday for the opening of the first drinking fountain built in the park for 30 years, and the serving of champagne would suggest that fountains no longer have the same links with the Temperance movement.

Small, but no less significant; for the event marks a growing backlash against the bottled water industry, which is accused by critics of squandering resources as well as creating huge amounts of waste.

For Immediate Release, September 16, 2009, HALIFAX – Halifax Regional Municipality has voted to immediately phase out the purchase and provision of bottled water in City Hall and ensure access to public tap water in all HRM facilities.

Regional Council also asked staff to come forward with detailed action plans before banning bottled water within all HRM facilities.

“Halifax’s decision to ban the bottle and turn on the tap is an important first step and a clear indication that bottled water’s 15 minutes are up,” says Jocelyne Rankin of the Ecology Action Centre. “While Halifax didn’t go far enough by taking the bottle out of all HRM facilities, today’s vote is a sign that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Derrick O'Keefe, rabble.ca, Sep 9, 2009 - Near the end of Michael Ignatieff’s True Patriot Love -- an exploration of the men in his mother’s family rushed to publication in an effort to assert his Canadian bona fides -- we are treated to a play-by-play of the road trip he and his wife took in 2000, retracing the pioneering sea-to-sea journey of his great-grandfather.

George Monro Grant used his 1872 expedition as the basis for his book Ocean to Ocean, essentially a propaganda tract for the railway barons of the CPR. Ignatieff might hope that the reminiscences of his summer vacation spent slumming it out West -- he and his wife took the back roads, searched for homemade pie and “stayed in small motels where we shared hot tubs or pools with truckers with sunburnt arms and faces” -- will help his electability.

For Immediate Release, September 3, 2009, OTTAWA – The tar sands are creating severe environmental, economic and social problems in the Ontario - Michigan Great Lakes Region according to a new Polaris Institute report.

The report, “Toxic Trail Exposure,” is the result of an Ontario youth delegation that traveled together to Sarnia, Detroit and Windsor to uncover and expose the connections between the Great Lakes Region and tar sands developments.

Some of the key findings include:

Residents of Sarnia, Windsor and Detroit are located near five major tar sands oil refineries, are reporting disproportionately high rates of respiratory illness, cancers, skin disorders, and kidney problems.

Across the Great Lakes Region – in both Canada and the United States – youth are concerned about the impacts of ongoing tar sands developments and actively working to expose the dangers.