...You Got Some 'Splainin To Do!

I know, I left you hanging. I'm actually still contemplating whether or not I want to go into it. The Bill Clinton reference, I mean. I watched the Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday. Wanna watch it? http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/ourmeetings/meeting_2009_annual_webcast.asp?Section=OurMeetings&PageTitle=Webcast%3C/a%3E

I guess I'm just waiting until I'm smarter to talk about what I heard. I mean, gee wiz, those people on that panel were a hell of a lot smarter than me. CEO, President, Prime Minister-types all shooting the breeze with Bill Clinton. Among them, Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coke. Hey... Coke... where did I recently see you that made me vow I would never buy another one of your products ever again...? Oh, A World Without Water. Oh. Gee. How embarrassing for you, Coke.

I know that documentary was made two years ago, but in two years, Coke has gone from sucking land dry to getting a foot massage for their "green" ways?

Coke is spreading the word that they are setting a new goal for themselves. Water neutrality. Sounds awesome, right? And Bill Clinton seemed to be impressed. Usually, that's all I need to know. Here it is on their website that lets readers know how awesome they are:

http://www.cokecorporateresponsibility.co.uk/environment/water-use/replenishing-the-water-we-use.html

"The Global Water Challenge: In partnership with many non-governmental organizations, the Coca-Cola system has established 68 community-based water initiatives in 40 countries, including The Global Water Challenge."

So, all the smart people up there clapped and listened and looked pretty impressed. Hey, they're all way smarter than me, so found myself smiling too. After all, I'm just a schmuck with a computer I can turn on and off that plays these webcast thingies for me, I don't know how it works... So maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing, but the "non-governmental" part of that sentence makes me a little nervous. Like will they be charging people for it at a price that they see fit? Because privatization is the thing that scares me cause I'm still living in Camp Waterisahumanright. I actually joined Twitter during the webcast just so that I could tweet that darn question, but I am too simple-minded to have even been able to do that, so maybe I should just look at the birdie and whistle a happy tune... No, I can't. I really want to know. Can anyone find the answer to my question? Am I going to have to email Muhtar? Hey, I'm tough enough to take a navy shower, I'm tough enough to blast through a little PR BS and find out what's going on.

Let me just say, that I want the answer to be "no" - that they will not own and operate the water that runs into people's homes. I'm not looking for Coke to be evil, I want to believe everything on their self-loving website. Please Coke, tell me what I want to hear so I don't give you the evil eye - because I know that would do serious damage to you.

In the meantime, for those of you who are still on the third paragraph of this entry and thinking, how the heck can anyone be "water neutral," here's a link for you: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/the-next-greenwash-water-neutrality.php.