The United Nations warns us that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population – more than five billion of us – will lack access to water. Buying bottled water contributes to this problem and other environmental issues on several fronts:  First, because many people in the U.S. purchase one or more bottles of water in plastic water bottles every day, and then throw the bottles out when they’re done, they add to our ever-increasing mountains of non-biodegradable land fill waste.  Even those who conscientiously recycle their plastic water bottles cause problems, because the energy used to make the bottles, bottle the water, transport the water, and recycle the water bottles all contribute to emissions, and non of it is necessary!  The fact is, in the United States we already have access to good drinking water, it’s called tap water (besides, did you know that 40% of bottled water in the U.S. and Canada is sourced from municipal tap water?)  Finally, buying bottled water contributes to the privatization of our access to water world-wide.  There is an increasingly urgent water shortage in the world. By drinking bottled water, we’re exacerbating the problem by leaving less clean water for others do drink.