Irish Examiner view: Critical need to join dots on what drives climate change

Warnings move closer as the impact on the environment of drinking bottled water is outlined

Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire near Olympia town, western Greece yesterday. Maybe we can begin to join the dots on what drives climate change, our survival is at stake. Picture: Giannis Spyrounis/ilialive.gr via AP

Whether the findings that the impact of bottled water on natural resources is 3,500 times higher than tap water will slow sales is an open question, even if it should not be. Research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health also found that the impact of bottled water on ecosystems is 1,400 times higher than tap water. The leading brand of Irish bottled water sold around 30m litres last year.

If those chastening findings are an admonishment of one of the indulgences we allow ourselves, then there are many others, some of which are more dramatic and increasingly impossible to ignore.