Month: November 2011

Always Coca-Cola? Yes, and Plastic Water Bottles are Forever

Trish

GCI’ve never been to the Grand Canyon but it’s on my list. When I get there, I hope I will be so enthralled with the majesty of the canyon that I am not distracted by plastic bottle litter behind every creosote and juniper.

But a recent reversal by the National Park Service makes this prospect less likely.

Weary of plastic litter, Grand Canyon National Park officials were in the final stages of imposing a ban on the sale of disposable water bottles in the Grand Canyon late last year when the nation’s parks chief abruptly blocked the plan after conversations with Coca-Cola, a major donor to the National Park Foundation.

Stephen P. Martin, the architect of the plan and the top parks official at the Grand Canyon, said his superiors told him two weeks before its Jan. 1 start date that Coca-Cola, which distributes water under the Dasani brand and has donated more than $13 million to the parks, had registered its concerns about the bottle ban through the foundation, and that the project was being tabled. His account was confirmed by park, foundation and company officials.

Disposable plastic water bottles are a scourge like few others. By the numbers: […]

Balanced Budget Amendment Fails

Trish

When I – along with 86 of my Freshmen colleagues – were elected a little more than a year ago, we pledged to change the conversation in our Nation’s Capital. Despite today’s failed resolution, I believe we have changed that conversation.

Rep. Allen West (R/Tea – Fla.), expressing his disappointment that the balanced budget amendment failed in the House, and co-opting the term, “change the conversation.” Tea partiers weren’t sent to Congress to change the conversation, they were sent to take action. Changing the conversation is the aim of the Occupy movement, which has successfully changed it from the made-up deficit crisis to income inequality and socializing risk.