This is the last weekend for 2 FREE water activities: kayaking on the Hudson River and the Waterfalls Exhibit.
NYC Waterfalls: The exhibit ends on Monday, October 13th. The hours have been greatly reduced due to the salt water spraying on the nearby trees (yes, I'm telling the truth). The falls are now only flowing from 12:30pm - 9pm (and maybe only 5:30pm-9pm on Monday). There are several prime viewing locations, including the free ferry to Governor's Island.
Kayaking on the Hudson - Columbia and I have longed to take advantage of this free opportunity... and have missed it again this year. This is the last weekend to take advantage: so if the weather is nice (you can call ahead at 646-613-0740), head to 72nd and Hudson River between 10am and 5pm for some kayaking fun. I'm sure you'll smell better than Kramer when it's through!
For the past few years, I've taken a lunchbag to work, on those day that I don't plan to embrace the lure of cheap chinese food. A dual-leveled piece of genius, I keep my Nalgene bottle up top, and my edibles down below. Yesterday, I realized at 168th street that my load was a bit lighter than usual. I left my lunchbag on a bench in the 181st street train station. In it, a fork, a disposable tupperware, and a half-empty nalgene bottle.
I got off, and waited for the next uptown A, getting more and more nervous as downtown A's passed... Is some scoundrel having their way with my bag on that train? I finally got back up to 181 and found my bag had grown legs and walked to the garbage can. Although, not in the garbage can, but on the floor next to it. ...?!? I opened it up. Fork? Check. Tupperware? Check. nalgene bottle? Alas, poor tankard, you've served me well...
I took the bag a couple of stations, thinking about what vile nastiness it was sitting in, and acknowledging the age and wear of it... I took the fork, chucked the rest. The last day of school starts without my trusty companion. But also, with out the BPAs. With all this talk about the chemicals leaching out of the number 7 recyclables, I figured this is a good opportunity to find a better solution.
My last post on bottled water received a number of comments, and with great information. Here are some of the highlights, and a couple of new articles.
Time to Pack In the Polycarbonates Well, this was a downer for me. Essentially it says that Nalgene bottles, water cooler bottles, and plastic food containers are leaking "a chemical that mimics the hormone estrogen, known as Bisphenol-A (BPA)". From the article:
Effects on men from genderbenders include enlarged breasts and reduced sperm counts. In women, earlier puberty and possible link to breast cancer.
[...]
Pregnant women who consume a chemical found in everyday plastic products such as food containers and water bottles could be putting their unborn children at risk of developing cancer and other diseases when they reach adulthood.
Exposure within the womb to bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in the production of plastics, caused changes linked with diseases such as obesity, cancer and diabetes...
I have to file this under "everything will give you cancer". Environment = 1, Columbia = -1.
Josh Dorfman, the Lazy Environmentalist
I.M. Bitter sent me this video. If you don't know about the lazy environmentalist, watch a bit of this video. His basic idea is "change my effects, not habits". One example was the new hybrid Camry. Some people just don't want to buy a Prius for any number of reasons. If the number one selling car in America came with a hybrid option, you can change your effects on the environment with no change to your habits (ie. you're buying the car you would have bought anyway.) Bitter mentions Sigg bottles as an alternative to Nalgene (or commercially bottled water) which are mentioned in the video.
Speaking of, have you heard about Mario Batali's restaurant (among others) banning bottled water? The thought is to save energy on delivering the water, save on recycling, etc. etc. [...] An excoworker's father worked as a New York water tester. Apparently if you filter it, it is more than fine.
I hope more restaurants do the same until it becomes natural. I'm surprised the water people aren't coming back with a backlash...but I guess the water people are less mobilized, have less money and are less evil than the gas and car people.
I mentioned that I heard San Francisco was banning bottled water. I knew I had the finer details missing, so here's some updated info on that.
[Newsweek: link] San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order banning the use of city funds to purchase single-serving plastic water bottles.
Every day there's a new water scare. Forget drinking the water, just trying to keep my head above it is challenging enough.
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