[Note: This review of "Tapped" initially appeared with reviews of "What's the Economy for, Anyway" and "Split Estate" -- the fourth of four sets of reviews for The Union newspaper.]
You think Global Warming is huge?Well, it is, but if you want a nightmare that’s easier to get your arms around, think water.There’s only so much of it.We’re polluting a lot of it.And multinational companies have already gone a long way to controlling water as a commodity.Think divvying up more and more profit by exploiting more and more of what keeps us alive at such a basic level.
When you’re talking about sure death after only a few days without it, water competes really well in the scary department with the waste, depletion, and climatic effects of fossil fuels.
The film “Tapped” feels like two separate though related films.Corporations are not merely greedy.They’re clever, too.The film shows, for instance, how powerhouse Nestle’s mines water -- essentially for free -- and marks it up, big time, to sell it to us.Never mind if their practices stomp on people’s access to water from the source.
“Tapped” switches its emphasis to more detail about bottled water.The film nails the industry for trying to cast municipal water as a less healthful choice.It goes on to show how bottled water is less regulated and more worrisome, not the least of which involves the chemical properties of those convenient plastic containers.
Train ever watchful eyes on corporate practices, on costs they energetically claim are not their responsibility.You say it doesn’t particularly quench your thirst as a pastime.Maybe you’re just not thirsty enough yet.