IBWA

When I have nothing to say… The International Bottled Water Association rushed out a statement on Jan. 8 to respond to a report that bottled water is loaded with nanoplastics and microplastics that are tiny enough to enter the drinker’s bloodstream. Your body as a toxic waste dump?

The study by Columbia University researchers, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found an average of 240K tiny particles of plastics in a typical liter of bottled water.

IBWA fired off its statement on Jan. 8 to say that since it had very limited notice and time to review the damaging survey, it could not offer a detailed response to it.

Yet, the trade group noted a lack of scientific consensus on the potential health impacts on nano- and microplastic particles.

And it delivered this zinger: “Therefore media reports about these particles in drinking water do more than unnecessarily scare consumers.”

IBWA should have held its fire until it had fully analyzed the Columbia study before issuing a response to it.

It should have followed the sage advice of Talking Heads’ front man David Bryne who “keeps his lips sealed when he has nothing to say.”

IBWA members include Nestle, Culligan, Publix, Crystal Clear, Polar Beverages, 3M Purification, Misty Mountain, Polymer Solutions International and Lifespan Spring Water.

Let the tap water flow.

Here we go again… Mukhtar Babayev, a 20-year veteran of Azerbaijan’s state oil company, will preside over COP29, which is slated for Nov. 11-24 in Baku. He has been Azerbaijan’s ecology minister since 2018.

The Azerbaijan session comes on the heels of the 2023 session in Dubai, which was led by Sultan al-Jaber, the head of the United Arab Emirates national oil company.

Successive COP sessions run by energy executives is one way to kill the credibility of the climate change meetings, especially among young activists who were turned off by the huge contingent of oil and gas lobbyists in Dubai.

Oil and gas revenues account for 90 percent of Azerbaijan’s revenues, which financed its victorious skirmish with neighboring Armenia. The chances of meaningful action at COP29 on the global warming front are nil.

Meanwhile, The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report Jan. 9 that reported 28 climate disasters cost the nation $92.9B in 2023. The past year ranks No. 1 in billion-dollar climate and extreme weather disasters.

Time is running out for global action on climate change.

America’s geezer politicos are out of step with rest of the world. The leading Democratic and Republican fossils running for president will survive a four-year term, according to University of Illinois gerontologist Jay Olshansky, who has studied the backgrounds and health records of Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Yeah!

Both politicos come from long-lived families, though Trump’s brothers died at 42 and 71, while his father developed Alzheimer’s.

Seventy-seven-year-old Trump’s weight and lack of exercise compared to Biden (81) works against him on the longevity front.

Olshansky believes Trump has a 90 percent shot of finishing four-years in office, while Biden has a 95 percent chance. But the ability to survive a term in office makes for a lousy campaign promise.

Pew Research notes there are only eight leaders in the 187 countries that it surveyed that are older than Biden.

The trend among developed countries is to elect younger leaders. Since 1950, the average age of heads of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries has dropped from 60.2 to 55.5.

Biden’s son, Beau, would have turned 54 on Feb. 3, while Donald Trump, Jr. is 46. If Beau were around, dad would be cheering his presidential run.