The powder scientists like to call dry water is 95% composed by water.  This innovative substance was discovered in 1968 mostly for its potential in the cosmetics world. In 2006, scholars from the University of Hull decided to restudy its structure and properties. Since then, numerous studies have been done and dry water continues to fascinated scientists around the world. According to specialists, dry water could also provide the starting base for a way to transport potentially dangerous chemical products. In addition, this magical white powder also absorbs and stores carbon dioxide, an important discovery in order to limit the effects of global warming. According to experts and various researches it appears that “dry water can absorb more than three times as much carbon dioxide as an ordinary mix of water and silica” (Source: http://www.greenbang.com/how-to-soak-up-co2-add-dry-water_15097.html). This discovery is fundamental insofar it means that dry water could absorb large quantities of power plant emissions, by blocking the greenhouse gases.

Every single water particle is composed by a water drop that is surrounded by altered silica that “prevents the water droplets from combining and turning back into a liquid. The result is a fine powder that can slurp up gases, which chemically combine with the water molecules to form what chemists terms a hydrate” (Source”: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825174102.htm). According to scientists, dry water could also be used for the storage of methane, providing a safer method to store methane fuel that could be used to power gas vehicles.

The potential scientific applications seem to be numerous since experts have perhaps elaborated an additional utility to this white powder. Indeed, according to them, dry water could be an important tool to accelerate catalyzed reactions between hydrogen gas and maleic acid that consequently produce succinic acid, a “raw material widely used to make drugs, food ingredients, and other consumer products” (Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825174102.htm). This could lower the costs of many drugs, consequently increasing the production and the demand and potentially ameliorating the lives of many sick patients.

This substance that recalls powdered sugar could revolutionize the world of science with its multiple properties and characteristics that could be beneficial to the future of mankind. Dry water appears to be a strong enemy ready to fight against global warming by absorbing impressive quantities of carbon dioxide. In addition this magical powder could facilitate the transportation of dangerous chemical products and gases.

“Bottled Water! I have had enough! You have got to tell me what is going on! Where are we?? Why am I SUPPOSE TO KEEP MY VOICE DOWN??! WHO ISN’T SUPPOSE TO HEAR US?? Where is Bamboo???” exclaimed Miss Evian with a very loud and impatient tone of voice.  Well, to tell you the truth, despite all the bad things that have happened to us I am happy Bamboo is out of the picture!! I decided I wasn’t going to tell her the complete truth but I had to tell her something: “Miss Evian, we are hiding in the back store of the superstore, because we are playing a game and the other bottles are not suppose to find us!”. I wonder if she is actually going to buy this lie! Knowing her I doubt it!

Miss Evian replied with an annoyed tone of voice: “First of all stop calling it the “superstore” it is a SU-PER MAR-KET!! It is not such a hard word to remember! Second of all, this game is ridiculously silly! I don’t want to be hiding out in the back store with those annoying bags of flour! I want to be out in the supermarket with mr Bamboo and you have NO RIGHT to keep me away from him!!!! If you don’t let me go right now, I will call the police of the supermarket! Frank the security guard that has arrested that little boy that one time tried to steal a chocolate bar…remember?”

I told Miss Evian to calm down and I decided to tell her the truth. The whole truth! Here I go! Miss Evian, I have got some bad news for you. They took over the shelf. All the rest of us are gone. This is why you have got to keep your voice down, we are the only two plastic bottled water left. If they found us it is over! We need to stay out here until I come up with some sort of plan.

“Bottled Water! WHO TOOK OVER THE STORE?!! WHERE ARE ALL OF OUR FRIENDS? SHOULD I BE AFRAID? replied Miss Evian with an alarmed tone!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Do you remember last time we talked, that I told you about my new friend from France! Her name is miss Evian, she is very lean and elegant, and she speaks English in a funny way. She keeps on telling me: “ I want to return to my maison in France!” She sure is silly, I don’t even know what a “maison” is! The word does sound funny “mai –son”. Maybe she means to say “my son” but her French accent makes the word sound strange. Oh, but I do hope she doesn’t have a son! She seems so young! If she has a son does that also mean that she has a husband bottle? Well not that I care!

Anyways, the other day miss Evian was telling me about this beautiful place where all the nicest and prettiest water bottles get send to the Rice- Castle! She told me it is a lovely castle where rich people go to sleep and eat in gold plates. Wait, it wasn’t called Rice -Castle, I think it was something more like Ritz- Carlot…Oh I know, I know the Ritz-Carlton! Well, miss Evian isn’t being very nice, since she thinks she is better than the rest of us, the other water bottles from the super market and that she should be in a prettier place. What she doesn’t know is that Mrs Goldendiamondy, the oldest water bottle in the super market, who knows a lot of grown up things, told me that the Ritz-Carlton doesn’t like plastic water bottles anymore. According to Mrs Goldendiamondy, 73 of the Ritz Carlton castles have blocked the entrance to us simple plastic water bottles and have chosen “plant-based, biodegradable materials for special water bottles”.  Bio-de-gra-da-ble, that sounds like a very long and complicated word for grown-ups.  I want to be a special water bottle!! I want to be a super “bio-gra-da-ble” bottle! Not quit sure what it means, but it does sound pretty cool to me! Almost like the name of a super hero bottle!

When I asked Mrs Goldendiamondy why miss Evian could not entre the Rice-Carlote Castle she says that us, water bottles from the supermarket we are “old and made from crude oil and we take way to much energy to be produce”. Again with that thing called “oil”! It must really be a bad bad thing from the way everyone talks about it!  Well, anyways, Mrs Goldendiamondy – Gosh that is a funny name!! – also told me that people at the Carlton Castle prefer the new bio-de-gra-da-ble bottles because they cost the same price or even cheaper than we do but they are much nicer to the environment and much easier to transport. My cousin the bottled water from Chicago even told me that over there, the plastic bottles are now 5 cents more expensive so that way less people will want to buy them! That is funny, no everyone is against us! Well I am sure things would be different if all of us were bio-gra-da-ble, no wait, I think it was something like bio-de-gra-da-ble! Well, either way, I think Miss Evian won’t be too happy when she hears of this! Well, it is not so so bad in the end that the people for the Ritz Castle don’t want miss Evian, that way she can stay with us at the supermarket!

Last time we talked I told you about my daddy PET and my mummy WATER. Well since I have been sitting in this superstar, oh…no wait…what was it called again?? Oh right, the supermarket! What was I saying, right, since I have been sitting in this supermarket well I have been feeling pretty lonely without my dad and mom. Water, my mom, tells me she is doing lovely, she lives in a lovely peaceful environment with trees, birds and sunshine. For some reason, my mom still won’t explain what are those feathery things called “birds”. Maybe it is something only grownups can understand.

Now that I have to spend all my day in this cold fridge at least I have had some time to make friends with the other bottles sitting next to me. In this multi-cultural environment, I have made friends with water bottles that come from all over the world. Last night, when all the people in the supermarket left, and it got dark all of a sudden, I met this French bottle who just got in last night. She is elegant and nice but seems a bit nostalgic; maybe she misses her home. The French bottle was very tired last night, she told me she traveled all the way from France from her home spring called “Evian”. What a funny name don’t you think?? She traveled by road, her transportation all the way to America required 5.8 MJ. That is a long way to travel and it most have cost a lot of time and energy to bring her here. It’s funny, because we already have so much water in America, I wonder why all this trouble to bring the poor bottle so far away from her hometown Evian. Well, right now she is sleeping, so I guess I am going to have to wait until tomorrow to ask her more questions about her trip. But what if she is gone by tomorrow afternoon??? Oh no, that would be so sad for me to loose a new friend. The other night I heard the King of the supermarket talking and he said that Americans consume about 33 billion litres of bottled water a year! That’s a lot of us! By the way, what does “consume” means?! Anyway, he was saying this is the equivalent in energy terms of around 50 million barrels of oil!! Can you imagine all that oil?? Well…to be honest I can’t…I’am not even sure what that funny word “oil” means…! But still, that just doesn’t sound to good to me…. Plus 33 billion litres, that is a ridiculous amount of bottles disappearing every year. I hope they won’t take miss Evian away from me just yet! Tonight sure is a lonely night, maybe I should wake up miss Evian and ask her to tell me more about her adventurous trip to America….

(Data source: http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/38143)

I was born in a bottling plant thanks to PET, my daddy and to WATER, my mummy. My dad gave me the skin and my mom the blood to live; she came from a fantastic place, which is called natural source…wow! Can you imagine?? It must be such a location!! I would like to go there and visit sometime; she told me that there are trees, silence and peace. I don’t know what she is talking about, but it sounds kind of wonderful.

My daddy, on the other side, was born in a plastic factory where there are no trees, no silence and no peace… mmm…doesn’t sound so good, don’t you think? He told me that his name is the acronym of Polyethylene terephthalate: such a weird name!! I heard people saying that plastics of this type use around 6.45kg of oil per kg, 294.2kg of water per kg, and result in 3.723kg of greenhouse gas emissions per kg. I don’t really understand what this means, but it doesn’t sound good. I also heard that I hold 1 liter of mom and I require 5 liters of her in my manufacturing process (this includes power plant cooling water). Well,  anyway, I am made of this and I respect my dad,  so I have to deal with it.

Now I live in a fridge in a place called “superstar”…oh no,  it wasn’t that…mmm,  let me think…oh yes,  now I remember: “supermarket”! That’s it! It’s quite cold inside and I share a little space with my brothers and sisters and other friends; it is a multicultural environment, with people coming from all over the world, it’s amazing!! Every day we tell each other stories about our trip to get here. Personally, I’ve made a long trip: I left China to get to Fiji… Oh! what a nice place! Just yesterday two women came in the supermarket, they took me, shook me and one was saying to the other: “I’ve read a lot about the total ecological impact of an imported bottle. For example, this bottle comes from Fiji, but it is actually made in China, you see? So a container vessel uses 9g of fuel per tkm (that’s metric tons carried x distance traveled), 80g of water per tkm, and releases 17g of GHGs per tkm. The distance from China to Fiji is 8,000km, which gives us exactly 0.25tkm ( (0.025kg / 1t/1000kg) x 8,000km = 1.0tkm). So, 2.3g of fossil fuels, 20g of water, and 4.3g of GHGs per bottle delivered to Fiji from China. Isn’t it awful?!?!” and the other answered: “Yes, it is. That’s why I won’t buy this bottle because financing the devastation of the environment is really not trendy. Darling, since everyone is so eco-green these days, don’t you think there has to be another way to drink quality purified water without wasting the plastic?” The other one shrugged pensively and they left me there and continued talking about my mom’s problems related to the environment.

(Data Source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/pablo_calculate.php)