By Greg Machado
Water bottles ... are you kidding me? This is what our University is up to?
Our University could think of nothing better to do than to take away plastic water bottles? Our parents are working hard for their money to put us through school and we're going to accept this ridiculous decision?
Students, stand up for your parents and stand up for yourselves. Especially if you're paying for school yourself by working 40 hour weeks or taking out hefty loans.
This decision is entirely excessive and has meager logic behind it.
All I hear is, "going green is the thing to do," "our campus is sustainable," "we should be good stewards of the planet" and "Focus the Nation was a big hit event and the Water Conference will be too."
All I hear is rubbish and nonsense.
The University wants and claims to be "green" and "sustainable," then they should start by mandating every computer be shut off after each day's use, rather than have the meter run night after night.
Maybe they should mandate every student study by candlelight or maybe they should have every building's HVAC unit shut off entirely to cut the electric bill in half. How about mandating we all drive by horse and buggy?
What about restricting the amount of water the University uses to water the lawns, plants and trees?
Even better, why not put a cap on the amount of water students can use to wash their hands, take a shower or wash their clothes? What is it going to take for this campus to realize there is a real world beyond the walls of "magic UP land?"
Why not take away soda bottles, juice bottles and Gatorade bottles? Every one of those is a plastic bottle, with none other than ... water. Flavored, of course.
Taking away water bottles is a devised and planned publicity stunt for the upcoming "confluences: Water and Justice" conference.
Don't believe me?
The theme for this conference is water.
The logo is a water drop, the speakers work for water councils that assist the U.N., environmental agencies and water watch programs.
"The right thing to do?"
More like the right thing to do for the image and wallets of our administration and Bon Appétit.
It baffles me that this "water problem" is at the forefront of the minds of our University's officers.
The Catholic order needs to keep its beliefs that water is "a commodity and a universal and inalienable right" to itself. Water is not a problem for the University.
I remember distinctly a class lecture from "Coach Bob" (one of the speakers at this upcoming Water Conference) three years ago that there is enough water in the Bull Run Reservoir watershed to last Portland a long time to come.
For over a century it's been listed as one of the most outstanding sources of quality and protected water in the US.
Water is not and will not become a commodity. Water will always be universal to all without the approval of the Catholic order because our Earth is pretty much a closed system.
The Earth's water is neither gained nor lost because it is continually being recycled around the globe and doesn't escape into outer space.
Speakers at this conference will be coming to scare you that more than 97 percent of the Earth's water is salty, over half the remainder of fresh water is locked frozen at the poles or in glaciers, ground water is not attainable and that a fifth of the world's population suffers from a shortage of drinking water.
If countries can desalinate millions of gallons of seawater a day and the U.S.S. Carl Vinson, Nimitz class aircraft carrier, can make 400,000 gallons a day, (which is the carrier that was deployed to Haiti), then no population should be or will be suffering from a shortage of drinking water in the future with these technologies.
The solution isn't to take away plastic water bottles or create the water police.
The solution is to get rid of psycho environmentalists, especially the eco-socialists. Environmentalists stand in the way of problems being solved, things getting done and projects moving forward. These water environmentalists are hindering themselves and standing in the way of their own efforts to their ultimate goal.
This brash decision of the removal of plastic water bottles is a noble effort that's going to accomplish very little to nothing.
Don't even get me started on the "smoking ban" the administration was looking into.
Bunch of babies and whiners for thinking you're going to contract lung cancer the quick second you pass a smoker to get to class.
Get real people! After graduation there are no ASUP resolutions, cigarette receptacles, 50 foot rules or friendly reminders.
Wake up UP. It's time to grow up.
The real world is your friendly reminder and you better get used to it.
Greg Machado is a senior global business and finance major
