World Water Day: How Long Can You Last Without Water?

National Geographic Explorer David de Rothschild pictured aboard the Plastiki, a boat made of post-consumer plastic bottles which embarked on a voyage from San Francisco to Sydney one year ago yesterday. The expedition made de Rothschild one of our 2010 Adventurers of the Year.

Op-ed by David de Rothschild; Photograph courtesy of Adventure Ecology 

If you type the phrase "how long can you last without" into Google, given the thousands of preemptive suggestions to fire back to complete the phrase, it might surprise you that "water" is the first word to bubble up and claim top spot. Scan the first few pages of the 159,000,000 search results and you’re presented with a collection of near identical survival websites focused on tips needed to keep your personal water tank from dipping dipping into the red.

But amid all the reams of cut-and-paste references, one particular tip caught my eye. It was a sentence that could easily win the award for most obvious statement of 2011: "The best method to survive without water is not to be placed in that situation in the first place."

David de Rothschild's Plastiki Sets Sail! - Video

Just in time for World Water Day (today) and after nearly four years of development, eco-adventurer David de Rothschild has launched his most ambitious expedition yet. The Plastiki, an innovative catamaran made from 12,000 post-consumer plastic bottles, set sail on Saturday for a 100-day voyage from San Francisco to Sydney. Their mission is to witness some of the most devastating waste accumulation on our planet, including the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch. According to his twitter feed, David and the crew had eggs for breakfast on their first morning at sea. (Read our previous coverage and see the NG Plastiki site.)

Taking inspiration from Thor Heyerdal's 1947 Kon-tiki expedition, the Plastiki's crew includes of David de Rothschild, accomplished skipper Jo Royle, and Olav Heyerdahl, Thor's grandson. Check back for updates here, or go to http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/plastiki/.

Photographs courtesy of Luca Babini

Adventure in 60 Seconds: The News

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo and Keith Rutowski 

The BBC reports that the Japanese government is sending navy ships to the Gulf of Aden in order to protect their cargo ships from pirates. Japan has oficially been a pacificist nation since the end of World War II, and their intervention is raising a few eyebrows among people who have apparently never been threatened by pirates. 

Which century-old company started by developing punched card data processing equipment, survived the Great Depression, was an early competitor in PC development, and is now diving into water management? If you answered "IBM," then you're either a history buff or you just read The New York Times technology blog today. According to the Times, IBM will be present at the World Water Forum in Istanbul on Monday to unveil Strategic Water Management Solutions, a package of research findings and potential answers to some of our water-centric conundrums. The solutions package is the newest component of the company's "smart planet" initiative, which uses information technology to address everything from health care to energy. 

Last Tuesday marked the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan national uprising. Despite harsh words from a Dalai Lama, a heavy Chinese military presence kept civil unrest to a minimum (or at least reports of unrest to a minimum) and the Adventure Blog has announced that some climbing teams are optimistic about their chances to take a shot at the currently closed Tibetan side of Everest in April. 

Six climbs from 2008 have been nominated for the 17th annual Piolets d'Or or Golden Ice Axe Awards that recognize excellence in big mountain climbing. David Turner, the sole American nominee will head to Chamonix in April to see whether or not his ascent of a new route on Chile's Cerro Escudo will snag him one of the most coveted awards in climbing. 

Researchers at Rice University have found that fear has a smell—and it's not very pleasant.

Not a Drop to Drink: Flow Reviewed

Text by Andrew Burmon

Flow, the new documentary by French filmmaker Irena Salina (watch the trailer), is not the first attempt to alert the international community to the looming worldwide water shortage ... and it will not be the last. Over the last few years the debate over the future of water has begun to edge its way toward center stage, but failed to step into a spotlight already crowded by war, elections, and the scandal du jour. By surveying the many facets of the water debate, Flow effectively advocates for the importance of addressing water issues now, before it is too late.

Much of Flow’s appeal comes from Salina’s thoughtful reframing of old issues. In one of the film’s more interesting segments, she documents the conflict between community activists in Stanwood, Michigan, and Nestle's Stanwood bottled water plant, which sucked so aggressively that it created a localized drought.

Continue reading this review >>

The Adventure Life With Steve Casimiro Special Report: Your Water Bottle IS Dangerous

Text by West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro

If your water bottle is made of polycarbonate plastic—and most Nalgene and Camelbak bottles sold over the last few years are—it’s probably unsafe for you to use.

Nalgene, the largest manufacturer of outdoor water bottles, announced today that it will stop selling bottles made of polycarbonate. Polycarbonate contains a manmade chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which leaches from the plastic at levels dramatically higher than previously thought.

The chemical has been linked to breast and prostrate cancer, brain damage, and disruptions of the endocrine system. While there have been worries over BPA in water bottles for years, the evidence is now clear and compelling: You should ditch your polycarbonate bottles and use something free of BPA, such as stainless steel or a new, BPA-safe plastic called Tritan.

Continue reading this story >>

NEED TO KNOW
IS BPA SAFE?
Please. Let’s use some common sense here. With billions of dollars at stake, corporations, government, and scientists are wrangling over the definition of “safe.” And while human-bisphenol studies are few, this week’s National Institutes of Heath report noted that BPA shows “association” with “higher levels of testosterone in men and women, recurrent miscarriage, and chromosomal defects in fetuses”. Does that sound safe to you? Especially when the solution is a new BPA-free water bottle that costs less than 15 bucks? I don’t think so.

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY BOTTLE HAS BISPHENOL A IN IT?
Look on the bottom of the bottle for a number surrounded by three arrows. Polycarbonate bottles are categorized as number seven. Note that seven is the catchall “other” category for plastics—all polycarbonates are seven, not all sevens are polycarbonates.

WHERE DO I BUY A BPA-FREE BOTTLE?
REI has the new Tritan Camelbak bottles and BPA-free Nalgenes in all its stores. Elsewhere, stainless steel bottles from Guyot, Klean Kanteen, and Sigg are options, too.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER PLASTIC BOTTLES?
Nalgene’s old-school bottles, milky colored and soft sided, are made of high-density polyethylene and free of BPA. Thin-walled, soft plastic bottles like Evian uses are plain old polyethylene.

I’M A TOTAL GEEK. WHAT DO ALL THE NUMBERS MEAN?
1—polyethylene tetephtalate (PET)
2—high density polyethylene (HDPE)
3—polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
4—low density polyethylene (LDPE)
5—polypropylene (PP)
6—polystyrene (PS)
7—other (polycarbonate, fiberglass, nylon, more)