Must Read

Some researchers have completed "the first comprehensive, peer-reviewed energy analysis of bottled water, and the results aren't pretty."  Producing one bottle of water takes 2,000 times the energy as it would to produce same amount of tap water. [Fast Company]

Should Read

Tom Philpott takes a look at the human cost of industrial tomatoes, spending time in Immokalee, Florida, "epicenter of U.S. fresh-tomato production from December to March." A two-part series. [Grist]

The people in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin watershed are now learning the answer the global question of "what will happen when the climate starts to change and the rivers dry up and a whole way of life comes to an end?"  More than a decade into a drought that is looking more and more permanent, life has changed.    [National Geographic]

Colorado state law dictates that rainwater belongs to those who bought the rights to waterways, making anybody with a home rainwater capture system a criminal.  [Los Angeles Times]

Entertainment

The Age of Stupid premiered last week in the U.K.  Here's the premise:  "London is underwater, New Orleans won't be rebuilt a third time, the arctic is ice free, and agriculture is failing, which leads to global food riots and ultimately the collapse of civilization."  The film blends a fictional narration from the year 2055, but while it's "framed by a post-apocalyptic narrative set in the future, the bulk of the film is actually a documentary about the impacts of climate change that we are already seeing in 2009 -- and its not pretty."  The film should reach U.S. theaters next month.  [Worldchanging]

Recommended Reading

OnEarth contributor Andrew Nikiforuk has a new book out on the Alberta tar sands that he covered here in fall of 2007. And since his publisher feels the book's lessons are so important and need to be read, they're offering Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent for free download.   [Greystone Books]