October 25, 2009

Jennifer Aniston takes 3-minute showers in which she not only accomplishes all the usual showerly things...

... she also brushes her teeth!

Why the harsh discipline? "Every two minutes in the shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything in their life for a whole day!"

How else are celebrities helping?
  • Adrian Grenier has lived in an apartment insulated with old pants.
  • Vegetarian and planetary crusader Tobey Maguire reportedly has banned all leather products from his house. ... [H]e also "makes everyone take off their leather belts and shoes and leave them by the door!"
  • ... Leo DiCaprio "stays green at home, too—with his $3,200 eco-friendly toilet!"
Planetary crusader, eh?

90 comments:

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I don't know if I should tell her, but the leftover water from Jennifer Aniston's house comes to my house where I use it to cool my nuclear reactor.

Shanna said...

Gross, Jennifer Anniston! I can't even get my hair thoroughly wet in 3 minutes.

Ok, water comes from the sky. We have tons of it. 2/3 of the planet is water. Why am I supposed to "conserve" water?

save_the_rustbelt said...

I think this calls for independent verification.

Sounds like a job for Trooper York. I will be glad to assist him. I will bring the camera and notepad.

I do so love research.

Anonymous said...

Here's the house in which she's saving the planet:

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/jennifer-anistons-house/

A mansion in size second only to Al Gore's monstrous Gaia-killing abode.

For what it costs to air condition this behemoth Jennifer Aniston could feed 1,000 children a month in Africa.

AllenS said...

If Jennifer had taken as much time as needed to clean certain body parts/cavities, what's his name might not have left her. Which brings me to my current heart throb; Christie Brinkley. She's been married a lot of times. Why? Does she take 2 minute showers?

WV: seargui

Growth that appears when you're not clean.

jag said...

Do the 3 minute showers compensate for the pollution caused by the constant jetting around the world to attend film festivals or to vacation on remote islands?

Anonymous said...

It gets better:

"Adorable actress Rachel Bilson, who asks flowers for permission before picking them, recently went a step further in her efforts to be more eco conscious. She picked up a hybrid Lexus RX 400h to get herself around LA."

She asks flowers permission before picking them. Has she ever been refused, I wonder?

And there's no end of sacrifice when you're a Hollywood celebretard - woe is them having to drive a fucking Lexus around.

It's no wonder Hollywood types are supportive of 13-year-old kiddie rapers like Roman Polanski. Their entire world is warped.

Anonymous said...

Do the 3 minute showers compensate for the pollution caused by Jennifer's stinky pooter?

Bissage said...

It's a safe guess that Ms. Aniston is one of those people who don't flush.

WWLDS?

(What Would Larry David Say?)

SGT Ted said...

Jennifferrrr! could help save Gaia by shutting her yap thus lowering the CO2 and other garbage that emanates from therein.

Wince said...

Seems to be a waste to leave the shower running while brushing your teeth.

Please, tell Ms. Aniston I'm available to give her a tongue bath instead.

Freder Frederson said...

Ok, water comes from the sky. We have tons of it. 2/3 of the planet is water. Why am I supposed to "conserve" water?

Putting aside the question of whether we can all make fun of highly-paid and high-profile celebrities for trying to make a difference, access to potable (you might want to investigate just how much of that 2/3 of the water is potable--if you even know what the means) water is a serious issue for much of the world's population.

Your belittling of the problem is ignorant and condescending.

babuilder said...

When my ex-wife got in the shower with the Shower Massage Flexible Wand, it usually meant an African was screwed on water for about 15 days and I wasn't going to be screwed at all!

rhhardin said...

Flowers prefer not to be picked, Wm. Empson points out.

Furthermore, a gem does not mind being in a cave and a flower prefers not to be picked.

knox said...

She's got really long hair. No way she can get it washed and rinsed in 3 minutes.

Anyway, just more proof that environmentalism is, for most of its passionate acolytes, just a way to sound holier-than-thou by doing demonstrably worthless things.

knox said...

whether we can all make fun of highly-paid and high-profile celebrities for trying to make a difference

Oh we can, and we do.

knox said...

water is a serious issue for much of the world's population.

Do you really think a short shower in LA makes a damn bit of difference to some village on the other side of the world.

Use your common sense. Oh, I forgot, environmentalism, in its present form, utterly precludes that.

TosaGuy said...

"Putting aside the question of whether we can all make fun of highly-paid and high-profile celebrities for trying to make a difference, access to potable (you might want to investigate just how much of that 2/3 of the water is potable--if you even know what the means) water is a serious issue for much of the world's population"

True enough, but does Jennifer bottle up 5 minutes of shower water and ship it to Africa? If not, then pure posturing.

Some places have more water than others....my water comes from Lake Michigan and when it goes down the drain, it returns to Lake Michigan....so I take long, guilt-free showers.

I suppose Jennifer's parents told her to eat her rutabegas as a kid because some kid in Africa didn't have food.

Freder Frederson said...

Do you really think a short shower in LA makes a damn bit of difference to some village on the other side of the world.

Of course not. But of course, California and most of the western U.S. (as well as portions of the eastern U.S.) are chronically short of water--and it is only going to get worse.

And Shanna seems blissfully ignorant of the fact that there is a shortage of water anywhere in the world--after all the oceans are full of it and it falls out of the sky!

I was just pointing out that she is an ignorant moron.

She might want to go back to high school and reread The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

AllenS said...

Freder the idiot...
"(you might want to investigate just how much of that 2/3 of the water is potable--if you even know what the means)"

Sea water---

Water is desalinated in order to be converted to fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation.

Freder Frederson said...

Water is desalinated in order to be converted to fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation.

Desalinization is practical only for rich societies with abundant energy sources and severe shortages of water. It is rarely, if ever practical for irrigation.

The expense of desalinization makes water conservation efforts(like the three minute showers Ms. Anniston takes) practically mandatory.

traditionalguy said...

Jennifer's voluntary submission to the pennance for living an American life style is a great role model. She may soon replace a certain Other woman as the UN's favorite oracle at Delphi prophesying about American's guilt. Now on the count of three, everybody do obeisance to the Air god, the Potable water god, and the Surplus People Eliminating god. Then we can submit to our sweat lodge ritual to show our good faith in our new gods.This religion is so much better than covenant keeping Christianity that founded our country.

AllenS said...

World-wide, 13,080 desalination plants produce more than 12 billion gallons of water a day, according to the International Desalination Association.

knox said...

California and most of the western U.S. (as well as portions of the eastern U.S.) are chronically short of water--and it is only going to get worse.

Ah, yes, more cataclysmic scenarios, to occur sometime in the near--or maybe not so near--future. "Something Must Be Done" and all that.

You have learned the talking points well.

Peter V. Bella said...

Moveeee stars are such morons. They believe anything and everything, and they try to infect us, common sense thinking people with their bilge.

But that is not the problem. The problem is the idiots, cretins, and brain dead who believe the bilge spouted by the bobbleheads and agree with what the celebrities are doing to save- fill in the blank.

Barnum was right- you suckers are born every minute. With the internet, every nano-second.

dbp said...

Gray water, such as from showers and laundry is perfectly suitable for irrigation.

In such a case,the only "cost" of a long shower is the energy to heat the water. This might end up free too given that the arid parts of the world are often the best places for solar water heaters.

AllenS said...

Here's what you do if you're in a poor nation. You desalinate the sea water, people take their 30 second shower, brush their tooth, then you gather that water up and pour it on the tomatoe, potatoe amd pot plants.

Extra e's optional.

Freder Frederson said...

World-wide, 13,080 desalination plants produce more than 12 billion gallons of water a day

Sounds pretty damn impressive. . . .until you realize the worldwide consumption of water is somewhere around 3 trilliongallons a day, meaning that desalinization accounts for about .5% of consumption.

AllenS said...

I want you to apologize to Shanna, mother fucker.

EnigmatiCore said...

She sure is pretty, but does not seem to come across as being terribly bright.

Freder Frederson said...

Ah, yes, more cataclysmic scenarios, to occur sometime in the near--or maybe not so near--future.

You must be from Atlanta, where for years they were told they had inadequate water supplies. Then when last year they were faced with the prospect of actually running out of water, they panicked and blamed everyone except themselves. Now that the immediate crisis has passed, they are back to business as usual.

Idiots.

tjl said...

"environmentalism is, for most of its passionate acolytes, just a way to sound holier-than-thou by doing demonstrably worthless things."

Self-indulgent posturing hasn't been this offensive since Marie Antoinette embraced Rousseau and Simplicity by building a hamlet where she played shepherdess.

Freder Frederson said...

I want you to apologize to Shanna

For what exactly? For calling her an ignorant moron?

If she doesn't want to be called an ignorant moron she shouldn't make blatantly ignorant statements.

bearbee said...

Ok, water comes from the sky. We have tons of it. 2/3 of the planet is water. Why am I supposed to "conserve" water?

Potable water requires energy-use consisting primarily of fossil fuels for its treatment and transport.

re: Aniston's teeth, if she had them pulled out she would save water.

Skipper50 said...

3 minutes in the shower. Then into the limo to rush off to the private jet to lunch in Paris.

Andrea said...

Shorter Freder: we should all go back to living as sons of the soil like those water-conserving African people. Then we won't have any water shortage problems! Also then I'll be the smartest guy around and I can call everyone morons.

I think your plan needs some work, Freder.

sierra said...

"Every two minutes in the shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything in their life for a whole day." That reminds me of what my parents told me, except in this case it's: "Because people are starving in Africa, don't finish your peas."

AllenS said...

Everything takes energy, bearbee. Dig a well by hand, and you'll need energy from food created by probably fossil fuels to complete the job. Pump the water out by hand, and you'll need energy. I have my own well, and when I need water I turn it on, and it is electricity running to my submersible pump that is the energy needed to give me water.

Paddy O said...

What a great society we live in that celebrities, the super-rich, have this sense of having to do something, some kind of self-restriction, employ some kind of discipline, even if it's not entirely consistent across their lives. These are people who can, literally, do anything they want--have people serve them, devote their whole lives to them.

Yet there is an expectation of some kind of restraint. Which might seem bizarre to us--asking flowers, banning leather, shortened showers. But, to me its beautiful. It's a monastic impulse to curtail the will. And, I'll bet, it results in significant psychological help, grounding these people with a "no" in their otherwise limitless life.

This lack of "no", letting the will wander into excess, was a big part of Michael Jackson's decline. He lost his very humanity, because humans thrive in the context of adversity. If this adversity has to be self-imposed then that may seem odd, especially how it's expressed, but it is immensely helpful. That's why the earliest, and some of the most famous, monastics came out of lives of privilege, let go what they were owed, to embrace a difficult life in which they really began to thrive in wonderful ways.

Freder Frederson said...

we should all go back to living as sons of the soil like those water-conserving African people. Then we won't have any water shortage problems! Also then I'll be the smartest guy around and I can call everyone morons.

Of course I never said that. I criticized Shanna for making a statement that belied a complete ignorance of a serious worldwide problem. A problem that is not only limited to poor countries, but even to this country.

Automatic_Wing said...

I have to give her a pass on this. Does anyone really believe that Jennifer Aniston takes 3 minute showers? Someone put her on the spot with a question like "What are YOU doing to save the planet?", she's not very bright and that's what she came up with.

Toby Maguire, on the other hand, sounds like a real dick.

Peter Hoh said...

Does Leo have an $600 Air Force hammer to go along with his Air Force toilet?

knox said...

Potable water requires energy-use consisting primarily of fossil fuels for its treatment and transport.

Right. So, despite serious water shortages, we better not do it. Because nothing, nothing, is a worse sin than consuming the dreaded fossil fuels. The only acceptable solution for environmentalists is to abdicate all "Western" luxuries, adopt an ascetic lifestyle, and switch to impractical, ridiculously expensive, and unproven "alternative" energy sources.

Any wonder why reasonable people are no longer taking this seriously? Environmentalists consistently rule out any reasonable solutions. Nuclear energy is the best example.

knox said...

Fred, sounds like Atlanta's water shortage problem was resolved pretty quickly. It came to a head last year, and they're already back to using as much water as they want?

You call them "idiots" but it sounds to me like the "crisis" was overstated from the beginning.

hm, seems to be a trend there...

Jason (the commenter) said...

Angelina Jolie would probably have thought up the same thing, if she wasn't busy adopting African children and raising them alongside the ones she's had with Brad Pitt.

Something tells me these 3-minute showers are all that's preventing Aniston from being found dead some day, half-eaten, in a house full of stray cats.

wv: kityp (What her house will smell like!)

bearbee said...

@AllenS, re: Everything takes energy, bearbee.

Of course you are right, but I doubt most people think about or appreciate just how much energy is consumed with something that ends up coming out of a faucet or sitting there in a store for purchase.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Maguro: Toby Maguire, on the other hand, sounds like a real dick.

He's just making it a whole lot easier to take a guy's pants off.

tjl said...

"asking flowers, banning leather, shortened showers... It's a monastic impulse to curtail the will. And it results in significant psychological help, grounding these people with a "no" in their otherwise limitless life."

At last, an explanation for behavior that otherwise seems so childish and irrational.

What remains unexplained is why lefties, e.g., Freder, rush to defend and support the ultra-privileged and their bizarre little whimsies.

bearbee said...

The only acceptable solution for environmentalists is to abdicate all "Western" luxuries, adopt an ascetic lifestyle, and switch to impractical, ridiculously expensive, and unproven "alternative" energy sources.

Nuclear energy is hardly unproven being increasingly used by Europe and China.

As a believer in peak oil we rely predominately on fossil at our peril.

Freder Frederson said...

Fred, sounds like Atlanta's water shortage problem was resolved pretty quickly. It came to a head last year, and they're already back to using as much water as they want?

No, Atlanta's water problems are systemic. They are simply outgrowing their available water supply. They need to address the problems now because building and filling new reservoirs takes many years. Yet, they have not taken the warning of the drought to heart.

AllenS said...

Let's talk about energy. My electric bill for the last 30 days:

Energy charge $29.34
Basic electric charge 29.00
Power cost adjustment .89
State tax (WI) 2.96
County tax (Polk) .30
Commitment to community .67

I used 259 kwhs. Basic electric charge is $29.00 every month no matter if I use any kwhs, same with commitment to community $0.67, whatever that is for. As you can see, my bill for using kwhs is $29.34, the biggest share is for, well, just having electricity. Speaking of water, I have an underground cistern next to my barn. I put up gutters on the barn to collect rain water, which is used for the horse. If needed, I could use that water to drink, but, I'd have to boil it first. Which, of course, would take energy. Even if I cut wood to boil the water, I'd have to use gas for the chainsaw, and for the tractor to get it out of the woods. People need water, and it takes work to get it. People who do, do. If there's a will, there's a way.

miller said...

For his own "harsh discipline," Al Gore will use the Segway to get from one side of his mansion to the other instead of being carried in a litter by a bevy of personal assistants. And no incense this time, either.

My taking a short shower does precisely nothing to help anyone in Africa. But if you want to take a short shower, go ahead.

What helps Africa and other poor places are extravagant Western lifestyles of consumption and invention. The Africans are too poor to be trendy.

Ralph L said...

No way she can get it washed and rinsed in 3 minutes.
She has people to wash her hair, in one of those funky sinks.

William said...

Ecology is to liberals what sex is to conservatives: The loftier the sentiment the grosser the hypocrisy. Your carbon footprint exponentially increases with your income. So apparently does your eco-awareness. If you make a few million a year, you travel a lot. And mostly you travel to your other houses that are kept comfortably warm or cool. Your beach "cottage" is 10,000 sq feet...It's a great life, and they're welcome to it. But I wish to God they'd lay off the nagging. Anyone who travels by private jet and who owns a Prius should be stoned to death.

AlgonquinS said...

Maybe Jennifer brushes her teeth in the shower, because her sink is all plugged up from her long hair?

Simon Kenton said...

"Potable water requires energy-use consisting primarily of fossil fuels for its treatment and transport."

Around here, we collect it at high altitude and run it through hollow-tree-like devices called pipes. It gets treated at facilities that are higher than our houses. Then it gets put into special pipes which come to our houses. When we open the valves, it comes out. Almost no fossil fuels are used.

Gravitons are said to be the only particles that pass the dimensional barriers.

It's amazing to think what we could do if we had Aniston advising us. Perhaps, like Jane Fonda, she could convince us to send "pipes" through the center of the earth to Africa so the Africans could open them and take water out of them by gravity. Perhaps, with the insight that comes from axiologically restricting the exercise of her will and commingling it with the velleities of plants, she could reproach us for racistically hating and starving our little brown Muslim brothers by not buying their oil, which is all they have to give to the collective. No one likes their all despised, be it never so little. Perhaps, realizing that because of their quantum linkage her every effusion will evoke Freder to shower us with electrons that we can ill-afford to squander, she could take a vow of monastic silence and give her interviews to gems in the mine.

ddh said...

Why does anyone believe Jennifer Anniston's claim that she limits her showers to three minutes once a day? Her publicist probably thought this fib would make her sound like a caring person because caring people care about the planet and because Hollywood has the most compassion and because compassionate producers hire compassionate actresses.

If you believe that, then you think that Phoebe's "Smelly Cat" song was about Rachel.

miller said...

Suppose Jennifer does take 3-minute showers.

Aside from the fact that no one in Africa is helped by this, how does anyone in the city know this, either? Not consuming something like water is simply not noticed.

Bill White said...

Puritanism is fun, at least for Puritans.

LYNNDH said...

I do much more than she would ever think to do on saving water. She uses water from my state, Colorado. The water we use depends on the snow pack. I take Navy showers - get in get wet turn off water soap up rinse off. Do the "if yellow let it mellow" bit, even did save the water that was wasted while the shower got hot and used it to flush toliets. Redid the landscaping to save water. Then because revenues were down the water company raised rates. I bet she drinks bottles water and does very little else to save water.

Synova said...

It's possible to take three minute showers and get clean.

It helps if you don't have one of those horrible water-saver shower heads that only pretend to get you wet, though.

And anyway... good for her. Even if I suspect that she'd take a short shower anyway just because she's in a powerful hurry. She doesn't really seem like the relaxing sort.

The guy who makes people take off leather shoes and belts, OTOH, is just into controlling other people. None of them are his friends, really, who could be expected to share his views, so they are probably employees and toadies... perfect to assert dominance over.

AlmaGarret said...

Worse than drinking bottled water, she advertises for Smart Water. Clearly it's not working.

I doubt she takes 3 min. showers. But look at her beautiful head of hair. You know that takes a lot of work on the part of stylists, colorists etc. to make it look that great all the time. Even if she's telling the truth, the time spent at the salon or flying her stylists with her wherever she goes makes her 3 minute showers meaningless.

holdfast said...

-If Aniston has her hair washed and styled for her on set or at the salon, then a 3 minute shower is quite practical.

-If Jennifer Aniston devoted 1/2 the energy she uses to cool her home to desalinization, she could take much longer showers.

-According to the story linked below, Adrian Grenier needs to spend more time on showers:

http://thesuperficial.com/2009/07/adrian_grenier_has_a_smelly_pe.php

Cedarford said...

I think if we were limiting enemy combatants at GITMO to 3-minute showers, Freder would call it torture and, a war crime.
===========================

IF Aniston wants true "poor African solidarity" she should marry an illiterate black villager who grows stunted corn on the 1/5th acre he owns. And shower with what water is left from what he has to carry on her head from the relief station a mile away. Water, that is not used on cooking, cleaning, or her 7 chilluns.

Things would be worse as most forest and good land is now gone and arid in the African woman's overpopulated land - but for the evil Western high carbon users that make the food and burn more carbon shipping it to desperate but noble low carbon use - squalid African (or Haitian) villages.

==================

Freder Frederson said...

Around here, we collect it at high altitude and run it through hollow-tree-like devices called pipes. It gets treated at facilities that are higher than our houses. Then it gets put into special pipes which come to our houses. When we open the valves, it comes out. Almost no fossil fuels are used.

Amazing--so your water isn't treated before it reaches you, or your waste water treated after you are done with it.

Exactly where do you live? I bet your garbage is collected by magic elves too.

bearbee said...

Water treatment and delivery is electricity intensive using predominately fossil fuels.

Couple of articles:

Water Needs Electricity Needs Water …

Water usage, treatment brings increased power consumption

Simon Kenton said...

"It gets treated at facilities that are higher than our houses."

-- SK

"Amazing--so your water isn't treated before it reaches you..."

-- FF

Freder, you are getting in touch with your Inner Aniston, a little too close touch. You are approaching the mind-meld state, I am afraid. Keep this up, you'll access your Inner Fonda, and tell us that to replace Nuclear Power, we need to use Electricity.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I used to live in Africa. There was plenty of water where I lived. People took more showers there than they do here.

But go ahead and generalize.

bearbee said...

Kenya

India

Tyrone Slothrop said...

People should just stop arguing with Fred. He's smarter, wiser, more ethical, and on a higher moral plain than the rest of us. He's probably awesomely better-looking too. Heck, he's just an all-around better person than any of us could ever hope to be and we should all get to grovelling before him, pronto.

Joe said...

It would be nice to call Jennifer Aniston a hypocrite, but she's not smart enough. Conserving fresh water in California has no affect on the quantity of fresh water in Africa. If conserving water in California were important to her, she'd replace her lawn with natural landscaping, among other things (a picture of her ridiculous, and rather ugly, house accompanies one of the articles on her silly pontificating.)

If fresh, clean water in Africa is an important issue for her, she'd be involved in many of the projects which do just that and more (like teaching farmers how to use less water--a lesson her friends in the central valley are now learning the hard way after decades of waste.)

knox said...

Nuclear energy is hardly unproven being increasingly used by Europe and China.

Sorry, I realize I wrote that unclearly.

You are right, nuclear energy is proven, it's clean, and they have used it safely for decades is Europe. But environmentalists *still* object to us using it in the US.

It was not meant to be an example of "unproven" energy, but an example of the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" intractable mindset of most environmentalists.

Sorry I mixed up that point with the other point.

Bruce Hayden said...

So, after 72 comments, I think there is a consensus as to whether Jennifer Aniston is really as dumb as a rock, or just plays women who are dumb as a rock. And, the consensus is that, yes, she really is that dumb.

Of course, there is the one dissenter, Freder, who seemed to have been opining that since she is a liberal and does liberal-like things, then she has to be brilliant like all the other liberals out there. Something like that.

Bruce Hayden said...

I am not sure where LYNNDH is from in Colorado, but there isn't a lot of treatment going on when you get primary water - before it has been recycled from people, agriculture, etc.

You can really taste the difference. Up in the mountains, the water hasn't been touched by humans yet, and not by that many animals either. Sometimes some florine, but not much more.

But there are places where you can even avoid that. There is a place by the side of the road on the west side of Loveland Pass, between Keystone and A=Basin ski areas, where the highway department somehow put in a pipe a long time ago, and the water there is pure run-off, with nothing added, whatsoever. A friend drives up there from Dillon once or twice a week to fill up a bunch of containers, and tries to drink nothing else. It is great, but not really that much better than down in Dillon, esp. compared to much of what I have had to drink over the years. The lower you go, the more processed it is and has to be.

Freder Frederson said...

Of course, there is the one dissenter, Freder, who seemed to have been opining that since she is a liberal and does liberal-like things, then she has to be brilliant like all the other liberals out there. Something like that.

Of course I never actually defended Anniston. What I did do was criticize those of you who floated the ridiculous notion that access to potable water is not a serious problem in the world and that potable water is free and abundant and something we don't have to worry our silly little heads about because it is constantly falling out of the sky.

miller said...

or shorter Fred
"I responded to a strawman argument I built myself, and I feel very good about it now."

Freder Frederson said...

I responded to a strawman argument I built myself, and I feel very good about it now.

I responded to statements made by Shanna and others.

Others have created the strawmen to criticize me.

I am not sure where LYNNDH is from in Colorado, but there isn't a lot of treatment going on when you get primary water - before it has been recycled from people, agriculture, etc.

I think you would be surprised how much stabilization is required for some (not all) surface waters prior to delivery--especially those that come from mountain sources and are relatively low in mineral content. Rainwater has a naturally low pH (around 5.6) and it needs to be raised. Also the water has to be chlorinated.

AlmaGarret said...

I lived in West Africa for two years. "Africa" is a pretty big place, and there are many different climate zones, for one thing. Where I lived, we had a pretty serious rainy season, and lack of water was not an issue.

And by the way, the Africans I lived with took bucket showers and were extremely clean. Most people, if they did farm work or hunted, bathed twice a day. The kids bathed daily. They kept their clothes very clean.

Indoor plumbing was not the norm, that's true (at least not in the countryside) but people take a small container of water and a cloth to the bathroom with them every time they go. (To outhouses, which are also very clean by the way.) I dare say most of the people I knew had cleaner nether regions than some Hollywood "3 minute showers and two TP squares" celebrities.

Beth said...

Shanna wrote at 8:13: "Ok, water comes from the sky. We have tons of it. 2/3 of the planet is water. Why am I supposed to "conserve" water?"

Freder responded shortly after: "Putting aside the question of whether we can all make fun of highly-paid and high-profile celebrities for trying to make a difference, access to potable (you might want to investigate just how much of that 2/3 of the water is potable--if you even know what the means) water is a serious issue for much of the world's population."

He clearly is not "defending" Aniston, and is pointing out some foolishness of Shanna's question - there is a point to water conservation, where conditions exist that make it necessary.

Saying he's setting up a strawman or playing to a foolish celebrity's need to be PC is simply bullshit.

miller said...

You could explain how my saving water in America does anything to help people in Africa.

Anything.

knox said...

where conditions exist that make it necessary

Well, this is the key point. Of course, we all know that there are times of drought when (depending on where you live) you're not supposed to water your lawn or whatever. And there are overpopulated places in California, Nevada, etc. where there are water scarcity problems.

But if Shanna doesn't live in one of these areas, her comment is perfectly reasonable. The water we all use is constantly recycled back into the system. Conservation really and truly is a non-issue.

knox said...

Conservation really and truly is a non-issue.

To clarify: in those areas, where there is no problem of water scarcity.

I would submit that Freder was sort of acting like there's a free-floating problem ... there's not. It's a problem that's very much isolated to certain areas.

Bruce Hayden said...

He clearly is not "defending" Aniston, and is pointing out some foolishness of Shanna's question - there is a point to water conservation, where conditions exist that make it necessary.

Maybe 30 years ago, I was living in the D.C. area, and they instituted water rationing. It was one of those things that just didn't make sense to me, with the Potomac, etc. running right by downtown and coming from a much drier part of the country.

It turned out that the D.C. area had water storage for days, whereas where I was from, they planned on months, and even years.

Aniston, no doubt, gets by with 3 minute showers because she has her hair done professionally, and she is not counting in the water that that requires. Likely not as much as if she had done it in the shower, but likely more than her 3 minute shower.

But still, the water required for her house, whether inside or outside, likely dwarfs the water that she saves in her shower. By most of our standards, it is a huge house. It looks like there is some grounds keeping going on, but not as much as the neighbors. And that doesn't take into account how much she indirectly utilizes by driving (or being chauffeured) to the hair dresser, etc.

Southern California has a very serious water problem right now, probably worse than almost anywhere in the U.S. They had been taking more than their statutory share of the Colorado, and that got cut off a year or two ago, when the other downstream states (AZ and NV) complained in court.

What is scaring some up river right now is that both the Senate and the House right now are run by people from down river states. Those states, esp. CA, likely have the political power right now to abrogate the 70 or so year old inter-state pact that allocates water between upper and lower basin states. And, if they do, things could get ugly. The Colo. River basin is grossly over-allocated, and people with 100 year old water rights are getting cut off already.

knox said...

How amusing that a major water shortage, as described by Bruce, is being caused in part by the Hollywood community. i.e. rich, environmentally conxcious liberals.

There's an obvious typo there, but I think I'll leave it that way.

Unknown said...

Sure, Jennifer is saving a lot of water for Africans, but think of the jet fuel she burns up delivering it to them.

Shanna said...

I criticized Shanna for making a statement that belied a complete ignorance of a serious worldwide problem. A problem that is not only limited to poor countries, but even to this country.

A problem that is not the least bit helped by stupid Jennifer Anniston taking 3 minute showers. She would be better off sending money to folks to build wells with clean water.

I find the "conserve water" bit idiotic, because it is not about conserving water itself. It does no good to anyone to take a three minute shower and then spending a million dollars on a gigantic house and jet off to Europe. As so many people have mentioned.

Shanna said...

there is a point to water conservation, where conditions exist that make it necessary.

Yes of course, Beth, I know that, but that is the point isn't it. Earth itself does not lack water at all. Specific areas have cyclical problems with water, that they deal with locally, perhaps with help from others. But if you live in a place that has no water shortage, YOU conserving water doesn't do a blasted thing. Build a well, send help, do whatever you can to help others, but there is no need for folks in general to conserve water.

Perhaps I should have written a ten paragraph post to include all the caveats that are necessary to not be called out for insensitivity and idiocy, but oh well.

traditionalguy said...

Freder...Where do you get your information about Atlanta's water supply? There has never been a shortage until the Government in Florida and Alabama decided to claim it was their water since they got the end of our resevoir system's outflow river along the Alabama's border and into the Florida panhandle at Appalachicola's oyster beds. The water resevoirs built in the early 1950s are 75 mile north of Atlanta. The latest claims from our jealous adjoining states environmental legalists want to keep the river in full flow instead of reduced flow even when their is a rainfall deficit. They say a right to a full flow for oysters trumps the usage by people in northern Atlanta for 60 years. This means that all the sacrifice of building the resevoir lakes north of Atlanta and flooding out good towns and people (see, Deliverance) was for flow regulation for oysters in Florida and not for the Georgians who sacrificed for its construction in their backyard. The south side of Atlanta has its own resevoirs and is unaffected what ever the river flow does, because Atlanta never has had a drought. Only the mountains on the Georgia/NC border had a rare drought last year.The growth of northern Atlanta will be slowed by this environmental idiocy of removing our own resevoirs from our use. But that seems to be the target the Government in DC wants to hit these days. The enviros have always known that liscensing and purchasing the land for new resevoirs that flood out valleys of people and pecular species is literally an undoable task today. This is also a great lesson about the current proposals of the DC Government for Internet usage to be "opened" to all rather than to its creators who need it.That too is just another trick to set up a blackmail opportunity like the one handed to Alabama and Florida by a stupidly bad call made last month.

TosaGuy said...

I am so committed to the environment and this issue in particular, that I volunteer to join Aniston for a 5 minute shower.

Rachel said...

Aniston doesn't need to wash her hair. Her hairdresser. who goest where she goest, does that for her.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1159042/The-hairstyle-cost-Jennifer-Aniston-40-000.html