Would you like to change the world? Better yet, would you like to change the world for the better and save an enormous amount of money doing it? And at the same time reduce pollution and clean up the planet?

This sounds almost too good to be true.

But you can do it. Just throw that empty container of bottled water in the nearest recycling bin and go back to good ol’ essence of eau straight from the tap. It’s way cheaper. In most cases it tastes better. And research has shown that at least half the bottled water we buy is filtered municipal tap water anyway.

Sorry to disillusion you, but it’s the truth. A recent report by Bloomberg News said Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, the biggest bottler in the world, uses municipal water from Calgary and Brampton, Ontario for its Dasani brand. Who are the other biggest purveyors of bottled water in the world? Nestle and Pepsi. I hate to have to break it to the ones of you that are hooked on those fancy labels and transparent plastic bottles of good old H2O – you’ve been had.

Want some more? Well, according to “The Story of Bottled Water,” a video produced by Free Range Studios in the U.S. Your average bottle of purchased bottled water costs 2,000 times as much as what you pay in taxes for the water coming out of your tap. (and they both may be just about the same thing).

We rich Canadians are among the heaviest users of bottled water in the world. In British Columbia alone, more than 130 million plastic bottles ended up in B.C. landfills in 2007, a 247 per cent increase since 2002, according to the Polaris Institute This was the equivalent of 21,833 truckloads of plastic being buried in the ground where it will last forever.

But there is some good news too with many organizations in Canada phasing out the use of bottled water including schools, universities, churches and restaurants. In addition, some 43 Canadian municipalities have passed bylaws against the sale of bottled water in their communities in a campaign to “turn off the tap and phase out the bottle.”

And if this isn’t enough to convince you, USA Today recently reported that it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil annually to produce the 3.8 billion containers of bottled water that Americans consume every year. Drilling for oil to produce drinking water. It doesn’t make sense. And if this isn’t bad enough, USA Today also reports the craze is so bad that there’s a new brand of bottled water on the market – “Pawier “ – for dogs! The fact that it sounds like Perrier is no accident. Yuppies will buy anything they think is trendy.

And let’s face it; drinking bottled water is mainly that – a yuppie affectation. They flaunt it as a status symbol and a symbol of their wealth while the peasants and the proletariat slink over to line up at the tap. They also make out that they’re way more concerned about their health than the rest of us, which is pretty ironic when you consider that tap water, on average, is better for you than the transparent liquid that comes in the fancy bottle.

Consider what John Hopkins Professor Rolf Halden says in the Nature Newsletter: “The truth is that city water is much more highly regulated and monitored for quality. Bottled water is not. It can legally contain many things we would not tolerate in a municipal water system.”

This isn’t to deny that there are some legitimate sellers of bottled water out there, selling spring water, artesian water and mineral water from pure mountain streams. But how do you know that? And how do you separate legitimate bottle water purveyors from the ones that are selling municipal water with a fancy label? And selling it at grossly inflated prices.

Perhaps some common sense should come into play here. When you pay your utility bill every month, or every quarter, what’s the most important thing you’re forking over your hard-earned cash for? The question is rhetorical.

Our taxes are already paying for the most important substance produced by Nature. Why would we willingly pay more for a pretty label? What will they be selling us next? Air??

Don’t laugh. The price of bottled oxygen is getting cheaper every day.