"Christ Irene, They Don't Have Cherry Lime Kiwi Coke Zero"

Granted, businesses are self-serving and generally wanton of good decent human beings in charge. You see, good decent human beings don't eat their young to get to the top. That being said, there is nothing anyone can do about it, and all the hippy communes in Washington won't change capitalism. What does amaze me are the companies at the top of the food chain. Minus Microsoft, (who once sued Steve Balmer's uncle for installing a borrowed copy of Office Home), the companies at the very top actually care about their fellow human beings. They don't want to, but they have to. Otherwise, Congress will launch an investigation into why Walmart dumps garbage illegally, instead of not fixing roads and not feeding the hungry.

This rambling leads me to an article in the New York Times. The Old Grey Lady has a story about the terrific drought in the Southeast. Someone woke up one day and realized it hadn't rained since the Spin Doctors had a hit. This realization came months after actually being told that there was no water, and not doing anything about it. All politics is local, and these local yahoos sat around with their iced tea filling up the above ground pool at the governor's mansion.

Shit, Barb. This is the life.

I won't even delve into the plans for water conservation that haven't been drawn up, and the finger pointing as to who is and is not responsible for draining the water supply into neighboring Florida, but this article looks at two businesses caught up in the catastrophe: Coca Cola, and Stone Mountain Outdoor Theme Park.

Coca Cola (perhaps you have heard of Tab) was never told by officials to calm it down on the water usage. No one was. Not George Trimble of 123 Mockingbird Lane in Buckhead, nor was the largest beverage manufacturer in the world. These two entities are equal. But it turns out Coke decided a long time ago that water was its most important ingredient. According to Coca Cola's Vice-President of Sustainability, (in the porn business that's called a fluffer) Bruce Karas, they have been developing ways to conserve water on their own for 3 years, a good year and a half before the drought even began.

"Good on, Coke", I say. It's the internal accountability that companies are forced to have by their Public Relations divisions that keep them from fucking up even more. Checks and Balances; it's good enough for the government! (in theory)

Wait just a second. Public Relations and Marketing are there to help the business with the people and get the brand name out in the zeitgeist, right? So it would be safe to assume that all divisions, Marketing, Manufacturing, R&D, and Public Relations are all on the same page? Good, just checking.

Now we come to Stone Mountain Outdoor Theme Park. In 2005, before the drought, they had a grand idea. Let's introduce all these poor deprived peanut farmers of something they rarely see: SNOW!!! We can get huge machines and turn water into snow and blow it all over the mountain and let the kiddies play and frolic and cavort. Fast-forward to this month, those fine folks had a looksie at a few pieces of paper. One was their original plan to make snow out of water which was approved by the authorities in 2005. One was telling them of the level four drought and the outdoor water ban recently imposed on the state by Gov. Sonny Perdue. A third was the list of exceptions to that ban as it relates to business. I'll give you one good guess as to what their decision was:

They Grow Peaches Here?

And it's a good thing no one stopped them from blowing snow all over that mountain until they were chastised by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. I suppose no one could have foreseen the mess that wasting water to make fake snow for tourists in Georgia would create. Surely not the fine folks at Coke, who are all about conserving their most important ingredient, mostly to ensure jobs don't leave the area, because Coke is a community partner with Joe and Jane Everyman. Oh, did I forget to mention the name of this boondoggle: The Coca Cola Snow Mountain.

There is a line, actually quite a large line, between Environmental Responsibility and Wacko Nut Job who ties himself to a tree and eats only things that have fallen off of father tree and mother branch. But nothing will change without simple communication and thinking.

Not having to give a shit about Georgia because you live in Alaska isn't an option any longer. Because you might not care about the spotted owl, and you could give two shits about global warming and the hole in the ozone, but sure as I am sitting here without pants at the Apple Store, at some point, you are going to go to the local store and they won't have Coke. Possibly any soft drink to wash down your delicious meal. The best reason to pitch in and do something, anything, to help the environment, is because soon, you won't have any Diet Cherry Coke to drink while you watch reruns of Becker. And isn't that reason enough?