While Madonna may have been one of the trendsetters that sparked the world’s obsession with bottled water, it may very well be celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker and Alice Waters of famed Berkeley eatery Chez Panisse, that will help undo it.

An article in July’s issue of Fast Company, “Message in a Bottle,” has been a big topic around the water cooler as it is passed around en masse. Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water last year, with numbers rising in 2007 and projections that consumption will surpass soda in a decade. Further, over 38 billion water bottles a year – more than a $1 billion in plastic – are tossed into landfills. Bottled water is becoming a heated topic. And may become an integral part of the global warming conversation, like hybrid cars and compact florescent lamps (CFLs).

The Fast Company article may just be the tip of the iceberg. Several NGOs, like Food & Water Watch, Corporate Accountability International’s ThinkOutsideTheBottle.org, and Natural Resource Defense Council are moving bottled water to the top of their agendas, urging consumers to contact companies like Nestlé and PepsiCo, or sign pledges not to drink bottled water. In response, the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and the American Beverage Association are fighting back with media campaigns that explain what the industry is doing.

But the momentum may be moving in the other direction. As concern about global warming becomes top of mind with the public, guilty consumers will look for easy ways to reduce their carbon footprint. As suggested by Al Gore, changing light bulbs is something anyone can do. So is drinking tap water. Because, if between songs on her next tour Madonna sips water from a pitcher instead of a plastic bottle, people will notice.

Submitted by Fred Cook