I knew last summer, the moment credits rolled for An Inconvenient Truth that some critical mass of collective American consciousness was about to change. My husband Mike and I stepped out of the theatre, into the twilight. A silent glance between us confirmed the urgency we felt to lighten our family's environmental footprint. We weren't alone.

I'm surprised by how excited I am that the bottled water counter movement is building such momentum. Two Fridays ago I met (for the first time) with Cello Vergara, principal of Propaganda 3. At the start of our meeting, Cello offered refreshments: soda, bottled water? Of course I told him about the group I started and why. Later I discovered that by Tuesday of the following week, Cello had cancelled a standing order of bottled water for the office. And he had bought each of his employees a glass for tap water.

I love this. It's a reminder that "selling" -- whether an idea, a product, anything really in our noisy world -- comes down to connecting with those whom have a shared interest. A natural event -- being offered a drink -- prompted a simple story about a relatively small thing I'm feeling rather strongly about right now. No preaching. No convincing needed.  If whatever you're selling is really, truly a good thing, you can get the right kind of attention.  And the beat goes on...

My guess is the organizers of World Water Week in Stockholm all this week is to credit with the spate of attention of what the Associated Press is calling Public Enemy #1. 

Such an impact is being made among the press and grassroots.

Following New York's lead, last month London's Green Party launched a campaign to urge Londoners -- alleged drinkers of bottled water equivalent to just over one Olympic-sized swimming pool per week (25% of which is imported) -- to stop drinking bottled water, and instead demand tap water at restaurants.

If Londoners' public opinion is any indication, this discussion thread suggests that consumers are ready to go back to the tap. UK's Ruscombe Green blog makes a great point: that bottled water should just be part of "a complete overhaul of how we view and manage our water supplies."

Even a Chicago alderman this week proposed a $.10 to $.25 tax on bottle water ranging from $1.30 to $1.50.

Please share your thoughts.

Below is a partial zoom in on Seattle artist Chris Jordan's piece Plastic Bottles 2007. It's part of Running the Numbers, An American Self-Portrait: a series exploring contemporary American culture through visualizations of austere statistics.

Jordan's imagery also represents the number of...

• Americans in prison
• Cell phones retired every day
• American children with no health insurance coverage

This series exhibit opens Sep. 8 at the Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles.

The past two weeks has seen quite a surge in consciousness-raising press coverage around rethinking bottled water consumption. Today's New York Times Fashion & Style section features "Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful."

This, on the heels of a short Times editorial, the KC Star's "Hydration Nation" feature and another local happening, a radio interview last week on "Heart of the Matter," where I invited listeners to take action and build momentum  by joining the Facebook group I started here last month.

Of course we all already know buying bottled water is not a good thing on so many levels. Yet, I myself am guilty of occasionally giving in to convenience and making a "healthier choice" of water over soft drinks when I'm out and about (instead of stashing a Nalgene everywhere. NO MORE.

This Fast Company magazine article iced it for me. I will no longer buy bottled water. I've got a commitment from my four stepkids and husband to do the same.

I've also started this group on Facebook to help enlist support and spread the word.

Will you please join me and stop buying bottled water -- and encourage those around you to do the same?

A few startling data points from the article:

• Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on iPods or movie tickets: $15 billion
• The industry transports around 1 billion bottles of water a week, also bad for the environment.
• Meantime, 1 out of 6 people in the world has no dependable drinking water.

I gotta believe there are millions of other people like me who are OK with trading off the convenience of bottled water to be part of a bigger solution.

Are you?

Three cheers for Michael Dell who announced at the Consumer Electronics Show "Plant A Tree for Me," a first-of-its-kind global carbon-neutral initiative that plants trees for customers to offset the carbon impact of electricity required to power their systems.

While Dell’s commitment to environment and energy efficiency -- especially encouraging customer action for positive impact -- is admirable, I can't help but wonder if part of the motivation is to offset the company's mishandling of customer service issues that exploded in the blogosphere last year.