Wow. Like, there’s a holiday for everything. No sooner did I take down my
WORLD COCKTAIL DAY decorations than I find out it’s WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY on June 5th. Who knew?! Gotta say, I am so over our commercially driven celebratory days like Grandparent’s Podiastrist Day and Administrative Assisant’s Cat Day. But this one, I am all for. Anything to enlighten just one more person to the facts that we face. You’d be surprised how many are in denial. I know a few : ( So what better way to celebrate (other than to go Amish and turn off all the lights this evening) than to talk about how cocktails are affected by our environmental challenges.

Whisky Magazine reports that Islay whisky production is in jeopardy. The stills run on oil and the reserves are near depleted. Due to new legislation that is hoped to curve large oil spillages, tankers can not dock to deliver fuel and the island’s livelihood is at stake.

Treehugger (one of my fave blogs these days) reports that in Germany, a country that holds it’s beer so near to it’s heart, is dealing with a serious hops shortage. Due to farmers following the green stuff, corn and rapeseed are being grown to make biodiesel instead of barley and hops.

And worse, Saving The World, One Drink At A Time reports a similar problem with agave growers and Tequila. Farmers are burning their crops of Agave to grow a more profitable crop-corn! Adding insult to injury, you can pretty much bet that the corn is GM or genetically modified. (Remember? GMOs are BAD!) Then on top of it we have the news that ethanol may not even be good for the environment after all! Man, gotta tell ya, this saving the world thing ain’t easy. But like my chinese cookie fortune said, The Harder the Challenge, the Sweeter the Reward. I think the polar bears would agree. (image credit)