The alternative is the government intervening to internalize externalities. For example, a revenue neutral carbon tax or deposits on food/drink containers.

This is actually a better approach. But it's extremely hard politically. If we did this gas would be 12-20 USD a gallon, and we'd have a better world.

Easy to say from an ivory tower, but in the real world people have to get to work every day.

Which is why I realize it's a political nonstarter. I think we're in agreement.

Yeah -- in an ideal world everyone could afford to live near where they worked.

One way to encourage just that sort of city planning is, in fact, to price externalities appropriately. It's not actually cheaper to build and live in sprawl, it's fantastically expensive. But we don't charge those costs based on usage.

I can spend 400k to buy a nice four bedroom house with a garage and a basement on half an acre sixty miles from work, or 400k to buy a beat down 1 bedroom condo ten miles from work (nothing near the area where I work is under 900k)...

That's not really a city planning issue, it's just the way things are in hyper-urban areas.

I hope so much that I can pull off a remote job in the next year or so -- believe me, I'd rather never drive if I could.

If you had read the OP I was replying to, you would see they were suggesting everyone should buy and carry a Nalgene water bottle with them at all times, in case they needed water.

If you read further down this thread, many commenters in this thread are convinced that we should never package water.

"Never" is a strong word.

Packaged water is useful when stockpiling for or responding to natural disasters (hurricanes, wildfire, tornadoes, earthquakes), emergency evacuation camps, places where safe, clean water and filters aren't easily accessible or used. Everywhere else, it's really unnecessary.

Ah, the answer I was looking for when I posted! I've long preferred cans (they seem to get and stay colder to me, although that may not be true), but wasn't sure about the environmental impact.

I refer to beverage cans as "micro kegs."