Superstar actor Matt Damon, co-founder of Water.org, recently took the “ice bucket” challenge to a whole new level, out of this world. Damon was challenged by good buddies Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck.
Damon joins a long list of celebrities on the ALS challenge, including Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Tyler Perry, Justin Bieber, Emma Stone, Mark Zuckerberg, George W. Bush, and even Bill Gates, who’s already spending billions on good causes. When he finished, Damon passed the challenge on three other buddies, George Clooney, U2 rock star Bono and NFL quarterback Tom Brady.
But Damon upped the ante with a twist, did something truly remarkable, outdoing every superstar. While other celebs used plain drinking water, Damon dumped toilet water on his head.
For a good cause: Damon didn’t want to waste drinking water. It’s already one of the world’s scarcest natural resources. Damon’s own Water.org foundation tells us that 2.4 billion people — one-third of the planet — already lack clean sanitation systems. And it’s getting worse. 780 million people across the world lack access to clean drinking water. As a result, 3.4 million die annually from water-related diseases.
Kudos to Damon. His challenge not only helped thousands suffering from the deadly neurological Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He also focused public attention on the worldwide mission of Water.org: “To draw attention to the world’s No. 1 health problem, unsafe and inadequate water supplies, where most illnesses are caused by fecal matter.” They’re fighting this huge problem “one community at a time.”
Yes Damon did it: Gave the ice-bucket challenge a new twist. Upped the ante and widened its reach. So let’s expand it further, spotlighting even bigger challenges facing America and the world. So before you tell us what you’d like to see from Damon’s superstar buddies, George, Bono and Tom (and even his wife supermodel Gisele Bundchen), here are a couple very important water-related domestic ice-bucket challenges that deserve top priority today, ones we’d like to see first on the list of the challenged:
GOP governor challenged — buckets from wells contaminated by fracking
After six years of pressure, Pennsylvania recently made public 243 cases of private drinking wells contaminated from oil and gas drilling in 22 counties. Yes, sudden exposure of dirty facts made the Keystone state the “battleground state on issues relating to the impact of oil and gas operations, specifically fracking, on health and the environment.”
Turns out that GOP Gov. Tom Corbett — who doesn’t believe in climate change — had been hiding the facts from citizens, despite endless complaints from state health professionals. No wonder he’s getting clobbered in his re-election bid. Maybe Corbett could improve his poll numbers by showing the public how much he believes fracking is safe. He could dump an ice bucket of water on himself from the 243 contaminated wells. Yes, do a big dump during halftime at the big Penn State-Northwestern game a few weeks before the election.
Exxon Mobil CEO challenged — fracking water from Texas oil wells
Earlier this year Reuters reported that Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil’s $40-million-a-year CEO, joined neighbors that included former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Army, in filing a lawsuit opposing a new water tower planned for fracking oil drilling. Why the suit? Well, it was near his $5 million retirement ranch in the Dallas suburbs, and might affect his property values.
Even Forbes Rick Ungar couldn’t resist a jab: “The hypocrisy expressed in real life is so sublimely rich that one could never hope to construct a similar scenario out of pure imagination.” Here’s how Tillerson could up the ante: Ask climate-science denier Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry to do the honors, dump an ice bucket of pure-bred Texas fracking water on the head of Big Oil’s biggest CEO, and do it at halftime during the big Texas-Oklahoma rivalry game just before elections.
Can Damon’s celebrity buddies top an Exxon CEO and 2 GOP governors?
You tell us. What kind of extravagant ice-bucket challenges do you think could top dumping fracking water on the CEO of a Big Oil giant worth $425 billion plus two climate-science denying GOP governors? That’s the real challenge here. Who’s really on top? What can Damon’s superstar buddies, George Clooney, Bono and Tom Brady (and Bundchen), do to top Exxon Mobil and the GOP. S let your imagination run wild.
Superstar George Clooney’s ice bucket — human rights advocate
First, Clooney has “one of the most charitable hearts in Hollywood, and, alongside his current mission to stop the human rights atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan,” says looktothestars.org. He “focuses much of his energy on helping those suffering from poverty.” What’s in his bucket?
Rock star musician Bono’s ice bucket — fighting poverty and hunger
Bono is one of the music industry’s all-time great rock stars: “The Irish frontman of U2 knows no limitations when it comes to fighting poverty and hunger, and is constantly in direct contact with world leaders and policy makers in his quest to make the world a better place.” What do you want in his bucket?
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s ice bucket — championing the disabled
Brady’s charitable work includes “creating opportunities for friendship, employment and leadership training for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.” What would you put in his ice bucket?
Fashion supermodel Gisele Bundchen’s ice bucket — the environment
Forbes says Bundchen is the world’s highest-paid model and one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. She’s also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program.
Yes she and Brady could dump their ice bucket as a couple. But whatever the cause that either one or both of them pick, dumping a plain old cheap plastic ice-water bucket on the world’s most beautiful model hardly ups the-ante above the standard set by Matt Damon.
Bottom line, what’s your preference: Who dumps what? The cause? The one-up winner?
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