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I suppose the first question is... desalination... could it ever be possible to be efficient enough to be widely used? Given the number of population centers built along seas and oceans, it seems like a no brainer that if we could figure out how to make the process economically feasible, it would solve the world's water problem. And it also stands to reason that if we are pulling billions of gallons of water out of the oceans, we could combat our major world cities built along coastlines from being underwater in a few hundred years.
What are the barriers to desalination? Is it merely the amount of energy it takes to desalinate that makes it unreasonable? Is it a question of what we would do with all the salt? If it is is merely the amount of energy it takes to desalinate, it seems to me like a major breakthrough in power generation is all we would need to solve the problem... and that seems far more likely whether it be through highly efficient solar panels, fusion power, or something else than the chances of us discovering massive amounts of freshwater.
I suppose the first question is... desalination... could it ever be possible to be efficient enough to be widely used? Given the number of population centers built along seas and oceans, it seems like a no brainer that if we could figure out how to make the process economically feasible, it would solve the world's water problem. And it also stands to reason that if we are pulling billions of gallons of water out of the oceans, we could combat our major world cities built along coastlines from being underwater in a few hundred years.
What are the barriers to desalination? Is it merely the amount of energy it takes to desalinate that makes it unreasonable? Is it a question of what we would do with all the salt? If it is is merely the amount of energy it takes to desalinate, it seems to me like a major breakthrough in power generation is all we would need to solve the problem... and that seems far more likely whether it be through highly efficient solar panels, fusion power, or something else than the chances of us discovering massive amounts of freshwater.
\Massive amounts were ours for the asking from the governor of alaska in the seventies.
He had plans already written, and designed to run a pipeline from his state to California, and he was turned down by the state water resources board.
I think that idea needs to be researched once again.
The governor's study said it would be less expensive than building plants along the California coast to desalinate the ocean water.
All the water on the earth is the same water that's been on the earth for 4.5 BILLION years....water is the ultimate recycled element! If you desalinate water, drink it...flush it, or wash your car, water your lawn, etc...the water goes right back into the oceans......
It's still too expensive to be a viable means of potable water. It will do NOTHING about rising water levels, tho...
What has happened is...the underground water has been used...pulled out of the ground,and by being used, has gone into the environment...thereby raising water levels a bit....
We simply need to move our structures AWAY from the coast. We aren't going to drown..no fears...but coastal areas might get damp! Before mankind started building on the shoreline, there was no problem with rising water levels.. This isn't an enviromental problem...it's a human building in the wrong place problem!
I read that CA can desalinate water for $0.01 per gallon. That's the plant San Diego is putting in service soon. Compared to bottled water, the success of which is the best argument imaginable against democracy, that's not much. For agriculture and industry it could be significant, I don't know.
How do they figure sea water rises? It looks simple if you think of it as water in a cylinder, unaffected by tides or waves. It's a little harder when you try it for natural settings.
Even harder, how do they predict sea water levels? Especially, how do they predict sea levels will rise by 3 or 30 feet by 2100? That seems a very tough row to hoe. Water added to a sphere increases the radius of the sphere (i.e., sea level), but at a decreasing rate. The rate of rise is a constant multiplied by the inverse of the volume raised to the three halves power. There's another factor: shores slope away from the water surface "faster" than the radius along which they emerge from the water. So a given increase in volume will increase the sea level even less than the formula says. (The Earth is actually a spheroid, but the same relationship holds, except that its spin will force more sea level rise to the circumference where the surface of the sphere is farthest from the shortest diameter's midpoint.)
How do they take this into account?
I don't know how desalination effects sea levels. It's hard to imagine that enough water could be put into what is in effect temporary storage to have much impact.
It's still too expensive to be a viable means of potable water. It will do NOTHING about rising water levels, tho...
What has happened is...the underground water has been used...pulled out of the ground,and by being used, has gone into the environment...thereby raising water levels a bit....
Why wouldn't desalination help with the rising water levels? Water has been removed from underground aquifers in order to meet our consumption and agriculture needs. If we substituted desalinated water for underground water, wouldn't the underground "storage tanks" replenish (due to rainwater, snow melt, etc.) and fill back up enough to reduce the rising ocean levels?
I know nothing about the science or economics of desalination. But I do know that human ingenuity has solved plenty of other problems in the past, so I see no reason why it can't do so here, given the ever-increasing need to find substitute water sources due to the steady depletion of our existing freshwater sources.
I expect that the real issues would be a small increase in greenhouse gas emissions and a highly saline solution flushed into the ocean. You could expect some detrimental environmental effect near the plant, but I can't see how it's much worse than a sewage outlet.
I have a faint memory of calculating the cost once, and it really wasn't too bad. Average house use of water would increase your power bill by something on the order of 25%, although don't hold me to it.
There is no known method of desalination that is so effective it will affect sea levels. Mainly because the water is used by houses/agriculture/commercial immediately adjacent to the coast, then the waste water is treated and put right back in the ocean.
The theories behind sea level rise is that average global temperatures are rising (1) which will cause water locked away in glaciers on the ice caps to melt. In order to mechanically stop sea-level rise you would have to find some way to store water somewhere not in the ocean. Theoretically this could be done by using depleted aquifers or dry lake beds in the Great Basin region of the USA, but it's not very realistic.
During pre-historic periods of global warmth the sea simply rose and formed swamps everywhere (picture any scene involving dinosaurs).
Note (1): I'm not arguing for or against man-made global warming. Also, a simple cold spell does not mean global warming is a myth.
Desalinization is a practical solution used successfully in many parts of the world. Countries like Saudi Arabia rely on desalinization for all their drinking water supply. The problem is that the process is heavily based on electrical consumption and is both costly and pollutant.
A pipe from Alaska to California can be practical (no different from oil pipes from Canada to the south).
Last edited by oberon_1; 05-12-2015 at 11:07 AM..
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