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Yeah... Mrs Reed. My earth science teacher in high school.. Ask yourself where does the water disappear to? You drink it, you urinate it is one way or the other returned to the earth as water.. You have probably drank the same water that Moses urinated. You wash your car. The water evaporates, but does it vanish? No, it is returned to the earth and the atmosphere, where it returns as rain.
give or take a miniscule amount. The real question is how much is available to drink. The vast majority is mixed with salt.
The vast majority has always been mixed with salt. Desalination occurs naturally through evaporation of the oceans. Pollution? The earth cleans that up too.
Was listening to a podcast earlier today at work, it was about the future of cities in about 75 years or so...one topic they hit on was a lack of fresh water to keep up with the population increase.
An audience question suggested desalination of ocean water. A host then said "this probably wouldn't work, it's too expensive"
What? It's too expensive? How can this be?
.... <snip> ....
In the podcast you were listening to, what populations and cities in what country/countries were they talking about? Was it one particular country under discussion, or was it about the whole planet in general? Who was it? I think that is an important point when you take into consideration that some people in certain countries don't worry too much about money and expenses and will make sacrifices and fork out whatever is necessary with regard to the common good, while for others their very existence and purpose in life revolves around accumulation and hanging on with a death grip to every penny and to hell with the common good.
There are already several cities and countries around the world who are way ahead in the water race, they are already dealing with or taking steps to deal with the situation of having and protecting enough fresh, clean water for their present and future populations. Regardless of how "expensive" it is or will be. Because everything needs water to survive.
The vast majority has always been mixed with salt. Desalination occurs naturally through evaporation of the oceans.
That was my point.....yes...
Quote:
Pollution? The earth cleans that up too.
Eventually the sun will go dark, right after destroying the earth. So if I go and kill 100 people....why does it matter? The sun cleans it all up eventually anyways.
So saying "the earth cleans that up" ignores the fact that the operative word is...eventually.
Water shortage is nonsense. Theres a ton of research on making desalination cheaper. And it looks like fusion is going to be a reality as well here in less then a decade.
Every time they've said that about fusion, they've run into issues bringing it out of the lab into practice. We won't have a fusion plant online in 10 years.
I have studied water supply and pollution there of my entire career. The problem with water is not the total amount available but the when, where and how much for any particular place. We humans tend to build and grow cities as well as agriculture in places with lots of warm sunshine but scarce water. The American southwest is our prime example. We have colonized an area without enough water to supply, even with strict use controls, their basic needs.
More water could be made available but it will take expensive construction and a huge amount of energy. There are solar powered technologies available but they take huge amounts of area and money. Other technologies such as Reverse Osmosis take huge amounts of mechanical and electrical power to provide the necessary pressure. These are complex facilities that cost huge amounts to build and even more to operate. All these considerations result in lots of water but this water is much more expensive than the societies have been developed around.
Each city, region and country has the problem of providing enough water at the right time, right place and right amount at an affordable price. Welcome to the wonderful art of Water Supply Engineering.
Note: there have been some very elaborate water management and supply schemes created. One of the more amazing was proposed in the 1970's as a result of a "crisis" at that time. This proposal is called "The North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA). Look it up and be amazed. The interesting thing is it could still be built and probably would work.
Australia has been using seawater for some time.
Not sure about all the plants but Perth's uses windpower for the energy to run it, claiming break even of the energy costs.
(Not sure if that fact is in this article or not)
As for the Perth project..... "The total project cost was AUS$387m, with annual running costs of under $20m – less than one dollar per week per household. " Perth Seawater Desalination Plant - Water Technology
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