Could desalination solve the water problem and the rising ocean problem?
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Surely 'mankind' is smart enough to 'desalinate' economically and buid pipelines to transport water across states and provinces etc., to restore water to mostly depeleted aquifers. Oil companies can pipe oil across desert sands, why not water. In these days of 'Green' technology wouldn't it be a worthwhile endeavor rather than watch politicians sit on their hands and make excuses. My understanding is that agriculture is the largest user of water. The reservoirs (aguifers) are there waiting. Drilled and cased wells could feed water back into aguifers.The oil compnaies have the money and the technology. Isn't it about time they 'gave something back'??
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.
If the ice in the North Pole and South Pole melts the coastal cities along the ocean and seas are still going to flood.
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.
if the ice in the North Pole and South Pole melts the coastal cities along the ocean and seas are still going to flood.
if the ice in the North Pole and South Pole melts the coastal cities along the ocean and seas are still going to flood.
yep your best bet would be filling up the Endorheic Basins, but even then that wouldn't be enough.
And even if does you save coastal land at the expense of inland land, though luckily most those basins are in the middle of the dessert so there isn't much there to begin with.
As far a lowering sea levels, filling the endorheic basins is probably the only realistic option. This would massively affect global weather patterns. I can't imagine the frequent monster hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean without the suppressing effects of the Sahara Air Layer.
They have been taking measurements, for more than a century in some places. The issue with the land based measurements is land movement. You can look over these graphs and you'll find some going down, some up and at all different rates. One thing to keep in mind is the sea has been rising since the end of the last ice age. The question is has it accelerated.
One thing that is constant and predictable is the rates. This is one of the longest ones of record and fairly stable geographical area.
I believe they are currently getting better data from satellites as that would be unaffected by land movement.
Very interesting.
I saw a similar thing about the Great Lakes on TV.
For years people thought they were shrinking because of global warming (I think it was global warming). It turns out, the land underneath them is rising. The land is elastic. It was depressed by glaciers during the last Ice Age and is still rebounding.
I wouldn't be surprised if some land under parts of the ocean are doing the same. And the Earth's plates are always moving, some going up a bit here, others down a bit there. How do they disentangle all this?
I wouldn't want to be in charge of keeping track of all this stuff!
Given the out-of-control Nimby's in California, where on earth could you put a de-sal plant that would be acceptable to the coastal crowd? The only area that might not meet any opposition would be off the coast of federally owned Camp Pendelton.
In the book Cadillac Desert, there was grand scheme, at one time, dubbed NAWAPA, which would create a reservoir of water 100 miles long in British Colombia, that would send enough water south even to green up northern Mexico. Environmental damage for sure, and ultra expensive, but it's in the realm of possibilities.
And who can manage water better than the Israeli's. When Israel was first contemplated, skeptics claimed that Israel couldn't contain more than 500,000 people, and look now! Millions and millions! And water left over! And they grow enough crops to sell the excess to Jordan, other Arab countries and Europe. And it hasn't just been accomplished with their 4 de-sal plants. In Israel you even need a city permit to put a bucket of water on your roof! Drip irrigation alone would save untold amounts of water, particularly in the wasteful Imperial Irrigation district.
So simple...so easy....eventually, the water will retreat, when another little "ice age" comes along..and it will...the climate has been changing since the beginning of the earth...and will continue to do so.
Yes, it's so simple. All we need to do is wait out another 10,000 years or so, which is the entire duration of actual human history so far. Eventually the water will go down.
Of course the climate has been changing since the beginning. I don't know of a single person who thinks otherwise. But it hasn't always changed at this rate, and it hasn't always changed as a direct response to man's actions.
The "The climate has always changed!" argument against anthropic global warming is the most comical to me. Do you actually think that the climate change crowd things change in general is new?
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