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Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

science.org

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Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#161

Post by explaininjs »

wittenbunk wrote: post #127
explaininjs wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article also states “climate change and human activities increasingly threaten lakes that store 87% of Earth’s liquid surface fresh water”, but neglects to mention that only 0.3% of freshwater is liquid surface water in the first place. All in all a giant nothing burger, as with so many climate change alarmist “science” nowadays. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/sci...

Because obviously the amount of surface water is completely independent of the amount of subsurface water in aquifers. /s

What do you think the “obvious” correlation coefficient is between the two? Or even its sign? I suppose it’d be far too much to ask for the R value too.

Science is supposed to answer these questions, instead this article carefully withholds information to make molehills into mountains.

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#162

Post by p1mrx »

Izikiel43 wrote: post #145
RajT88 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are considering using salt as a building material now: https://www.archdaily.com/994769/could-salt-be-a-material-of... When you have a practically free resource which is waste from a large scale industrial process, cottage industries to make use of the free waste sometimes pop up. It's a solvable problem.

Then your house melts with the rain

Look what you've done! I'm dissolving, dissolving! Ohh, what a world.

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#163

Post by explaininjs »

MattGaiser wrote: post #139
explaininjs wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article also states “climate change and human activities increasingly threaten lakes that store 87% of Earth’s liquid surface fresh water”, but neglects to mention that only 0.3% of freshwater is liquid surface water in the first place. All in all a giant nothing burger, as with so many climate change alarmist “science” nowadays. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/sci...

> but neglects to mention that only 0.3% of freshwater is liquid surface water in the first place. But what percentage of the water we can actually use? The Arctic and Antarctic are far away from most of us, and groundwater is limited and probably spread out quite a bit. Water vapour is hard to extract from the air. You are trivializing it by saying it is just a tiny percentage of freshwater, but it is actually where…

> But what percentage of the water we can actually use?

What percentage of lake water could we use prior to literal millennia of engineering effort was put into moving it where we need?

> most of our used water currently comes from

This is technically true today, but barely. Nationwide roughly twice as much water comes from surface as the ground, but it varies dramatically by region. If you live in NY, 90% of your water already comes from the ground. It’s certainly not the case that we’re “locked in” to lakes, rather we are very capable of adapting to local conditions.

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#164

Post by lovemenot »

time_to_smile wrote: post #155
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is 26.38 Gt a lot? There's 91k cubic kilometers of fresh water in lakes according to: https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/sci... And a cubic kilometer is basically a Gt, right? .98 Gt? So 26 / 91,000 = ~0.02% ? Is that a lot? If it's really 0.02% - wouldn't you expect something to be random noise? How do we know it's not random noise?

[flagged]

I didn't read the parent's comment as you did. To me it looked like someone just trying to get a handle on the relative amounts and variability. They provided some relevant data and appeared open-minded.

Your response to that added little to the discussion. You might have selected the parts of the article that answered those questions, but instead opted to shut down further discussion on a valid question. Which, may or may not be addressed in the sources.

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#165

Post by kyralis »

avgcorrection wrote: post #159
908B64B197 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a conscious choice the citizens made every day for the last century, just like America chose freedom. What's the other countries excuses?

Freedom from what? Britain?

Freedom from facts.

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#166

Post by hollander »

peteradio wrote: post #88
mywittyname wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It must be nice to live in a country that manages their natural resources with an eye towards long-term sustainability.

Isn't Netherlands bound to flood as ocean levels rise?

Maybe next century, but not anywhere soon.

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#167

Post by _3u10 »

MattGaiser wrote: post #140
goatlover wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but we're rather capable of building long pipelines to ship liquids across large distances.

It would require a lot of expansion for the required volume. A barrel of oil has about 159 litres in it. The Keystone Pipeline would have transported 1.1 million barrels if it were fully expanded. 174,900,000 million litres per day. The City of Phoenix by itself uses about 1 billion litres per day.

Water isn’t toxic though, aqueducts aren’t built to anywhere near the standards of oil pipelines.

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#168

Post by lovemenot »

avgcorrection wrote: post #159
908B64B197 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a conscious choice the citizens made every day for the last century, just like America chose freedom. What's the other countries excuses?

Freedom from what? Britain?

Freedom Fries

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#169

Post by ClumsyPilot »

explaininjs wrote: post #163
MattGaiser wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but neglects to mention that only 0.3% of freshwater is liquid surface water in the first place. But what percentage of the water we can actually use? The Arctic and Antarctic are far away from most of us, and groundwater is limited and probably spread out quite a bit. Water vapour is hard to extract from the air. You are trivializing it by saying it is just a tiny percentage of freshwater, but it is actually where…

> But what percentage of the water we can actually use? What percentage of lake water could we use prior to literal millennia of engineering effort was put into moving it where we need? > most of our used water currently comes from This is technically true today, but barely. Nationwide roughly twice as much water comes from surface as the ground, but it varies dramatically by region. If you live in NY, 90% of your wa…

> What percentage of lake water could we use prior to literal millennia of engineering effort was put into moving it where we need

All of it, people built settlements on lakes and rivers for this very reason

> It’s certainly not the case that we’re “locked in” to lakes, rather we are very capable of adapting to local conditions.

No, we are locked in to rivers and lakes because thats the only big source of renewable fresh water. The underground aquifiers under midwest and under much of middle east will be gone in 50 years and will never return

You should not incorrect people here without basic facts at your disposal

Re: Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

#170

Post by explaininjs »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #169
explaininjs wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But what percentage of the water we can actually use? What percentage of lake water could we use prior to literal millennia of engineering effort was put into moving it where we need? > most of our used water currently comes from This is technically true today, but barely. Nationwide roughly twice as much water comes from surface as the ground, but it varies dramatically by region. If you live in NY, 90% of your wa…

> What percentage of lake water could we use prior to literal millennia of engineering effort was put into moving it where we need All of it, people built settlements on lakes and rivers for this very reason > It’s certainly not the case that we’re “locked in” to lakes, rather we are very capable of adapting to local conditions. No, we are locked in to rivers and lakes because thats the only big source of renewable f…

And yet they built aqueducts and wells too. Local surface water has been insufficient for civilization for at least 2000 years.

> The underground aquifiers under midwest and under much of middle east will be gone in 50 years and will never return

> You should not incorrect people here without basic facts at your disposal

Nothing quite as HN as someone making bold alarmist unsupported assertions about the future of climate for all of time, then following it up with a sentence demanding an appreciation for “basic facts”.

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