21–30 of 75 posts
Why the article talks about Iran in an article supposedly about "Mediterranean water"? It felt out of place for me
Are more northern countries able to take over some of the production? I'd guess maybe as water declines in southern countries, the temperature rises so more northern latitudes might grow the same crops. Of course it's going to take time for different agriculture regions to get set up.
Northern countries don’t have the soil. Even if you take it for granted that the water, heat and sunlight will be there, it takes millennia to create good farmland. Even with heavy investment it would take decades. Vertical farms would work, but those work almost anywhere.
Do you say that Denmark, Sweden, north Germany, Poland, and the Baltics can't grow crops due to lack of good soil?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why they have allowed sustained high immigration rates for decades recently its because we need skilled and cheap labour to fill the holes in our health and buisness system. Housing shortages is not a direct immigration issue[1], its a policy issue. People of a certain type do not want high rise buildings near them. people of another different type are really happy because they can now build less and sell for more.…
Isn't it a pyramid scheme where we import younger people to pay for older people's pensions and benefits... unlikely to end well, like all pyramid schemes.
Unless you are Norway or the UAE and sitting on a massive sovereign wealth fund how else can a national welfare system possible function?
> It's a crisis measured in hard numbers: reservoir levels, rainfall data, aquifer depletion rates. Of course I went to check the actual numbers from official sources and they tell a different story. Reservoir levels near historical maximum. So much for building an article on "hard numbers" without pointing to sources.
Are more northern countries able to take over some of the production? I'd guess maybe as water declines in southern countries, the temperature rises so more northern latitudes might grow the same crops. Of course it's going to take time for different agriculture regions to get set up.
Northern countries don’t have the soil. Even if you take it for granted that the water, heat and sunlight will be there, it takes millennia to create good farmland. Even with heavy investment it would take decades. Vertical farms would work, but those work almost anywhere.
They won't, because the energy demands are too great. Photosynthesis, after all, is 1-2% efficient
Also, let me know when cereals, pulses and nuts are being grown in vertical farms. There's a reason all existing vertical farms are just growing low-calorie low-protein leafy plants.
This is a good, thoughtful analysis. I think many people outside the Mediterranean region are simply unaware of water issues there. As for the UK, I can't understand why they have allowed sustained high immigration rates for decades despite food insecurity and a housing shortage.
> why they have allowed sustained high immigration rates for decades recently its because we need skilled and cheap labour to fill the holes in our health and buisness system. Housing shortages is not a direct immigration issue[1], its a policy issue. People of a certain type do not want high rise buildings near them. people of another different type are really happy because they can now build less and sell for more.…
Irrespective of one's views on the migrant question, this is unsustainable. For instance, the National Health System (NHS) has recently been sending patients to Poland and Lithuania to try to relieve pressure on the waiting lists.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Desalination is not just about power, you've have to build and maintain the thing. There are consumables as well.
Also, the brine. Though I assume if water becomes scarce enough, we'll just dump the brine back into the environment and nature be damned as per usual
> It's a crisis measured in hard numbers: reservoir levels, rainfall data, aquifer depletion rates. Of course I went to check the actual numbers from official sources and they tell a different story. Reservoir levels near historical maximum. So much for building an article on "hard numbers" without pointing to sources.
For cypress its half as much water in the reseviours compared to last year: https://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/wdd/Wdd.nsf/page18_en/page18_en?o... what data are you looking at?
Can you post a historical chart of Cyprus? maybe it tells a different story
Solar is so cheap that desalination is cheap enough that the only thing that will get appreciably more expensive is water intensive products like beef.
Although, I’d be happy to be wrong there!
Desalination does seem like a useful shiftable load that could incentivize over-building solar, which is always nice.