Not surprising. A country that invests all of his money on nuclear weapons and threatens the West with bombings- will actually care if it's capital is drying up?
After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
111–120 of 335 posts
Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#112Sounds like it would be cheaper to build desalination plants on the coast, and pipe the water in. Iran certainly has the technology and brainpower to do that.
They share the same gas field with Qatar, who does all their desalination with all the excess gas production they can’t sell. Qatar has no surface freshwater or groundwater. So all of their water is desalinated. It’s often still quite salty to the taste though - the last few ppms would be an exorbitant cost to remove. However, Qatar has 3 million people. Iran has 92 million people - 9 million in Tehran alone. So thei…
Qatar and exorbitant cost are an iconic duo, surprised they haven't gone through the trouble considering the general trend of glamor and excess
Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#113> However, unpublished national observations revealed groundwater depletion in some plains from as early as the 1950s. This coincided with the gradual replacement of Persian qanats, which were sustainable groundwater extraction systems and UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites9, with (semi)deep wells. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/irn/ira... says Iran’s population today is over five times that o…
And the reason qanats weren't sufficient anymore, was that they pursued a policy of food independence, due to sanctions/a desire for political autonomy. I'm not so sure they could have done much different.
We tend to forget that the 1950s and 1960s were a period of large-scale engineering: intensification of agriculture, massive construction of dams, roads, mines etc., where nature and environmental footprint was at best an afterthought. In the US, in the Soviet Union, and also in (the Shah's) Iran.
Current environmental movement is downstream from that period - a reaction to abuses that happened. At least where the political situation tolerated its emergence.
Note that the Aral Sea, which lies geographically nearby, dried up for nearly the same reasons - too much water consumed - even though the Soviet Union was not in a position where they "couldn't have done much different"; they had plenty of productive soil elsewhere, being literally the largest country in the world and having been blessed with a lot of chernozem.
The underlying factor was the technocratic Zeitgeist which commanded people to "move fast and break (old fashioned) things". Such as qanats in Iran or old field systems in Central Europe.
Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, they do. For example, only 60% of Equinix’s DCs use closed loop, non-evaporative cooling systems… https://www.cdotrends.com/story/4492/balancing-energy-and-wa...
Am I missing something? How data centers in US/EU evaporating water thousand of miles from Iran affect it? Does it disturb the rain cycle in Iran or something?
The grandparent comment asserts that as data center roll-out continues, water scarcity becomes an even bigger issue globally.
The parent comment said DCs don't use water. This claim is easily proven to be incorrect.
But, correct, DCs outside Iran have little/no impact on the situation in Iran today.
Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#115Some say is the endemic corruption.
Just make sure to never mention the Rio Grande river while we smugly grin and look down on the stupid islamists and their stupid regimes.
Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, they do. For example, only 60% of Equinix’s DCs use closed loop, non-evaporative cooling systems… https://www.cdotrends.com/story/4492/balancing-energy-and-wa...
Does cooling destroy H20 molecules somehow?
Not sure if serious... but just in case, very simply put...
DC pulls water out of local water supply. DC uses evaporative cooling (not all use closed systems, and even those that do see some loss over time) Water lost to cooling is now in the atmosphere.
If the DC (and other local users) withdraw water faster than local conditions allow it to be replenished, you end up without any local water.
Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
What simple solution are you referring to? Depopulating Tehran?
As far I remember a large reason for the water crisis is subsidizing water for agriculture which does not fit the local climate This is based on some ideological pillar of being autarkic, as the Islamic Republic was generally built upon the fear of outside influence sounds like if 90% of their water goes to agriculture, mostly export, and their country is cash strapped due to their habit of kidnappings, then maybe th…
Their country is cash strapped and needs to be independent because of US sanctions. The CIA overthrew the democratically elected government in the 50s which led to the Islamic Republic.
Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#118Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like the American regime, maybe they will try to blame everything on someone else. Though I’m skeptical that ever works for long.
The American "regime" has a country that people are literally fighting in line to get into.
Iran has 3 million illegal immigrants, FYI. (Or had; they recently implemented mass deportations.)
Immigration inflow is caused by lax border control, not by being a great place to live. No matter how bad it is, there's always someone worse off willing to try their luck.
Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up
#120I am not saying there is no crisis coming, but I recall reading that Tehran will be out of water in two weeks, two months ago. What's up with that?
Perhaps this bit from the article is more concrete: "Tehran's five reservoirs plunged to 12 percent of capacity last month"