161–170 of 217 posts
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Is that a problem though? The other day I got a whole lecture on HN, complete with math, proving that keeping the water running entire time while showering isn't meaningfully wasteful... I still can't believe it on an emotional level, but the math checks out...
What's meaningfully wasteful depends entirely where and when you are, and how plentiful water is locally at the moment.
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Of course it does. The Great Lakes have 1/5th of the world's freshwater. Absolutely enormous volumes of that water run out the St. Lawrence into the sea, continually, all the time. I don't have any reason to leave my taps open all the time, and my water is metered so I would pay for such profligacy in money I could put to some useful purpose. But I can certainly do it without creating any meaningful environmental str…
Just because you live near a lucky point on earth, thinking that everyone has the same luxury is a bit absurd. I traveled through Mongolia for a week. Every camp we stayed had a water tank, and water use was extremely constrained. Same for electricity and heat. Your position is akin to getting power from the first distribution point near a nuclear power plant and saying that electricity is indeed infinite for everyon…
How does diverting an infinitesimal fraction of the water flowing from the Great Lakes affect the water supply at a camp in Mongolia?
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Your vision lacks the ultimate destination: This will replace the bed.
That sounds like that one guy a few years ago who wanted to replace all kitchen cupboards with dishwashers. Gonna steer clear of those directions. All things in moderation, etc.
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> Ah, those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better Thinking the future will be worse with all the available evidence is of a huge ego. How main character you have to be to think that it's just as you're alive that a trend of millenia will inverse.
Technologists' very existence is based on the idea of improvement, and, as a result, making the lives of others better. Compared to other approaches, nothing has delivered quite on the same scale, though it's not without its costs.
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That sounds like that one guy a few years ago who wanted to replace all kitchen cupboards with dishwashers. Gonna steer clear of those directions. All things in moderation, etc.
I replaced all my wardrobes with washing machines.
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Do you think every woman does this regularly without pay? My entire shower takes 8 minutes as a woman.
You're faster than me, a man with short hair :). Rinse, gel, shampoo, rinse, shampoo, rinse - but the warm water also cleans the mind and soothes the soul, so I'm not in that big of a hurry to end one of the best ways to relax and unwind I have. It usually adds up to 10 minutes. I have a family member, also male with short hair, who used to take 20-30 minute showers every day, driving others in the house insane - but…
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> But if it worked that way (using a small amount of water over and over to clean) would be gross and unsanitary in this case. Have you ever taken a bath?
Yes. Imagine bath water but with the same amount of dirt that would be in 50 gallons in a bath in 5 gallons in this thing. It would be 10x grosser.
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What's meaningfully wasteful depends entirely where and when you are, and how plentiful water is locally at the moment.
I think most people take showers but most people don't irrigate their fields.
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Who is 'us' and what do you mean by 'today'? And what do you mean by 'eligible'? In most places I've been to, you just pay your water bill, and then you can leave your taps running. It's about as productive as buying bread just to toss it in the trash, of course.
us: the humanity in general, today: the state of world water stress level [0], [1], eligible: the correctness of the thing you are doing regardless of the legality of the thing you're doing. IOW, "I pay the bill, now get off my lawn" is something you can do. But should you really do it, just because you can do it? [0]: https://www.wri.org/data/water-stress-country (This is decade old, we're worse now) [1]: https://ri…
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Of course it does. The Great Lakes have 1/5th of the world's freshwater. Absolutely enormous volumes of that water run out the St. Lawrence into the sea, continually, all the time. I don't have any reason to leave my taps open all the time, and my water is metered so I would pay for such profligacy in money I could put to some useful purpose. But I can certainly do it without creating any meaningful environmental str…
Just because you live near a lucky point on earth, thinking that everyone has the same luxury is a bit absurd. I traveled through Mongolia for a week. Every camp we stayed had a water tank, and water use was extremely constrained. Same for electricity and heat. Your position is akin to getting power from the first distribution point near a nuclear power plant and saying that electricity is indeed infinite for everyon…
If my local water supplier would offer the option to pre-pay, I might take it. I don't think it would change anything about how I use my water, if the price stayed the same.
(I am pre-paying for my mobile broadband, and I don't notice me using it any different than people who post-pay.)