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California is not in drought

latimes.com

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Re: California is not in drought

#21

Post by throwaway197812 »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #13
okareaman wrote: post #7

Desalination of seawater will be the norm in the future and people then will wonder how we ever got by without it

I worked for a desalination company in the 1980s. From then until a few years ago, I would have disagreed with your assertion. Some recent advances have me rethinking that, however. https://singularityhub.com/2019/06/18/inching-towards-abunda...

Better membranes and renewable-powered desalination plants are not going to do anything about the waste problem. Has there been any progress on that?

Re: California is not in drought

#22

Post by pixl97 »

Cerium wrote: post #20
chrisco255 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's both. Yes a lot of fruits, veggies and nuts are grown in California but the nation's staple crops (corn, wheat, and soy) and livestock are grown in many other states. That is to say, we should be building desalination plants in California. Israel figured out a way to do this economically already. It's high time for CA to follow suit.

Exactly. I don't want to feel like I'm acting amorally when I want to water my garden. If I go over my allotment of naturally provided water, then I should start paying desalination rates, but I should not feel bad because I'm not "saving enough" compared to my neighbors.

No snowflake will take blame for the avalanche.

Re: California is not in drought

#23

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

SilverRed wrote: post #18
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a desalination company in the 1980s. From then until a few years ago, I would have disagreed with your assertion. Some recent advances have me rethinking that, however. https://singularityhub.com/2019/06/18/inching-towards-abunda...

Have you seen this desal operation in Australia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundrop_Farms#/media/File:1604... It's a farm in the middle of the desert that gets all its water from desalinated sea water powered entirely by an array of mirrors.

I'm fairly skeptical of massively expanding existing RO operations due to how we tend to handle brine - which (from what I've seen) is usually just dumping it in the general area we pump from.

However my past concerns for altering seawater on a planetwide scale are much abated. Rising sea levels and glacier melt have put an end to that.

Re: California is not in drought

#25

Post by npsimons »

devmunchies wrote: post #14

California has plenty of water for California. Now, whether it can continue to be a fruit and nut agricultural hub for the rest of the country is another thing to consider.

Beef and dairy use more water, use more land, generate more GHG[0].

Deal with animal agriculture first, then we can talk about the fruits and nuts.

[0] - https://www.truthordrought.com/almond-milk-myths

Re: California is not in drought

#26

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

throwaway197812 wrote: post #21
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a desalination company in the 1980s. From then until a few years ago, I would have disagreed with your assertion. Some recent advances have me rethinking that, however. https://singularityhub.com/2019/06/18/inching-towards-abunda...

Better membranes and renewable-powered desalination plants are not going to do anything about the waste problem. Has there been any progress on that?

Brine disposal has always been my concern. I haven't come across anything promising but I'm well out of the loop.

Re: California is not in drought

#27

Post by guyzero »

0xB31B1B wrote: post #24
okareaman wrote: post #7

Desalination of seawater will be the norm in the future and people then will wonder how we ever got by without it

We don't need desal, there is plenty of water if we dont waste water on golf courses and lawns in the desert.

Not sure if we have plenty of water for all those almond trees.

Re: California is not in drought

#28

Post by npsimons »

idiotsecant wrote: post #8
benmarten wrote: post #5

I’m so tired of these pseudo science modelers. We have seen where it leads us with covid. Humans tend to overestimate their importance.

You don't really have to trust anyone's opinion on this... You literally just need a yardstick and a calendar. Or a pair of eyes. Snowpack gets worse and worse every year.

> Or a pair of eyes. Snowpack gets worse and worse every year.

Yup. I spend a good deal of time training for and rescuing people in the Sierras. Snow pack is very obviously lower than a decade back. Sure, sure, we'll get the occasional outlier like that massive snow pack a few years back, but ever other year, it gets lower and lower.

Re: California is not in drought

#29

Post by npsimons »

guyzero wrote: post #27
0xB31B1B wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't need desal, there is plenty of water if we dont waste water on golf courses and lawns in the desert.

Not sure if we have plenty of water for all those almond trees.

Deal with beef and dairy first, they use far more water for far less output: https://www.truthordrought.com/almond-milk-myths

Re: California is not in drought

#30

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

0xB31B1B wrote: post #24
okareaman wrote: post #7

Desalination of seawater will be the norm in the future and people then will wonder how we ever got by without it

We don't need desal, there is plenty of water if we dont waste water on golf courses and lawns in the desert.

It's a plague everywhere. I'm on the Gulf Coast and our waterways are massively polluted - entirely by lawn runoff.
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