Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.
Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
21–30 of 65 posts
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#22If our weather is getting more unpredictable due to climate change why don't we get better at capturing the heavy rain we experience in some parts of the world and allowing it to sink in to the ground rather than running off into rivers.
Particularly thinking of some of the flooding in UK and Europe over the last decade.
If the ice caps melt due to rising temperature surely this means more water in the atmosphere and more rain in some places?
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#23With all the talk of water running out in CA and the world, I am wondering why desalination is not part of the conversation. According to Wikipedia: "Supplying all domestic water by sea water desalination would increase the United States' energy consumption by around 10%, about the amount of energy used by domestic refrigerators." Is this true? If so, why isn't desalination happening on a massive scale in CA? http://…
I live in Florid; we have a large desal plant here as part of our water supply. It took years to get it working well, along with a few lawsuits; they're not easy, or cheap, but well worth it.
http://www.tampabaywater.org/tampa-bay-seawater-desalination...
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think one of the keys to "controlling" population growth is to bring people out of poverty. Most studies I read, show dropping birth rates as people/nations climb the economic ladder. Education, and health care also play a big part.
Since the original topic is the global fresh water crisis, wouldn't the increased per capita resource consumption from greater standards of living offset any gains in population growth slowing?
Great question!
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#25They point to population growth as a contributing factor, yet they never suggest anyone do anything about that. How about free birth control to anyone who wants it? How about permanent birth control to any adult who wants it? I'd say free to anyone below some income level since the middle class can afford it anyway. With increasing productivity we don't have jobs for all the people anyway, why not encourage making le…
I wonder if there are strategic reasons behind this - do the US and European countries fear a growing China and India and feel the need to compete, for example? Are there military or economic incentives to having a large population today as there used to be a millennium ago? I'm probably going to go with no, but who knows?
>> I wonder if there are strategic reasons behind this - do the US and European countries fear a growing China and India and feel the need to compete, for example?
Well the US would be in a slow decline if not for immigration, so we're trying to get smart people to come here which both sustains us and deprives the others of talent. We also seem to like ambitious folks willing to work hard for less pay, so we maintain a very leaky southern border.
China is the only country I know actively trying to address population. The guy who invented RISUG is in India, but I haven't checked how that's going in a while.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#26With all the talk of water running out in CA and the world, I am wondering why desalination is not part of the conversation. According to Wikipedia: "Supplying all domestic water by sea water desalination would increase the United States' energy consumption by around 10%, about the amount of energy used by domestic refrigerators." Is this true? If so, why isn't desalination happening on a massive scale in CA? http://…
That is talking about the water you use in your household. But that is a tiny faction of all water used in total. Industry and farming absolutely dwarf household consumption.
A ton of water is used to grow Alfafia. There is no way it's profitable if you had to desalinate it first.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#27Possible water crisis in the future, and governments are selling water supplies for $2.25 per million litres! http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/06/outrage-boils-over-a...
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#28They point to population growth as a contributing factor, yet they never suggest anyone do anything about that. How about free birth control to anyone who wants it? How about permanent birth control to any adult who wants it? I'd say free to anyone below some income level since the middle class can afford it anyway. With increasing productivity we don't have jobs for all the people anyway, why not encourage making le…
Lovely ideas, but very far out of reach. Some of our elected officials would rip apart planned parenthood and impose strict rules on birth control if they could.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#29With all the talk of water running out in CA and the world, I am wondering why desalination is not part of the conversation. According to Wikipedia: "Supplying all domestic water by sea water desalination would increase the United States' energy consumption by around 10%, about the amount of energy used by domestic refrigerators." Is this true? If so, why isn't desalination happening on a massive scale in CA? http://…
That is talking about the water you use in your household. But that is a tiny faction of all water used in total. Industry and farming absolutely dwarf household consumption. A ton of water is used to grow Alfafia. There is no way it's profitable if you had to desalinate it first.
More realistically, California stops growing alfalfa and stops raising beef cattle altogether. That would free up enough water to water every lawn across the state.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#30If our weather is getting more unpredictable due to climate change why don't we get better at capturing the heavy rain we experience in some parts of the world and allowing it to sink in to the ground rather than running off into rivers. Particularly thinking of some of the flooding in UK and Europe over the last decade. If the ice caps melt due to rising temperature surely this means more water in the atmosphere and…
> If the ice caps melt due to rising temperature surely this means more water in the atmosphere and more rain in some places?
Over about 20,000 years of the water cycle, yeah.
Ideally we'd want a water solution that didn't involve carting incalculable amounts of rainwater across the countryside...