[deleted]
This has nothing to do with using water for agriculture, industry and showers.
Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
41–50 of 65 posts
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#42They 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…
When you say free you don't mean free. Free means no one pays for it which means no one spends time making it. If anyone has to spend any time making and/or distributing this birth control it isn't be free by definition.
Or they don't mean the specific definition of "free" you've concocted. Free can definitely mean "without payment" which one could easily infer from context and it's what GP meant.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#43Earlier 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.
>> I think one of the keys to "controlling" population growth is to bring people out of poverty. That implies that poor people have a higher reproductive rate - which I believe is true. A shortcut is to offer birth control to poor people. Many of them don't actually want a bunch of kids, but when you're poor there's not much to do and sex is free. I agree it'd be nice to bring people out of poverty, but shouldn't we…
There's a lot more to birth control than just dropping off boxes of condoms or the pill. You need a culture and a religion that allows it. You need women to have the freedom to employ it. You need men to allow women to make those decisions. You need men who are willing to accept the reduced pleasure of sex (from a condom) in order to prevent disease and unplanned pregnancy. You need education so people understand the connection between their individual actions, and the broader trends and problems of the society in which they live. Etc.
Just look at the U.S., where birth control is cheap, plentiful, and legal...yet there is still incredible social pressures working against its availability--even basic stuff like sex education, family planning, and condoms.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#44With 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://…
The cost to build desalination plants to service millions of residents would be BILLIONS. Tens of Billions. Money that is available, just being spent on other things...
We built one in Sydney a few years back. It cost nearly 2 Billion, and it now sits idle at a cost of around half a million per day
I guess we'll be laughing in 15 years though
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#45Something that bears mentioning when you read this type of report: If something is 10-20 years in the future in these types of models, this has: a) Already happened unless b) there are major changes / interactions that scientific models have not had factored in while c) Anthropic actions cannot change this, but it can change x+n where X is original time and n is the 'down ramp' from your curve. For instance: if your…
> models don't change
I wonder if the software running those models has finally been corrected[1] to use floating point properly. Giving different results from the same data+software when run on different hardware suggests rounding wasn't being handled properly[2].
As these models are already so sensitive to initial conditions that "ensemble prediction" are necessary to avoid chaotic results, mishandling floating point rounding could completely destroy the results.
[1] http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19957-01/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.ht...
[2] http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/07/28/137209/same-progr...
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#46They 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…
When you say free you don't mean free. Free means no one pays for it which means no one spends time making it. If anyone has to spend any time making and/or distributing this birth control it isn't be free by definition.
"When you see free you don't mean free. Free means [this thing I just decided it means, which is quite obviously not the meaning you're using]. If [the definition I just introduced doesn't obtain] it isn't free by definition."
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#47They 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…
Indian Government does have programs for what you have said.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#48They 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'd say free to anyone below some income level since the middle class can afford it anyway."
I totally understand you're coming from a good place here, but this is exactly the type of thing that can go all sorts of wrong when implemented by people coming from not such a good place. Also, this could come across any number of ways if you're coming from a different place (socioeconomic wise). For instance. Well off families tend to have less children and are in a position to provide for them. So, if I'm poor and can't afford to take care of my kids properly, you're proposing I just don't have them?
I use that example only to emphasize what I think is already implicit in your comment, that this is a super complex issue. My reaction to the article was similar to yours, just from a different angle. I kept reading "more efficient use of" and thinking, at what point do we realize we need to use less and not just get more out of what we use?
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#49Day 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.
so, what i hear you saying is, you're proposing we double down on desalinization?
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#50Earlier 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?
Hopefully the developing world can learn from our mistakes and not build cities and farmland in deserts.