Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
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Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
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Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#2Whew, thank god. Cause the Peak Oil guys sure need something new to fret about.
And these things always come true exactly as predicted because, you know, progress doesn't continue along, Moore's Law doesn't continue along.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#3Whew, thank god. Cause the Peak Oil guys sure need something new to fret about. And these things always come true exactly as predicted because, you know, progress doesn't continue along, Moore's Law doesn't continue along.
Progress would be the world acting.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#4They 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 less of them?
I'm not talking about mandates or government deciding who reproduces, just having them help folks that would prefer not to have kids to not have them. The solution doesn't always have to be more regulation.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#5With 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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Considerations_and...
EDIT: The Wikipedia sentence I quoted was not clearly written. It should have said "supplying all household water" not "supplying all domestic water." Far more water is used by farming.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#6Don't worry, Canada is selling a million litres of clean water for $2.25. That's like $1 US.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#7They 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…
Population growth rates world wide have already plummeted in recent decades and continue to do so as more developing countries industrialize.
Current predictions point to stabilizing world population at 9 billion and the starting to slowly drop. In the most developed countries we have seen lower than replacement rates for a long while now.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#8They 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 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.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#9With 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://…
Simple: cost
As long as it is cheaper to exploit an existing clean water source than to spend the energy, and invest in the massive and in some cases unproven tech and engineering infrastructure to build desalination plants, then that's what will happen.
It's unfortunate, because the cost to future generations, or the biosphere doesn't calculate into our current economic system, and most of the commercial infrastructure is aligned against re-calibration of that kind, because it would cost them dearly.
Re: Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
#10With 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...