Fresh Water

[Raisin Bran]

Has anyone thought of the cost of exporting water?????

Water is not compressible ... imagine a super tanker filled with water the costs would be extremely high! .... Good for where I live!

Ill go invest in water and buy myself a second gun!

 

[Masquerouge]

This is really quite irrelevant compared to the other wastes.

Are you kidding? Do you know how much energy is wasted to make ice cubes? Imagine, every single restaurant puts ice in every single glass they serve, unless you specifically ask for no ice (which I do). I believe it is a lot bigger than you think.

 

[Masquerouge]

Hopefully some water trading between nations will be able to alleviate the problem, after the necessary infrastructure have been built.

I wish it were that simple. But look at the middle-east... who has the water? Israel. One of the reasons stated for invading Golan was to get control of the water supply there.
No matter who you support, trade is not going to be smooth.

 

[Jeff Yu]

Someone said "the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water". A quick Google search could probably reveal who but I'm not particularly interested.

I am interested in what people's thoughts are on this. Along with inexpensive electricity and fuel it seems fresh water is the #1 thing people take for granted. All over the country there are water machines that give you 8 ways filtered water for a quarter a gallon not to mention slightly less delicious & nutritious tapwater. Dry places like Arizona and New Mexico can have lawns looking like tropical rainforests thanks to pumped in water. What happens if climate patterns change or if the fuel to transport the water starts raising in price. Water wars are already going on elsewhere, do you think conflicts over something as basic as water could ever take place in places like the US, Canada and Western Europe? Why or why not?

We have an answer to the water problem, if only we would use it: Nuclear-powered desalination. Nuclear power generation to offset our growing dependence on carbon fuels, and using the excess heat from it to double as a desalination plant, allowing us to get fresh water from the sea.

 

[Masquerouge]

We have an answer to the water problem, if only we would use it: Nuclear-powered desalination. Nuclear power generation to offset our growing dependence on carbon fuels, and using the excess heat from it to double as a desalination plant, allowing us to get fresh water from the sea.

I can already see the new slogans:
"do not drink simple water... Get the incomparable taste of nuclear-powered desalinized water!"

 

[Jeff Yu]

Has anyone thought of the cost of exporting water?????

Water is not compressible ... imagine a super tanker filled with water the costs would be extremely high! .... Good for where I live!

Ill go invest in water and buy myself a second gun!

The idea of exporting water isn't new, but it certainly won't be done with supertankers. Think pipelines and aqueducts instead. Russia, having some of the world's largest reserves of fresh water stored in Lake Baikal, has raised the possibility of exporting fresh water via pipeline to water deprived Mongolia, China, and central Asia. And in my home state of California, us folks in Northern California already export 3/4 of our fresh water to the folks down south, who also import water from Arizona and Colorado.

 

[Masquerouge]

The idea of exporting water isn't new, but it certainly won't be done with supertankers. Think pipelines and aqueducts instead. Russia, having some of the world's largest reserves of fresh water stored in Lake Baikal, has raised the possibility of exporting fresh water via pipeline to water deprived Mongolia, China, and central Asia. And in my home state of California, us folks in Northern California already export 3/4 of our fresh water to the folks down south, who also import water from Arizona and Colorado.

Except that the Baikal is also the most polluted lake on Earth...

 

[Jeff Yu]

Except that the Baikal is also the most polluted lake on Earth...

No it's not. There are only a couple of paper mills built during the Soviet era, and Lake Baikal has 70% of the world's usable fresh water. Lakes like the Salton Sea and the Aral Sea are comparable far worse, heavily polluted with salt, heavy metals, fertilizer runoff, and pesticides. Even the Great Lakes are far worse, due to the heavy industrial presence along the shores of the lake as well as all the major cities and all the ship traffice.

 

[IglooDame]

I can't imagine starting any real conservation effort in most parts of the US. New Hampshire and Massachusetts just saw houses floating downstream in heavy rains in the last month. I get some hundreds of gallons a month delivered to my house via pipe for less than I pay for broadband internet. And if a town's (or a region's) water usage was cut back by 50% (a pie-in-the-sky number), what's the upside, exactly? The water someone uses to make their lawn greener eventually shows back up for re-use.

On the other hand, learning to live while making fewer waste products is of massive future benefit. Water your lawn all you like (assuming you're not in drought conditions), but stop putting all the fertilizing chemical crap on it.

 

[Azash]

I'd say water purification technology will egt better if the need for fresh water grows.