Water -- Some Good News!
Making Liquid Gold
Back in October, this blogster offered the BIG FOUR solution package for the pending water crisis. (Put your hand on a water faucet and believe... because it's true and maybe the scariest result of coming climate change.) In short, those four solutions are: 1. Drip irrigation on a huge scale for agriculture. 2. A national pipeline system for redistributing flood water. 3. Catch and store every drop of rainwater that hits our roofs. 4. Desalination of sea water on a huge scale.
This week in the Wall Street Journal was a great article about the technological and financial progress toward large scale desalination. Not "huge" yet, but promising. I like their graphic.
(You might conclude this plant is run on pure solar power - it's not, but it should be... plus wind, geothermal and, heck, I'll say it, nuclear*. Anything but hydrocarbon energy.)
Ring our sea-to-shining-sea country with bigger and better desalination plants, (sequestering the salt of course) and immunize the U.S.A. against the curse of the coming super drought.
Not to mention BIG BUCK$ for our economy. If we build bigger and better desalination technology, they will come, bearing billion$. I can also see a giant fleet of water supertankers, carrying precious fresh water to the world's thirsty and parched. Fresh water will eventually become more valuable than oil. Write that down somewhere.
Back in October, this blogster offered the BIG FOUR solution package for the pending water crisis. (Put your hand on a water faucet and believe... because it's true and maybe the scariest result of coming climate change.) In short, those four solutions are: 1. Drip irrigation on a huge scale for agriculture. 2. A national pipeline system for redistributing flood water. 3. Catch and store every drop of rainwater that hits our roofs. 4. Desalination of sea water on a huge scale.
This week in the Wall Street Journal was a great article about the technological and financial progress toward large scale desalination. Not "huge" yet, but promising. I like their graphic.
(You might conclude this plant is run on pure solar power - it's not, but it should be... plus wind, geothermal and, heck, I'll say it, nuclear*. Anything but hydrocarbon energy.)
Ring our sea-to-shining-sea country with bigger and better desalination plants, (sequestering the salt of course) and immunize the U.S.A. against the curse of the coming super drought.
Not to mention BIG BUCK$ for our economy. If we build bigger and better desalination technology, they will come, bearing billion$. I can also see a giant fleet of water supertankers, carrying precious fresh water to the world's thirsty and parched. Fresh water will eventually become more valuable than oil. Write that down somewhere.
*If there was ever an issue that should bring compromises
from all sides of the environmental battles, it's water.
Nothing will be so destructive to humanity as water shortages.
from all sides of the environmental battles, it's water.
Nothing will be so destructive to humanity as water shortages.
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