World Faces 'Insurmountable' Water Shortage

In addition to an expanding global population, economic development, and an increasing demand for energy, the report also finds that the generation of electricity is one of the biggest sources of water consumption throughout the world, using up more water than even the agricultural industry. Unlike less water-intensive alternative sources of energy like wind and solar systems, fossil fuel-powered and nuclear plants need enormous and continued water inputs to function, both for fueling thermal generators and cooling cycles.

The above is the best reason I know for shutting down fossil fuel and nuclear electricity sources.

I've been screaming about this for years, it's been published again and again, and nobody seems to get it. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF WATER.

I know most of you don't care what may happen in 10 or 20 years, I do, I hope to still be around but do wonder if people will still be so dense and careless - my guess probably.

Anyway - a tad more from the article and I'll leave you alone.

The reasearch reported in this is from Aarhus University ( In Denmark), Vermont Law School and CNA (a huge insurance firm).

Unless water use is drastically minimized, the researchers found that widespread drought will affect between 30 and 40 percent of the planet by 2020, and another two decades after that will see a severe water shortage that would affect the entire planet. The demand for both energy and drinking water would combine to aggressively speed up drought, which in turn could exacerbate large-scale health risks and other global development problems.

The research says that utilizing alternative energy sources like wind and solar systems is vital to mitigating water consumption enough to stave off the crisis. "Unsubsidized wind power costs... are currently lower than coal or nuclear and they are continuing to drop," the report states. When faced with its worst drought in 2011, Texas got up to 18 of its electricity from wind power and was able to avoid the kind of rolling blackouts that plague parts of China, where existing water shortages prevent power plants from operating.

The article, with links to the research papers quoted, can be found at:

www.commondreams.org...

This is the second time I've had to point out on the board today that the planet has HUNDREDS of QUINTILLIONS of gallons of water sloshing around.

A defense contractor better known for building jet fighters and lethal missiles says it has found a way to slash the amount of energy needed to remove salt from seawater, potentially making it vastly cheaper to produce clean water at a time when scarcity has become a global security issue. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. Because the sheets of pure carbon known as graphene are so thin - just one atom in thickness - it takes much less energy to push the seawater through the filter with the force required to separate the salt from the water, they said. "It's 500 times thinner than the best filter on the market today and a thousand times stronger," said John Stetson, the engineer who has been working on the idea. "The energy that's required and the pressure that's required to filter salt is approximately 100 times less."

Pentagon weapons-maker finds method for cheap, clean water

So not buying into it.

Lockheed claims it in 2013, but MIT seems to have the same process, or at least material (graphene) in 2012; Here's the video:

Maybe it's a ploy to lobby desalination ?

Lot's of desalination going on.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
The above is the best reason I know for shutting down fossil fuel and nuclear electricity sources.

Nothing else even comes close to realistically meeting our energy needs. As a matter of fact we need to go near 100% nuclear, and get away from fossil fuel entirely.

Sorry folks,free energy makes salt water potable instantly and shipping it free.

And running water through a natural cycle which has no byproducts other than the base components of water will ensure a very very long supply of fuel and drinking water for us all.

this must be a joke... water it's not going anywhere, As long as the oceans and the sun continue to exist, the water cycle will go on almost indifinetly, providing rain and natural desalinization as it always did for eons.
For this very reason, the real problem lies in the perfection of our decontamination methods and the correct management of toxic waste of all kinds.

a reply to: defcon5

You sure about that, chief?



120x as efficient as coal claimed by the company.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I've been screaming about this for years, it's been published again and again, and nobody seems to get it. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF WATER.

We get it! It's just fun to have you runnin around screaming
about a water shortage all the time.

Many years ago I heard the year 2020 for a fresh water shortage. Looks like my professor did his math correctly. If they can use sea water for our energy, for flushing, and maybe even agriculture we wouldn't have a problem. It's good to see this may be the case. How they will get it to the middle of the Country is beyond me but it's good stuff. Time will tell.

a reply to: pl3bscheese
Multiple real physicists call this a “fraud”, “scam”, etc...
They have yet to provide anything that works like they claim it works.
He was also denied a patent due to his supposed products: “contradictions with known physics laws and other concerns about the viability of the described processes.”

So, yeah, pretty darn sure for the time being.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Your link wasn't working when I checked, could you tell me where you think it has gone? Or how it was consumed?

Thank the LORD there is some chance to remove humanity from this planet.
I really do think we do not deserve to live here, but I'm sure I will be the only one though.

I mean it makes no sense to water a patch of grass out in the middle of New Mexico during a thunderstorm.

Our former relatives would laugh at us because our priorities are jacked

a reply to: defcon5

Well there's a ton of patents that HAVE gone through. I was looking through them on google scholar the other day. Plenty within the scientific community have gone the other way, and said it's legit. Just cause it bucks what is currently known, doesn't mean it must be incorrect... that's just anti-progress.

It could be fraud. I'm not sure.

originally posted by: johngrissom
Thank the LORD there is some chance to remove humanity from this planet.
I really do think we do not deserve to live here, but I'm sure I will be the only one though.

I mean it makes no sense to water a patch of grass out in the middle of New Mexico during a thunderstorm.

Our former relatives would laugh at us because our priorities are jacked

Our former relatives would be jealous we had plumbing..

I am sure we deserve to live here, we are the top of the food chain, especially since we created the term.

originally posted by: defcon5

originally posted by: FyreByrd
The above is the best reason I know for shutting down fossil fuel and nuclear electricity sources.

Nothing else even comes close to realistically meeting our energy needs. As a matter of fact we need to go near 100% nuclear, and get away from fossil fuel entirely.

Yep. We need thorium imo.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: defcon5

You sure about that, chief?

120x as efficient as coal claimed by the company.

I have a bridge in Brooklyn that is 120x better than other bridges. Care to invest?

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

You can't even get original?

C'mon. Throw something at me that actually adds weight to your view.

You care to watch the demonstration?

Tell me that's 27watts worth of light flashing in and out of that box.

Water scarcity is both a natural and a human-made phenomenon. There is enough freshwater on the planet for seven billion people but it is distributed unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed.

un.org
If we (humans) can get over the major obstacle of greed, There would be no water issues. for then we would be able to distribute, conserve, clean and properly manage our water.

My input on a "water" crises follows into

1. Oil Crises
2. What Water Crises, the stuff still comes out of my faucet
3. I pee outside, does that help??
4. Pumping the Great Lakes empty (nestle i believe) fast forward to 2014 the Great Lakes are the fullest they have ever been
5. etc.

Whatever they tell you just know there telling you this for a reason, and the reason might not exactly be the reason you think.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: OccamsRazor04

You can't even get original?

C'mon. Throw something at me that actually adds weight to your view.

You care to watch the demonstration?

Tell me that's 27watts worth of light flashing in and out of that box.

Or it's the fact they have said they are ready to go commercial for over 5 years now. So where is the commercial product?

Go tell Philip Warren Anderson and Steven Chu you know more than them.