clean water shortage

[jverne]

The CERES report adds to growing concern about a looming water crisis. In the Economist's report, The World in 2009 , Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of food giant Nestl?, wrote: "under present conditions? we will run out of water long before we run out of fuel". And at its annual meeting this year the World Economic Forum issued what it itself called a "stark warning" that "the world simply cannot manage water in the future in the same way as in the past or the economic web will collapse".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/26/water-drought


you see...global warming and all that shit is just sand in the eyes. in reality with our current way of living we'll reduce the world to a toxic wasteland.

when some mass produced chemicals need 800 years to completely dissolve no wonder it must come to this.
sure...you might think we have a healthier environment, but that's because we moved all our crap to asia.

male fertility dramatically fell in the last 100 years, which is most likely a consequence of a polluted environment according to some studies.
(same goes for water fleas, the more they are endangered or unhealthy the more females there are and same goes for numerous other species)

humanity wont die out because of this...but life will be more unpleasant.
this is just an indicator that we need to change how we do things (if you plan to have children and care for them or if you are just a compassionate person).

i agree with penn&teller that recycling is not cost effective. but unless we want to have holes everywhere and giant mountains of trash, it is necessary.
oh and it might become really cost effective in the near future when we develop either fusion or geothermal energy to power plasma gasification plants.


i have a feeling repi will have a lot to say about this...in the lines of "shut up you freedom hating, tyrannical hippie, all i care about is driving my 600cc bike and everyone else can just die!" or "the environment is not more polluted because my water tastes fine"

watch this

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1207021100826614474

the average human footprint is larger than ever before.

 

[NeptuneUK]

When we run out of water... I will switch to alcoholic beverages.

 

[jverne]

When we run out of water... I will switch to alcoholic beverages.

sorry buddy...you need more than 1 liter of water to make 1 liter of beer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_water

Water-scarce countries like Israel discourage the export of oranges (relatively heavy water guzzlers) precisely to prevent large quantities of water being exported to different parts of the world.

lol

 

[15357]

When we run out of water... I will switch to alcoholic beverages.

sorry buddy...you need more than 1 liter of water to make 1 liter of beer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_water






lol

It's a funny thing; beer/coke is much cheaper than water in China and Saudi Arabia.

 

[NeptuneUK]

sorry buddy...you need more than 1 liter of water to make 1 liter of beer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_water






lol

You said clean water shortage.
There's plenty of water to go around. And plenty of technology. I am very skeptical about an impending crisis which would affect my life in any way.
Water cannot disappear.

 

[Warped]

i hate this planet. 70% of its water and we can't afford desalinization plants?? yet we put a new shopping mall or boutique every 5 feet!

 

[NeptuneUK]

i hate this planet. 70% of its water and we can't afford desalinization plants?? yet we put a new shopping mall or boutique every 5 feet!

Out of the total mass of the earth, 0.023% of it is water.
Thats about 1.35 x 10^18 metric tons.

Out of all this water only 0.036% of it is lakes and rivers!

 

[Vegeta897]

male fertility dramatically fell in the last 100 years,

Good, overpopulation is a problem.

 

[Dog--]

Out of the total mass of the earth, 0.023% of it is water.
Thats about 1.35 x 10^18 metric tons.

Out of all this water only 0.036% of it is lakes and rivers!

I watched Daily Planet one day and in Australia (and probably other places) there is a place that takes ocean water and turns it into drinkable fresh water. There is more then enough water.. Once it starts getting low, the governments will drop everything and make alot more of these plants. To think we'll run out is retarded.

Plus think of rain, even if we do run out and can't build those plants for some reason, we can just collect rain water alot cheaper then those purification plants by making huge reservoirs to catch it and then put it through simple filters.

 

[dfc05]

I watched Daily Planet one day and in Australia (and probably other places) there is a place that takes ocean water and turns it into drinkable fresh water. There is more then enough water.. Once it starts getting low, the governments will drop everything and make alot more of these plants. To think we'll run out is retarded.

Plus think of rain, even if we do run out and can't build those plants for some reason, we can just collect rain water alot cheaper then those purification plants by making huge reservoirs to catch it and then put it through simple filters.

Desalination can be expensive (requires energy to do reverse osmosis and electrodialysis), and you also need to dispose of concentrated brine. Technically we won't run out of water, but it could become really expensive.

 

[Dog--]

I doubt money would be an issue if half a first world country dies of dehydration, though.

 

[Raziaar]

i hate this planet. 70% of its water and we can't afford desalinization plants?? yet we put a new shopping mall or boutique every 5 feet!

We have enough water to nourish the first, and to some degree the second world.

That's why little is done. People will only change their tune when they're the ones who are unable to find clean water and instead have to turn to horrid sources.

 

[Eejit]

You mean 'fresh water' shortage don't you verne? i.e. non-saline rather than fit for drinking.

 

[jverne]

You mean 'fresh water' shortage don't you verne? i.e. non-saline rather than fit for drinking.

no, i mean water class A,B,C. drinkable clean water, slightly polluted good for agriculture, moderately polluted usable in certain industries (cooling water,...). D is heavily polluted and unusable. i think this is one of the classifications for water