World Faces 'Insurmountable' Water Shortage

originally posted by: Dianec
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.

Pumping sea water "upstream" to cities from the sea requires more energy than pumping fresh water from dammed sources downstream to cities.

The **only** way to harness energy from sea water is through the action of tides and waves. "Tidal turbines" and "wave generators" has been invented for the purpose and seems to show as much promise as wind turbines.

I know that the planet is hotter. I have been gardening for 60yrs and first time this year I could not combat the intense sun and heat with water. There may be plenty of water, but eventually, it will all turn to desert if vegetation starts dying.

There are many problems with desalinazation:

From Food and Water Watch:

www.foodandwaterwatch.org...

A listing of the probable problems:

We found:

Ocean desalination costs more than any other option
Ocean desalination uses more energy than any other option–which means bigger contributions to global warming
Desalination technology can kill marine life
Desalination creates water pollution
Desalination can fail to remove harmful chemicals from your drinking water
Desalination projects invite corporate abuse of your public water systems
Desalination is not necessary – we have other alternatives

We're not even close to facing a water shortage, don't buy into these myths, we can do just like Malcolm McDowell did in "Tank Girl" and create a machine that you stab into a person and it sucks all the water out of them and turns it into drinkable water.

originally posted by: DonVoigt
We're not even close to facing a water shortage, don't buy into these myths, we can do just like Malcolm McDowell did in "Tank Girl" and create a machine that you stab into a person and it sucks all the water out of them and turns it into drinkable water.

Just a blanket statement. How do you KNOW this? Do you have any support for your statement? Or is it just what you want to believe? I ask in all sincerity.

When people state with absolute convinction without supporting evidence, I always suspect denial of reality in some form or fashion. It's a common defense mechanism, that I've employed myself at times but I've learned when I have that sense of absolute certainity without research and reason behind it, I've got to stop and take a look at the facts.

You may not have a visible fresh water shortage where you are, however if you look beneth or behind the surface, you might be surprised at what you find.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Stop breeding people. Jesus Christ humanity, are you too mentally deficient to understand exponential growth?

a reply to: FyreByrd

Here is some valuable information.

When lake Erie dries up, I will start to get a little bit concerned. There are lots of things to be afraid of, this however, is not one of them. Look up "evaporation" then "precipitation". Seriously, a firm grasp of how water works will ease your mind.

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: FyreByrd

Here is some valuable information.

When lake Erie dries up, I will start to get a little bit concerned. There are lots of things to be afraid of, this however, is not one of them. Look up "evaporation" then "precipitation". Seriously, a firm grasp of how water works will ease your mind.

Well, I think the Erie is getting too poisonous to drink (even with filtration). But it's there.

World is not US-centric... which is something I can see from too many posts in this thread. In certain areas of US problems might arise (are already there), atlhough severe water shortage is very unlikely at least in near future.

The problem lies with the rest of the world, especially African and southern Asian regions. There is already sever water shortage in certain areas, and it will only become worse, considering the growing population in already overpopulated areas.

I personally do not believe desalinization being the answer to the problems, not even due to technology, but due to the problems it might cause. Sooner or later, some cheap technology is very likely to be invented which would make seawater drinkable. Although, at least in the coming decades, no technology will be able to cheaply fully clean the water of different chemicals, pollution. Also the effect of pumping out extreme amounts of water from the sea, will definitely have a significant impact on marine life, ecosystem as a whole.

In the end, I believe the answer simply lies in co-operation world-wide. Countries with enough fresh water, especially advanced nations, cutting down their water usage (even cutting down on the meat would mean extreme amounts of water being saved) , so something could be exported to nations in crisis.

As long as the oceans and the sun continue to exist, the water cycle will go on almost indifinetly

Sigh- the total volume will probably remain the same, but there will be more salt water and less fresh water. Aquifers are drying up everywhere, including the US and many places are using up their supplies of river water too, like the American southwest.

a reply to: CB328

I agree with your assessment; however will point out that some water is lost in the hydro-cycle. Entropy ensures that some mass and energy will be lost. Systems eventually run down (even the Sun) unless energy/mass is bought into the system.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
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:

Yeah I knew nothing about this recent breakthrough, but common sense tells me with all the scientific knowledge and incredible technology that we have today we should be able to easily filter ocean water either now or in the near future.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
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:

Yeah I knew nothing about this recent breakthrough... but common sense tells me with all the scientific knowledge and incredible technology that we have today, we should easily be able to filter ocean water, either now, or in the near future.

double post

a reply to: FyreByrd

I used to live on a sailboat and bought a rather expensive reverse osmosis water purifier that could produce 6 gallons of purified drinking water per day. It was made by Katadyn , it cost $600.00, it was made of stainless steel and it was easy to disassemble and repair if necessary, however the only part that could ever possibly need to be replaced was the semi permeable membrane, which is not an expensive part to replace. On that same note there is no maintenance necessary for this device as long as you use it on a regular basis. As well , if you were going to store this device for long periods of time there was an inexpensive chemical that you ran through it before storage so that mold would not grow on the semi permeable membrane. Called biocide. This reverse osmosis water maker was similar to what you seen Kevin Kostner use in the movie water world, this device is so good you could drop the hose into a pool of urine and produce purified bacteria free drinking water. As well because I was so interested in the device that I had, I did extensive research on many other water purification devices, many of which can be produced from basic materials that can be purchased from your local home depot for a fraction of the cost, such as basic water condensers, but I'll let you do a Google search on homemade, inexpensive water purification devices yourself.

a reply to: DonVoigt

Thanks for the info on Reverse Osmosis filtration. However, RO doesn't filter out everything especially bacteria and some chemicals, I don't know the specifics. The system I've always used had two filters before the RO one.

The problem in Toledo could not be fixed by RO.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I think what you're referring to as reverse osmosis is not the same type that I'm refering to, there are versions for your home that are called reverse osmosis, kind of like the one my uncle had for his home that are not quite the same as the one I'm referring to Katadyn is the same company that produces reverse osmosis water systems for the U.S. Navy the systems that are produced for consumer homes are not quite the same as those that are for purifying saltwater into drinkable water. The ones that are used within the saltwater realm do actually remove bacteria and other agents at a 99.9 % rate this was one of the little bits of info that I got from the Katadyn website when learning about the one I bought.

originally posted by: FyreByrd

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...

Is the water changining into a different element? If you cool something with water does it not turn into steam? So it has only changed from liquide to a gas where is the loss?

Right. They would just need to build more desalination plants. Many countries already do this where 50% of their potable water is from desalination plants. Plus the trend now is using sea salt. Also, maybe they can also extract the gold from the ocean water.