Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Cholera may return to London, the mass migration of Africans could cause civil unrest in Europe, and China's economy could crash by 2015 as the supply of fresh water becomes critical to the global economy...
...The situation is gravest in China, where 550 of the country's 600 largest cities are running short...
...Globally, water usage has increased by six times in the past 100 years and will double again by 2050, driven mainly by irrigation and demands of agriculture. Some countries have already run out of water to produce their own food.
Peak Water, indeed. What next?
*pulls down vodka bottle, pours a stiff one* _________________ "Thank you for attending the oil age. We're going to scrape what we can out of these tar pits in Alberta and then shut down the machines and turn out the lights. Goodnight." - seldom_seen
Joined: May 17, 2004 Posts: 293 Location: San Jose, CA
Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:14 pm Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
For crying out loud, we live on a planet that is 70% covered in water, and we have water problems? 98% of the total water on Earth is locked up in the oceans. Why can we not figure out a low-cost way to desalinate it?
Unlike peak oil I think with peak water, technology could help out here.
Quote:
Chemical engineer Kamalesh Sirkar, PhD, a distinguished professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and an expert in membrane separation technology, is leading a team of researchers to develop a breakthrough method to desalinate water. Sirkar, who holds more than 20 patents in the field of membrane separation, said that using his technology, engineers will be able to recover water from brines with the highest salt concentrations. The Bureau of Reclamation in the Department of Interior is funding the project.
Joined: Dec 02, 2005 Posts: 6771 Location: Oil-addicted Southern Californucopia
Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:31 pm Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
Carrie wrote:
98% of the total water on Earth is locked up in the oceans. Why can we not figure out a low-cost way to desalinate it?
Reverse Osmosis desalination processes have always been very energy-intensive, and therefore very expensive. Let's hope this new version is not.
And, of course, there's the problem of getting the water from the oceans to inland areas hundreds or even thousands of miles away, sending it uphill most of the way. _________________ "Thank you for attending the oil age. We're going to scrape what we can out of these tar pits in Alberta and then shut down the machines and turn out the lights. Goodnight." - seldom_seen
Joined: Sep 06, 2004 Posts: 5315 Location: Smalltown New Zealand
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:28 am Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
Carrie wrote:
Why can we not figure out a low-cost way to desalinate it?
Get poor people to drink the sea-water then everyone else drinks the resulting urine...... _________________ "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:44 am Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
Carrie wrote:
For crying out loud, we live on a planet that is 70% covered in water, and we have water problems? 98% of the total water on Earth is locked up in the oceans. Why can we not figure out a low-cost way to desalinate it?
Unlike peak oil I think with peak water, technology could help out here.
Quote:
Chemical engineer Kamalesh Sirkar, PhD, a distinguished professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and an expert in membrane separation technology, is leading a team of researchers to develop a breakthrough method to desalinate water. Sirkar, who holds more than 20 patents in the field of membrane separation, said that using his technology, engineers will be able to recover water from brines with the highest salt concentrations. The Bureau of Reclamation in the Department of Interior is funding the project.
Joined: Aug 17, 2005 Posts: 582 Location: Portugal
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:04 am Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
Isn't there some process of desalinization which just lets water evaporate, leaving salt behind, and traps it back into liquid? Sounds like it takes forever, but I guess it gets the job done at low energy cost
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:46 am Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
Quote:
For crying out loud, we live on a planet that is 70% covered in water, and we have water problems? 98% of the total water on Earth is locked up in the oceans. Why can we not figure out a low-cost way to desalinate it?
Unlike peak oil I think with peak water, technology could help out here.
Part of the problem lies in the cultural thought that the water is ours to take, however much of it we need, that we are entitled to it.
Maybe the problem isn't Not Enough Water, maybe it's Too Many People.
And as for a low-cost way to desalinate? Collect rain water. _________________ "We have seen the enemy, and he is us." -- Walt Kelly
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 11:54 am Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
Another problem with desalinization is that the byproduct (brine) is quite toxic. And, as already stated, it takes quite a bit of energy to process. Santa Barbara has some desal plants that are on stand-by should their normal sources of water be insufficient or interrupted.
Peak water is a very real danger. In California, for example, if the levies in the Central Valley were to catastrophically fail (which we’ve seen can happen, especially since no money is spent on upkeep), Los Angeles is f*cked. Mass quantities of their water is pumped from the delta that is only fresh water because of reservoir releases into the levied rivers that push brackish bay water back from the pumps. A good stiff earthquake is all it would take to make some mighty thirsty people in the Los Angeles area, not to mention another New Orleans-type disaster in the Central Valley.
Joined: Oct 16, 2004 Posts: 1281 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:21 pm Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
My brother and I were discussing this subject the other day. I was commenting on how there seemed to always be rain showers into the ocean off Moreton and Stradbroke Islands and if they sent tankers out with folding screens attached to the sides of the boats, they could harvest a lot of rainwater and ship it back to Brisbane once the tanks were full.
Then my brother got the idea that if you you made them of clear plastic, carbon or perspex with drop down walls with channels around the bottoms you could also distil from the ocean surface using the sun's energy, so you could get some water even when the rain wasn't falling. Of course there would be problems with storms, that's why I thought attachments you could pack up when the weather was rough were better than a permanent site.
Or you could have a basic permanent platform set up with a shelter for storing the water gathering equipment and use smaller boats to tow the tanks around with floats attached. _________________ Kind regards, Katkinkate
"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,
but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."
Masanobu Fukuoka
Joined: Apr 07, 2005 Posts: 225 Location: West of Chicago
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:38 pm Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
katkinkate wrote:
My brother and I were discussing this subject the other day. I was commenting on how there seemed to always be rain showers into the ocean off Moreton and Stradbroke Islands and if they sent tankers out with folding screens attached to the sides of the boats, they could harvest a lot of rainwater and ship it back to Brisbane once the tanks were full.
Then my brother got the idea that if you you made them of clear plastic, carbon or perspex with drop down walls with channels around the bottoms you could also distil from the ocean surface using the sun's energy, so you could get some water even when the rain wasn't falling. Of course there would be problems with storms, that's why I thought attachments you could pack up when the weather was rough were better than a permanent site.
Or you could have a basic permanent platform set up with a shelter for storing the water gathering equipment and use smaller boats to tow the tanks around with floats attached.
Wow. What thinking!
Why not use a small series of pipelines to pump it to shore for filtration? Catch the water with a group of collapsable screens around a platform --like an oil platform -- and pump it via underwater pipeline to shore.
Run the screens out when it rains and obviously let them float and collect water to the pumping station. Solar powered maybe?
Draw the screens in to the sides, accordion style when not in use.
Joined: Dec 02, 2005 Posts: 6771 Location: Oil-addicted Southern Californucopia
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:49 pm Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
rwwff wrote:
...large quantities of loose water inside a ship.
Its an instant recipe for a capsize.
LOTS of baffles and compartmentalization, like all liquid carriers. _________________ "Thank you for attending the oil age. We're going to scrape what we can out of these tar pits in Alberta and then shut down the machines and turn out the lights. Goodnight." - seldom_seen
Joined: Oct 16, 2004 Posts: 1281 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 2:12 am Post subject: Re: World business group doomerish about water
canis_lupus wrote:
katkinkate wrote:
.......
Wow. What thinking!
Why not use a small series of pipelines to pump it to shore for filtration? Catch the water with a group of collapsable screens around a platform --like an oil platform -- and pump it via underwater pipeline to shore.
Run the screens out when it rains and obviously let them float and collect water to the pumping station. Solar powered maybe?
Draw the screens in to the sides, accordion style when not in use.
Hmmmmm
The pipeline could work as long as you weren't too far from the shore. Actually that would probably be better, as there are fewer moving parts and thus less to go wrong. A ship, or even little tug boats and floating tanks mean more maintenance and fuel expense, as well as wages. A series of platforms could be serviced regulary (rain catchers cleaned and pipes flushed) by a small team in a small boat. _________________ Kind regards, Katkinkate
"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,
but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."
Masanobu Fukuoka
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Once everyone is sucking from the teat watch the amount of energy consumption.
