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Subject:  Re: OT: Global Water shortage. Date:  4/16/2013  5:05 PM
Author:  DrtThrwingMonkey Number:  200976 of 228620

I do not know enough about the science of ocean systems to imagine how massive sea salt removal systems would affect that important eco-system.

There should be little or no effect, it is basically what happens naturally anyways, as the sun evaporates water from the sea's surface. In this case, we are taking fresh water from the ocean, using it for a variety of purposes, and then returning it (via runoff, or sewage) to the same place, as slightly less fresh water so to speak! There is no way we could ever remove enough to affect the salinity of the ocean, even if it weren't all flowing back within a few hours or days, but since it is returning, it's basically a non issue. It's like the water flowing from our tap that we are supposed to turn off while we brush our teeth. In most cases, that water will be back in the same body of water it came from, within a few hours, so the only remaining concern is that we waste our resources filtering and treating and pumping municipal water that is squandered, but it really has no impact on the amount of water that is left.

It is true that desalination is too expensive to be a practical solution for agriculture, even at $1 a ton. Land with abundant groundwater that is not threatened by someone else using it may certainly be more valuable in parts of the world where rain is scarcer. On the other hand, global climate change has winners and losers, and some places will actually have more rain, like Norway maybe:




This is why the global warming debate is so complex - there is a lot of feedback, some of it positive, some of it negative, as in this case.

Here's another interesting example:


But I wouldn't likely want to bet against Burry. What does he think of Tesla?

Regards, DTM