Drought Question

[JulesMaximus]

I'm waiting for my Freman stillsuit to be issued to me.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm waiting for my Freman stillsuit to be issued to me.

I don't have a stillsuit anywhere, but I think I still have one of these that no longer fits me...

Wrong kind of Freeman?

 

[slag]

Okay, but hell no on Nova Scotia, bunch a weirdos up there.

Friggin rights, man.. Friggin rights!

 

[Imp]

Watering lawns, taking showers and washing cars isn't the issue, its agriculture. Farmers need to update/upgrade how they work -- they waste billions and billions of gallons of water.

Everyone in California could stop showering all together and it still wouldn't be enough.

Gotta squeeze every drop even if it's relatively little? Ya, it's kind of sad.

It's a big eff you for the warmest, sunniest, best places to grow shit to be devoid of water, but that's why they're warm and sunny. Go go desalination!

P.S. I realized recently that while I'd love to live in CA, there's no way I could afford it due to the amount of water I enjoy using -- OCD level of cleaning.

Quebec is where they keep all the cute Canadians. Everywhere else, they look like hockey players.

Most Canadian porn seems to come from Quebec too.

 

[JTsyo]

Many many years ago, I read about towing icebergs to areas that needed the water. I'm not sure how feasible it is, or how cost effective it is. Seems that you might be able to "carve" them into relatively reasonable shapes for pushing (use of explosives).

You sure you've read it? That was in the movie Brewster's Millions.

 

[inachu]

The cheaper way to go would be to get water out of the air and it is super cheap!
10-15 gallons per day from using just a tiny home unit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6w0-RkDnLA

 

[Phoenix86]

Simply not using is *MUCH* more cost and resource effective than trying to come up with different ways to get more. Look at Phoenix and Las Vegas. How much water is wasted watering yards, golf courses, commercial landscaping, car washes, ect there? Something like half of all water used in Phoenix is used to water yards. That's ridiculous. YOU ARE IN THE FREAKING DESERT. Plant a cactus, buy some rocks. Enjoy. Southern Cali isn't that much different. Green grass isn't natural to the area and trying to keep it that way is an enormous burden on the water system.

It's not much different than gasoline. For most people simply driving less is much better for gas savings than a hybrid would ever be.

I read for California residential usage was less than 20% of the pie, lawn watering is about 2% of the total. Which means it's kind of a joke to implement significant changes on that end. Woohoo you reduced lawn watering by 50%, which gives you a net gain of 1%. It's literally a drop in the bucket.

I have no idea with the % is for Phoenix/Vegas, makes sense it's a higher total %, less farming/industrial use.

Not that I'm disagreeing with your point, because it's fucking stupid to try and maintain a green lawn in the desert for sure. People need to do more xeriscaping (which is ironically banned in many due to HoAs).

 

[Phoenix86]

You sure you've read it? That was in the movie Brewster's Millions.

Which I believe was drawn from a popular science article. I believe there was another article in the mid-90s.

edit: Looks like the idea has been around since the mid 1800s.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...cesses-of-zany-iceberg-towing-schemes/243364/

It was a TIME article in 1977 I was thinking of.

 

[CZroe]

Why don't we mine asteroids for their mineral content?

Because we'd lose far more resources than we'd gain with the current state of technology.

 

[MongGrel]

I'm still waiting on Antartica to shelve off as it's rumored to be doing at the moment rapidly, the ocean to rise about 10 feet and I'll have my own little island property in Clearwater as I'm living in a house in one of the highest spots in Pinellas County.

I knew there was a reason I bought up high like this

I'm probably on one of the highest spots in FL.

J/K, but would be a bit odd if it happened, ya think.

Would solve some of that drought problem on the West Coast too maybe I guess

 

[Red Squirrel]

()


Think they bought it? :sneaky:

With Harper running the show, he'd probably sell the whole country to a corporation if it came up, for like $100 US. That's enough to buy about 20 houses in Detroit. :biggrin:

 

[StrangerGuy]

The thing with water is while the supply is vast, the human demand is also vast too at quantities far beyond which can be economically transports over long distances with current technology.

BTW I do think the U.S as whole is being spoiled by easy water which leads to horrendous wastage and now you guys are paying the price.

 

[olds]

You'd consume more than you get back

It'd be better to just eliminate 25% of California

I am for this. If you are not native to California, move back to where you came from.

 

[olds]

Why not just get water from the nearest river and build a pipe line to fill up the water towrs? Most of the water from a river ends up in the sea at some point anyway. I guess it would be too expensive and water is not worth it, compared to oil.

The only water left in the rivers has to be left alone so the fish won't die.
Also, if you take too much water from some of the rivers the oceans backs up into them.

 

[vi edit]

The only water left in the rivers has to be left alone so the fish won't die.
Also, if you take too much water from some of the rivers the oceans backs up into them.

Plus you jack with the already jacked with natural flow of the water via locks & dams and hydro power plants that need that flow to generate electricity. It's all a balancing act.

 

[NutBucket]

I was reading recently that hydro power plant output is expected to drop as a result of lower lake levels.

 

[Leros]

Most water goes to growing crops. The smart thing to do for the short term would be to stop subsidizing high water crops.

We're working on desalination plants that will eventually solve the water shortage problem. The next problem to solve is building pipelines and pumps to get the desalinated water inland.

 

[zinfamous]

Ice actually used to come from shaved glaciers. I think the first ice company was started in Boston some time in the 19th century. They would send teams up north to shave off giant chunks, ship it back down to their warehouse, then shave off smaller chunks and distribute across the country to cities

 

[cabri]

I can remember harvesting ice blocks from local frozen lakes; Stored in ice houses and deliver as needed.

 

[JTsyo]

I can remember harvesting ice blocks from local frozen lakes; Stored in ice houses and deliver as needed.

Looks guys someone from Arendelle.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The only water left in the rivers has to be left alone so the fish won't die.
Also, if you take too much water from some of the rivers the oceans backs up into them.

I was thinking more a 10-50 foot diameter pipe going into the river, not redirecting the entire river.

Most water ends up flowing into the ocean anyway. You don't want to screw with the stream but if you can sip some of it out and store it that could add up to a lot over time.

But it sounds like that's already being done with the aquaducts as pointed out and it's still not enough. Seems mind boggling to me that people can use that much water even collectively though to the point of running a river dry. I guess if everybody is watering their lawn/garden/large crops, filling up pools, putting out fires etc it adds up fast.

Perhaps indoor hydroponics crops are the future, the water is more contained and less of it evaporates/runs off. Bonus is keeping pests out without chemicals.