"Will we run out of fresh water in the 21st century?"

Delta4Embassy

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Will we run out of fresh water in the 21st century? | The Fu Foundation School of Engineering & Applied Science - Columbia University

Fresh water supplies are going to run out, so what can we do to make the taps keep running? - Nature - Environment - The Independent

America Is Still Running Out of Fresh Water - NationalJournal.com

"In the United States, the demand for fresh water will exceed the supply by 40 percent by the year 2030, according to a State Department report last year. Water scarcity results from short- and long-term droughts and human activity.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, at least 36 states are faced with local or regional water shortages."


Before we run out of oil or natural gas, we'll run out of fresh water. Can start dealing with it now and avoid such a calamity, or pretend other things are more important. But as events in West Virginia show, just because you have fresh water today doesn't mean you will tomorrow.
 
In the geological journals of the AGU and GSA, this has been a subject for at least two decades. And has been ignored by policy makers for that long. Until there is no clean water coming out of the fawcets, it will continue to be ignored. As a nation, we are amazingly shortsighted as to what our needs are.
 
So where is all the water going?

We have oceans of water that can easily be turned into potable drinking water.

Don't worry we won't die of thirst any time soon
 
Will we run out of fresh water in the 21st century? | The Fu Foundation School of Engineering & Applied Science - Columbia University

Fresh water supplies are going to run out, so what can we do to make the taps keep running? - Nature - Environment - The Independent

America Is Still Running Out of Fresh Water - NationalJournal.com

"In the United States, the demand for fresh water will exceed the supply by 40 percent by the year 2030, according to a State Department report last year. Water scarcity results from short- and long-term droughts and human activity.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, at least 36 states are faced with local or regional water shortages."


Before we run out of oil or natural gas, we'll run out of fresh water. Can start dealing with it now and avoid such a calamity, or pretend other things are more important. But as events in West Virginia show, just because you have fresh water today doesn't mean you will tomorrow.

Fresh water? The water on earth is as nearly as old as the earth itself. No new water is being made. It isn't really fresh since H2O is constantly recycled often taking form as ice, steam or mist and liquid. Purification and filtration plants reduce the solid waste material in municipal water supplies and add chemicals like Chlorine and flouride to kill bacteria. The result is "clean" water.

Before man developed technology for purificaton, reverse osmosis and distillation people depended on natural filtration and rain for clean water. Then industry came along and fouled up the cycle with smoke belching smoke stacks and clandestine dumping of waste in our rivers. Fracking doesn't help the crisis either! The resultant pollution has likely caused many serious health problems among people and animals as well. That "clean" water isn't so clean after all.

Reclamation of water perceived as "wasted" seems to be the issue at hand. However,as long as the polar icecaps exist, fresh water is obtainable from either anarctica or the arctic.
Not only is that scenario feasible, so is the one posited by Spiderman:eek:cean water can be converted to potable water and piped to drought stricken areas.
 
So where is all the water going?

We have oceans of water that can easily be turned into potable drinking water.

Don't worry we won't die of thirst any time soon

Easily? Not quite. It's an expensive process. And seeing as oceans are only available along the coasts, relying on sea water to provide our drinking needs would entail substantial additional costs from transportation. The real problem isn't supply, per se. But the consequences of needing to resort to artificial means to provide potable water.
 
The market'll see to it.
No worries.
Just keep the government out of it.
 
Somehow I don't see nearly total dependence on drinking water for profit being part of a strong economic model.

There is precisely one cause. Too many people. And the one solution is to reduce the population. But that's not likely to happen.
 
So your one solution isn't going to happen. Humanity will suffer a mass die-off then?
 
Once upon a time a (now deceased) Alaska Governor proposed building a 36" WATER pipeline from his (note male gender, so you Palin-haters piss off) to California.

Those who ridiculed it at the time still ridicule it - but now because he didn't propose a 72" line.

Only this time Alaska is not likely to go along with the program. Once upon a time they said "Alaskan oil for Alaskans - let the bastards freeze in the dark". Now it's "Alaskan water for Alaskans - or for the Asians who are willing to buy it by the quart". Yes, at least one business now exists solely to ship Alaskan LAKE water to Japan, Korea and China.

They got the money to pay for it.

California?

Not so much.
 
B-B-But Alaskans are dumb hicks!

Alaska doesn't have anything the rest of the world needs! Ha!
 
My father drilled over 1,000 water wells in the Illinois Basin from the 40's to the 60's. Even then he said water will become more precious than oil and gas.

you can count on that

when the SHTF and the pumps that run the water and sewer stop

watch how fast things go to hell in a hand basket
 
In the geological journals of the AGU and GSA, this has been a subject for at least two decades. And has been ignored by policy makers for that long. Until there is no clean water coming out of the fawcets, it will continue to be ignored. As a nation, we are amazingly shortsighted as to what our needs are.





In the southwest it has been a subject since the 1920's.
 
B-B-But Alaskans are dumb hicks!

Alaska doesn't have anything the rest of the world needs! Ha!

...and they're Socialists
How could they run a business?

Try a web search on "Eklutna bottled water" and see how many businesses appear. Zero of them government owned (though one by a native corporation which is a kinda-sorta "government" in a tribal kind of way).
 
B-B-But Alaskans are dumb hicks!

Alaska doesn't have anything the rest of the world needs! Ha!

...and they're Socialists
How could they run a business?

Try a web search on "Eklutna bottled water" and see how many businesses appear. Zero of them government owned (though one by a native corporation which is a kinda-sorta "government" in a tribal kind of way).

Try a web search on the Alaska Permanent Fund to find out the depth of their Socialism tendencies.
How will the Alaskan people ever learn to stand on their own two feet?
 
Somehow I don't see nearly total dependence on drinking water for profit being part of a strong economic model.

There is precisely one cause. Too many people. And the one solution is to reduce the population. But that's not likely to happen.

Only because you seem to think that water would respond to markets differently than a thousand other things.

It won’t.

If it is too expensive then more competition comes into the fold decreasing the price. That is how markets work and considering that water is something that is going to be need in MASS quantities I am supremely confident that such things can be taken care of. The sole purview of the government in such a case would be to ensure that a monopoly over something such as water was never attained. THAT would create a bad situation.

Food, for the most part, is a completely market driven product. We do have government interference in the case of farm subsidies and the like but for the most part it is a good example of a necessity that is delivered through market forces. I find it likely that the government would have the same asinine subsidies for ‘water producers’ as well though if it came to it. I oppose all of that garbage though.
 

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