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Came here to ask if this was a zero sum game (verbatim, actually). So, thanks for this. Given how much human conflict has erupted over access to rivers and oth
by dbatten 9y ago
Came here to ask if this was a zero sum game (verbatim, actually). So, thanks for this.
Given how much human conflict has erupted over access to rivers and other water sources, I can't imagine it will go well if a lot of countries start to do this at scale...
It's also fascinating how we muck-up water management in seemingly contradictory ways. I live in a temperate climate with a good amount of rainfall, but my town is already jockeying with its neighbors for the last remaining access points on the local water reservoir. Meanwhile, every time we get a heavy downpour, local creeks overflow due to excessive runoff from parking lots and what not and end up flooding all kinds of places (the local mall floods pretty much once every year or two, it seems). Fascinating how we can have not enough fresh water and too much fresh water all at the same time.
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.
- gfo 9y agoI'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of this immediately after reading the article. You mentioned another point that's worth investigating with this technology - some places see excessive rainfall to the point where it disrupts populated areas. Perhaps in the long-term we can learn if there are specific areas these systems tend to draw from and determine how weather patterns contribute to that. Eventually, we may be able to use these systems in a way that takes just the right amount of excessive rainfall from areas where it's becoming a nuisance and evenly distributing them to areas where water is scarce. One could hope that countries experimenting with this across the globe would be willing to find ways to make that happen, although that could create huge dependency chains that quickly fall apart as soon as one country backs out suddenly.