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This would be a tremendous benefit if it can be deployed at scale, which I'm sure it eventually could. HOWEVER, This solution fails to address the excessive amo

This would be a tremendous benefit if it can be deployed at scale, which I'm sure it eventually could. HOWEVER, This solution fails to address the excessive amount of water consumption required to raise these cows. fresh, clean water is already becoming a major global crisis. The simplest and most effective solution to ensuring our survival as a species remains switching to a plant-based diet. Too many people adopt a cow-first mentality when we should be adopting a humanity-first mentality. The future is Vegan!

chrisco255 7y ago
There is no evidence of a fresh water shortage. We had the wettest year in 125 years in the U.S. this year. Where is this coming from? Water usage is a local issue, not a global one. Certain local communities have to watch water usage depending on rainfall. Certain ones do not. Either way, cows drink water and pee water. Water goes through the same cycle it has for billions of years. The U.S. used to have a wild bison population as great as the present cattle population. Same digestive system. Beef is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, and we evolved to eat meat, and have been eating it for 2.5 million years. I'm all about sustainable agriculture. I'm not all about faddish diets and eco-fascism.
- petersellers 7y ago
  > There is no evidence of a fresh water shortage. The UN disagrees. [1] > We had the wettest year in 125 years in the U.S. this year. Surely you're not using a one time event to argue against the scientific consensus of climate change? > Beef is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, and we evolved to eat meat, and have been eating it for 2.5 million years. What does this have to do with the water consumption used in raising cows? [1] - https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/climate-change/ https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/climate-change/
  - chrisco255 7y ago
    Surely you're not arguing that the amount of water on the planet has decreased? Or that global annual rainfall has reduced? EPA shows that annual precipitation has consistently increased over the past century, so the water scare is a bad play: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-precipitation https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica...
    - glenvdb 7y ago
      The overall amount of water on the planet and the annual rainfall isn't the same thing as water availability.
    - mtgx 7y ago
      Climate change effects were always primarily about local disruptions: i.e. stuff like certain countries agriculture being hit hard by dry seasons while others would see tons of rain and floods when they didn't before. You don't think there is significant regional impact if say the Nile dries up but most of that water then shows up say in Greece? It almost doesn't matter that "on balance" the water quantity is the same globally. Think of it through this more extreme analogy - what if the US became the new ice covered Greenland while Siberia became a tropical jungle?
    - petersellers 7y ago
      > Surely you're not arguing that the amount of water on the planet has decreased? Or that global annual rainfall has reduced? No, I'm arguing that you are conflating precipitation with water accessibility.
      - vinceguidry 7y ago
        Are you saying there's a different baseline metric we could be using? If we're going to be making climate-change related arguments about water, we need a climate-based metric to show that it's climate change causing water accessibility issues. Without such a metric, then it's easier to show that local political issues are what's causing these issues.
  - taneq 7y ago
    > Surely you're not using a one time event to argue against the scientific consensus of climate change? "But it's cold in my office, global warming debunked!"
- ssijak 7y ago
  But free roaming bison drinking water is different than cows in CAFOs where large amounts of waters are heavily polluted. Which sounds also like a local problem to me but still is a big problem to some comunities.
vasco 7y ago
Water is only an energy problem. The world has more water than we'd never know what to do with, the issue is taking the salt out of it. But that is "merely" an energy issue due to cost, as soon as we have cheap solar, the problem is solved, and in the meantime, we pay more, but we won't all die of thirst on big blue.
haisch 7y ago
Since when should our diet be based on environmental concerns and not nutritional value? Feeding people an incomplete diet sounds like a lousy way to prevent climate catastrophe.

chrisco255 7y ago

There is no evidence of a fresh water shortage. We had the wettest year in 125 years in the U.S. this year. Where is this coming from? Water usage is a local issue, not a global one. Certain local communities have to watch water usage depending on rainfall. Certain ones do not. Either way, cows drink water and pee water. Water goes through the same cycle it has for billions of years. The U.S. used to have a wild bison population as great as the present cattle population. Same digestive system. Beef is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, and we evolved to eat meat, and have been eating it for 2.5 million years. I'm all about sustainable agriculture. I'm not all about faddish diets and eco-fascism.

petersellers 7y ago
> There is no evidence of a fresh water shortage. The UN disagrees. [1] > We had the wettest year in 125 years in the U.S. this year. Surely you're not using a one time event to argue against the scientific consensus of climate change? > Beef is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, and we evolved to eat meat, and have been eating it for 2.5 million years. What does this have to do with the water consumption used in raising cows? [1] - https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/climate-change/ https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/climate-change/
- chrisco255 7y ago
  Surely you're not arguing that the amount of water on the planet has decreased? Or that global annual rainfall has reduced? EPA shows that annual precipitation has consistently increased over the past century, so the water scare is a bad play: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-precipitation https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica...
  - glenvdb 7y ago
    The overall amount of water on the planet and the annual rainfall isn't the same thing as water availability.
  - mtgx 7y ago
    Climate change effects were always primarily about local disruptions: i.e. stuff like certain countries agriculture being hit hard by dry seasons while others would see tons of rain and floods when they didn't before. You don't think there is significant regional impact if say the Nile dries up but most of that water then shows up say in Greece? It almost doesn't matter that "on balance" the water quantity is the same globally. Think of it through this more extreme analogy - what if the US became the new ice covered Greenland while Siberia became a tropical jungle?
  - petersellers 7y ago
    > Surely you're not arguing that the amount of water on the planet has decreased? Or that global annual rainfall has reduced? No, I'm arguing that you are conflating precipitation with water accessibility.
    - vinceguidry 7y ago
      Are you saying there's a different baseline metric we could be using? If we're going to be making climate-change related arguments about water, we need a climate-based metric to show that it's climate change causing water accessibility issues. Without such a metric, then it's easier to show that local political issues are what's causing these issues.
- taneq 7y ago
  > Surely you're not using a one time event to argue against the scientific consensus of climate change? "But it's cold in my office, global warming debunked!"
ssijak 7y ago
But free roaming bison drinking water is different than cows in CAFOs where large amounts of waters are heavily polluted. Which sounds also like a local problem to me but still is a big problem to some comunities.

vasco 7y ago

Water is only an energy problem. The world has more water than we'd never know what to do with, the issue is taking the salt out of it. But that is "merely" an energy issue due to cost, as soon as we have cheap solar, the problem is solved, and in the meantime, we pay more, but we won't all die of thirst on big blue.

haisch 7y ago

Since when should our diet be based on environmental concerns and not nutritional value? Feeding people an incomplete diet sounds like a lousy way to prevent climate catastrophe.