7 ms·
People living in the desert put in wells like everywhere else that's rural, at least those who can afford it do. In my experience the desert isn't particularly
by newnewpdro 7y ago
People living in the desert put in wells like everywhere else that's rural, at least those who can afford it do.
In my experience the desert isn't particularly unsuitable for human occupation. Barren wasteland deserts of endless dunes from the movies like the Sahara are not the normal. Certainly not in the USA.
What I find is the desert tends to be relatively undesirable land so it's very affordable and abundant. This has the effect of selecting for poor residents who want land of their own but can't afford anything better than desert property, and often can't afford to install a well once they've bought the land. What usually happens is their water gets hauled either by themselves or by a commercial service from the nearest city water supply, it's mostly an inconvenience.
Having a system that can directly take atmospheric air and solar energy to produce drinking water on-site for substantially less cost than installing a well would be life-changing for many of these folks. At the very least it would improve their water security since relying on an automobile for your only source of potable water isn't exactly ideal. Presumably one doesn't even need a permit from the county to start extracting water from the air with a device the size of a microwave. This is a huge difference in barrier to entry, especially for the poor.
I'm guessing you have no desert experience based on your comment. I live in the Mojave and it's actually quite nice for most of the year. There's such an abundant aquifer near me that Cadiz, Inc. is embroiled in controversy over plans to bottle and sell its water. [0]
Here's some food for thought: It's often claimed that mosquitoes have killed more than half the people who have ever lived. Guess what isn't a problem in the desert? Mosquitoes. I recently visited northern MN and frankly find my desert land far more suitable to human occupation than that mosquito infested swamp.
[0] https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-trump-cadiz-20170404-story.html https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-trump-cadiz-201704...
- liability 7y agoIf you have a well, or the infrastructure to ship in water, then you're not in the situation I was talking about, are you? I didn't say people shouldn't live in deserts. I said that people shouldn't live in deserts if they cannot acquire safe drinking water. Either you figure out a way to get water, or you move to someplace where you can (perhaps another location in that same desert, but closer to a road that water trucks can navigate?) Such is the tyranny of our basic biological needs.
- newnewpdro 7y agoExcept it's rather precarious to rely on hauling water with automobiles. If this contraption works and is reliable it effectively turns all desert land into land w/potable water. Why should we disregard this progress and what it enables?
- liability 7y ago(Just so we're clear, it almost certainly won't work, just as it hasn't all the other times it's been proposed.) If it works for you and you're paying for it, then more power to you. If it works and the rest of society is paying for it, subsidizing your lifestyle, then it becomes reasonable to figure out what the most efficient method of ensuring you have access to water is. If funding the installation of these devices is more efficient than relocating you, then great. However if relocating your community makes more ecological and economic sense, then you should either find a way to support yourself, or accept relocation.
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago> I recently visited northern MN and frankly find my desert land far more suitable to human occupation than that mosquito infested swamp. I suspect, though, that you're not trying to grow your own food. If you were, you might find the desert to be less suitable to human occupation than Minnesota.
- cr0sh 7y ago> I suspect, though, that you're not trying to grow your own food. If you were, you might find the desert to be less suitable to human occupation than Minnesota. Ahem - Yuma. Where your salad probably came from (maybe with some food-borne illness thrown in, but that's another discussion)...
- newnewpdro 7y agoNot sure why you're being downvoted, there definitely is a lot of agriculture in the California and Arizona deserts.
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoSure. newnewpdro said Cadiz in the Mojave, though. They grow something there (pistachios?), but in very small quantity. It's not Yuma. They don't have the Colorado as a water source there. Oddly enough, I go to Cadiz (California) on vacation sometimes...
- newnewpdro 7y ago> Oddly enough, I go to Cadiz (California) on vacation sometimes... What do you do there for vacation? I wasn't aware there was anything out there other than some industry like the evaporative ponds on the wikipedia page...
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoWatch trains. Be alone. (Hey, I'm an introvert.) And there's some kind of orchards, though they aren't very big.
- rootw0rm 7y agoI currently live in the high desert in southern Cali. don't have a well yet. I truck in all my water. since I don't have a well, the local electricity co-op won't connect my property. since I don't have power, I don't have a street address. I've got a decent solar setup that I've put together though. a product like this would definitely make life easier. we make up for the lack of mosquitoes here with an impressive abundance of flies...