2 ms·
I'm always a bit dubious when claims are made that this or that "requires" a certain amount of water to do. What kind of water, and what happens to it afterward
by noonespecial 7y ago
I'm always a bit dubious when claims are made that this or that "requires" a certain amount of water to do. What kind of water, and what happens to it afterwards? It doesn't just vanish.
Water is just moved from a useful (to humans) state to a less useful state. The bottom of which is seawater. Seawater is still useful, it just takes more energy to do it. There's an unlimited supply of less useful water.
All that to say that once we use the easy water, that cotton shirt is just going to cost a lot more.
- criley2 7y agoTechnically electrolysis separates water into basically air so it's not simply parts of the water cycle going from seawater, to clouds, to rain, to fresh, to aquifer, etc. And I imagine in the wonderful world of industrial chemistry and materials manufacturing that H20 is used in a number of chemical reactions whose result is not returning an identical amount of H20. However I do believe that the vast majority of water is probably returned to the water cycle in some form. I think the big thing here to discuss should be power cost, not water use. How much power did it take to make that t-shirt, including the entire power cost of the water and other materials required. As you say, that power cost will increase dramatically when we're desalinating instead of pumping.
- tpm 7y agoAnd also some people won't have enough water to drink, cook, wash etc. Yes there is an unlimited supply of seawater, and there are also a lot of places far away from seashore in regions with scarce water where people live, and once that scarce water is used it's not a very livable place anymore. See also the history of the Aral Sea, nearly completely disappeared because of Soviet cotton industry.