3 ms·
Demand for drinking water is inelastic. That's a tiny fraction of a fraction of usage. The majority of fresh water is used for farming, as coolants, solvents, r
by nshepperd 7y ago
Demand for drinking water is inelastic. That's a tiny fraction of a fraction of usage. The majority of fresh water is used for farming, as coolants, solvents, reagents in industrial processes. These uses certainly do have alternatives, whether switching to alternative crops, developing more efficient manufacturing methods, building desalination plants. If that happened there would be more water available for essential use cases like drinking.
- michaelscott 7y agoAbsolutely, this is the ideal. All the examples you mentioned are what I would class in my previous comment as non-essential use cases (as in there are alternatives). Certain alternatives such as desalination and water reclamation in industrial processes don't change the elasticity of water economically; it's still required. They just increase the amount available in the pool (excuse the pun) and even then these too bear cost for implementation and maintenance and would not be provided free (which makes sense).