5 ms·

Mass control over access to drinking water.

by sprkwd 4y ago

pcdoodle 4y ago
Frightening indeed. Care to share any more insights?
- verdverm 4y ago
  it is a localized problem to places where there are too many people and agriculture for the available water budget, especially as you look out and fear climate change. I'm not as worried, believing in the spirit of human ingenuity. Desalination and piping it from the oceans (like we do for oil) will be fine. We just need the wherewithal to implement real solutions and invest in the sciences rather than regulate behavior.
- jazzyjackson 4y ago
  see also "new world water" by Mos Def
  - Normille 4y ago
    I keep reading about these future "water wars" and can't help but wonder how much of the prediction is realistic and how much is coloured by Silicon Valley types extrapolating globally from what they see locally. I live in northern Britain and, even at the height of summer, it's rare for a week to go by, without at least one day of heavy rainfall. Maybe it's me who's extrapolating globally from what I'm seeing locally. But I don't get any sense at all that the world is getting drier. Still, if the 'water wars' predictions do turn out to be true, maybe we'll have an interesting reversal of fortunes in the future, where damp, wet, soggy countries become fabulously wealthy, like the OPEC nations today --through exporting tankers full of their spare rainwater. Let's see how the Arabs like queuing up at the pumps to fill their drinking vessels at £2/litre!
    - saberdancer 4y ago
      Water falls from the sky. 70% of the planet is salt water. Salt water can be desalinated. I also think that water wars seem unlikely as if you have energy, you can get water.
      - asdff 4y ago
        Just because water is nearby doesn't mean you have infrastructure to make use of it. For example the great lakes region has had droughts before that affected agriculture. This might surprise you because on a map, there is a huge body of freshwater to draw from nearby. However, to draw from that body, one needs to build pumping infrastructure sufficient to draw from it and to have this infrastructure go to where it needs to be, likely inland uphill from the great lakes requiring more pumping and reservoirs and other infrastructure. Reservoirs in particular are often dependent on having good natural conditions. It also needs to be overbuilt such to work in a drought, and therefore most of its costs will be wasted in times when its not needed. All of this costs money and political will to improve things, both of which the great lakes region is short of in recent history.
    - Ekaros 4y ago
      I think we are starting to see first conflicts. But it is not the type of war that we fight over oil or gas. But instead very localised conflicts over rivers. Think of Nile and Kashmir. There is no point of conquering other countries for lakes or ground water. The transport is just too expensive.
    - WickyNilliams 4y ago
      The Met Office says England has had its dryest July since 1935, and some parts of England the dryest on record [1] Whilst we havent had wars, there have certainly been water conflicts even _within_ the UK. Consider Treweryn [2]. This was a town rich with Welsh culture and the Welsh language. It was flooded to become a reservoir to supply water to Liverpool in 1965. The decision to flood the town was made by UK Parliament, without gaining consent from Wales. The plans triggered mass opposition and protests, but they were ignored and the plan went ahead. The story of Treweryn acts as a beacon for the Welsh independence movement to this day [3] Interestingly, the remains of the town became visible for the first time in decades a few years ago. Possibly a further sign of things getting dryer. [1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/driest-july-in-england-since-1935 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weat... [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llyn_Celyn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llyn_Celyn [3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofiwch_Dryweryn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofiwch_Dryweryn
tmaly 4y ago
You ever see the movie Solarbabies that came out in 1986?

Mass control over access to drinking water.

by sprkwd 4y ago

Mass control over access to drinking water.

pcdoodle 4y ago

Frightening indeed. Care to share any more insights?

verdverm 4y ago
it is a localized problem to places where there are too many people and agriculture for the available water budget, especially as you look out and fear climate change. I'm not as worried, believing in the spirit of human ingenuity. Desalination and piping it from the oceans (like we do for oil) will be fine. We just need the wherewithal to implement real solutions and invest in the sciences rather than regulate behavior.
jazzyjackson 4y ago
see also "new world water" by Mos Def
- Normille 4y ago
  I keep reading about these future "water wars" and can't help but wonder how much of the prediction is realistic and how much is coloured by Silicon Valley types extrapolating globally from what they see locally. I live in northern Britain and, even at the height of summer, it's rare for a week to go by, without at least one day of heavy rainfall. Maybe it's me who's extrapolating globally from what I'm seeing locally. But I don't get any sense at all that the world is getting drier. Still, if the 'water wars' predictions do turn out to be true, maybe we'll have an interesting reversal of fortunes in the future, where damp, wet, soggy countries become fabulously wealthy, like the OPEC nations today --through exporting tankers full of their spare rainwater. Let's see how the Arabs like queuing up at the pumps to fill their drinking vessels at £2/litre!
  - saberdancer 4y ago
    Water falls from the sky. 70% of the planet is salt water. Salt water can be desalinated. I also think that water wars seem unlikely as if you have energy, you can get water.
    - asdff 4y ago
      Just because water is nearby doesn't mean you have infrastructure to make use of it. For example the great lakes region has had droughts before that affected agriculture. This might surprise you because on a map, there is a huge body of freshwater to draw from nearby. However, to draw from that body, one needs to build pumping infrastructure sufficient to draw from it and to have this infrastructure go to where it needs to be, likely inland uphill from the great lakes requiring more pumping and reservoirs and other infrastructure. Reservoirs in particular are often dependent on having good natural conditions. It also needs to be overbuilt such to work in a drought, and therefore most of its costs will be wasted in times when its not needed. All of this costs money and political will to improve things, both of which the great lakes region is short of in recent history.
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    I think we are starting to see first conflicts. But it is not the type of war that we fight over oil or gas. But instead very localised conflicts over rivers. Think of Nile and Kashmir. There is no point of conquering other countries for lakes or ground water. The transport is just too expensive.
  - WickyNilliams 4y ago
    The Met Office says England has had its dryest July since 1935, and some parts of England the dryest on record [1] Whilst we havent had wars, there have certainly been water conflicts even _within_ the UK. Consider Treweryn [2]. This was a town rich with Welsh culture and the Welsh language. It was flooded to become a reservoir to supply water to Liverpool in 1965. The decision to flood the town was made by UK Parliament, without gaining consent from Wales. The plans triggered mass opposition and protests, but they were ignored and the plan went ahead. The story of Treweryn acts as a beacon for the Welsh independence movement to this day [3] Interestingly, the remains of the town became visible for the first time in decades a few years ago. Possibly a further sign of things getting dryer. [1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/driest-july-in-england-since-1935 https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weat... [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llyn_Celyn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llyn_Celyn [3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofiwch_Dryweryn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofiwch_Dryweryn

tmaly 4y ago

You ever see the movie Solarbabies that came out in 1986?