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We're going to need a lot of desalination plants powered by clean energy.
by pier25 3y ago
We're going to need a lot of desalination plants powered by clean energy.
- linuxlizard 3y agoWhen water gets in short enough supply, we will burn coal, garbage, tires, anything to power desalination plants.
- RC_ITR 3y agoOr (at least in the US), we will simply stop doing things like growing alfalfa in the desert to feed cows being raised in Texas. Sure beef will be a little more expensive but… You’re actually right. We’ll probably burn garbage and radio hosts will call people against burning garbage effeminate names.
- bombcar 3y agoBurning garbage may be one of the best things you can do with garbage - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/climate/sweden-garbage-used-for-fuel.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/climate/sweden-garbage-us... As you can set it up to burn very hot and have all sorts of scrubbers on the outcomes.
- RC_ITR 3y agoBurning anything is never the right answer in a world of climate change. We are scrambling to find ways to capture atmospheric carbon and store it underground and burning garbage is literally the opposite of that.
- bombcar 3y agoIf handling waste and burying it costs X carbon, and burning it creates Y carbon, and Y is less than X, then burning is better than burying. You'd have to do the math, it's not manifestly obvious that it's not the case (especially once you consider all the transportation involved in sending waste around the country and across the ocean).
- RC_ITR 3y agoOn first principles, there's no reason that the cost of transporting trash to the incinerator is any less carbon intensive than transporting trash to a landfill. Maybe people prefer incinerators in their community over landfills in their community (unclear), but if that's the case, that's a policy decision and not one that seeks to minimize carbon emissions.
- bombcar 3y agoLots of recycling (has) been transported across the ocean to China. It's likely that landfill are the way to go in many cases, but people don't like them.
- tppiotrowski 3y agoDesalination cones should work in tropical climates. [1] http://www.watercone.com/product.html http://www.watercone.com/product.html
- pier25 3y agoThis is brilliant. The same designer made this Terracooler which is also a fascinating idea. http://www.terracooler.org/ http://www.terracooler.org/
- timerol 3y agoDoes this exist? The product page mentions that the planned price is "below € 20", but the news page doesn't have anything newer than 2007
- kzrdude 3y agoThat's a damn good argument for making sure we don't go into overpopulation.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mistrial9 3y agothere is a second side to this systems-diagram, which is roughly.. conservation, efficiency, waste-reduction
- algoatecorn 3y agospoken like a true idealist
- pier25 3y agoYes but when glaciers melt completely and water deposits are empty we will struggle even with extremely efficient water systems.
- Dennip 3y agoIIRC These can have thier own host of problems because the 'brine' byproduct doesn't mix well back into the ocean and can settle/pool and create marine dead zones. Although suppose that will be less of a priority if people are thirsty.
- piyh 3y agoPut them down stream of farm runoff so everything is already dead
- dghlsakjg 3y agoFarm runoff normally has the opposite effect, providing too many nutrients causing things like algal blooms.
- TeMPOraL 3y agoSo the brine and the farm runoff will cancel out and the result will be just right for nature. Right? Right?
- EvanAnderson 3y agoAlways a good time for[0]: Skinner: Well, I was wrong; the lizards are a godsend. Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards? Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards. Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse? Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas! Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death. [0] https://youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc https://youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc
- swayvil 3y agoBuild cities from stabilized salt. Bricks, grout, pourable slabs.
- 3y ago
- wahnfrieden 3y agoLike saying we need to recycle more to fix the landfill problem. Recycling fixes nothing with over consumption.
- time_to_smile 3y agoProblem is that everything needs X powered by clean energy, which means we need both a lot more clean energy and, if we want to slow/stop climate change, to massively reduce our use of fossil fuels... which requires a lot more clean energy. We also, so far, globally have not shown any evidence of replacing fossil fuels with green energy, only supplementing them.
- acidburnNSA 3y agoDirect carbon capture, electric vehicles, electric building heat, electric industrial process heat, and desalination are all massive new sectors that need to be powered that are barely on the radar of the existing electric grid. And we need more power to let emerging economies rise out of poverty, where having electric pumps and washing are truely life-changing from a quality of life perspective. So we need about 5x more total energy while also shifting from 80% fossil to 0% fossil. This is why I advocate for nuclear while most people advocate for wind and solar. We need advocates for all clean energy. Nuclear can actually use its own direct low-carbon heat to help with buildings (district heat) and industry, and that heat can also help in desal in some cases, though RO is the preference these days and doesn't really need that much heat input.
- anigbrowl 3y agoTidal power is a thing. Tidal power for ocean desalination eliminates the need for transmission infrastructure. Desalination has so many obvious upsides that I'm increasingly suspicious of the people insisting it's too difficult to contemplate, none of whom contribute anything of value to the discussion.