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>Why must drinking water be a for-profit enterprise? It's about sustainability, not profit. Of course wealthy nations can (literally) burn enough money turning

>Why must drinking water be a for-profit enterprise? It's about sustainability, not profit. Of course wealthy nations can (literally) burn enough money turning fossil fuels into water to make their population comfortable and happy. But most can't, and the externalized cost is unimaginable at a global scale.

mcpackieh 3y ago
Clean energy exists, it would require more subsidies but so what?
- dylan604 3y ago
  Wind powered desalination seems like a perfect combo seeing as it's pretty much always windy on the coast. California's May gray and June gloom makes me thing would keep solar from my first option.
  - bsder 3y ago
    HVDC links to El Centro and Arizona would make solar just fine for Southern California.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- ramesh31 3y ago
  >Clean energy exists, it would require more subsidies but so what? Easy to say when your government can afford the subsidies. But the vast majority of freshwater-insecure nations will never be able to do this without a 10x technological breakthrough.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    Well if they can't afford to even subsidize fresh water, their choices are move or die. What's your point then?
    - ramesh31 3y ago
      > Well if they can't afford to even subsidize fresh water, their choices are move or die. Would you tell that to the Israelis if they couldn't afford it? The point is that yes, the original article is correct. Current desalination tech is woefully inadequate to replace fresh water surface reserves without putting a massive burden on the society using it.
      - mcpackieh 3y ago
        > Would you tell that to the Israelis if they couldn't afford it? Yes? What else would I tell them, to pray for a miracle? If they don't have enough water, can't get water profitably and cannot even afford to subsidize water, what else is there to do besides find somewhere new to live? What would you tell them? > without putting a massive burden on the society using it. Yeah, in some places it will be necessary to subsidize water, placing a burden on society. But considering we're talking about water, that's obviously a burden that needs to be borne. Acquisition of water comes before literally anything else a population might want to spend money on. And if there isn't enough money around to acquire sufficient quantities of water, there isn't enough money to live there at all. Israel has a strong enough economy, they can afford to make desalination work for them. You objected that they have to subsidize the desalination, but I don't see any sense in that objection. If that's what they need to do, that's what they'll do.

mcpackieh 3y ago

Clean energy exists, it would require more subsidies but so what?

dylan604 3y ago
Wind powered desalination seems like a perfect combo seeing as it's pretty much always windy on the coast. California's May gray and June gloom makes me thing would keep solar from my first option.
- bsder 3y ago
  HVDC links to El Centro and Arizona would make solar just fine for Southern California.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
ramesh31 3y ago
>Clean energy exists, it would require more subsidies but so what? Easy to say when your government can afford the subsidies. But the vast majority of freshwater-insecure nations will never be able to do this without a 10x technological breakthrough.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  Well if they can't afford to even subsidize fresh water, their choices are move or die. What's your point then?
  - ramesh31 3y ago
    > Well if they can't afford to even subsidize fresh water, their choices are move or die. Would you tell that to the Israelis if they couldn't afford it? The point is that yes, the original article is correct. Current desalination tech is woefully inadequate to replace fresh water surface reserves without putting a massive burden on the society using it.
    - mcpackieh 3y ago
      > Would you tell that to the Israelis if they couldn't afford it? Yes? What else would I tell them, to pray for a miracle? If they don't have enough water, can't get water profitably and cannot even afford to subsidize water, what else is there to do besides find somewhere new to live? What would you tell them? > without putting a massive burden on the society using it. Yeah, in some places it will be necessary to subsidize water, placing a burden on society. But considering we're talking about water, that's obviously a burden that needs to be borne. Acquisition of water comes before literally anything else a population might want to spend money on. And if there isn't enough money around to acquire sufficient quantities of water, there isn't enough money to live there at all. Israel has a strong enough economy, they can afford to make desalination work for them. You objected that they have to subsidize the desalination, but I don't see any sense in that objection. If that's what they need to do, that's what they'll do.