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Sam Altman: "it's remarkable how many other problems reduce to the energy problem" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239063 https://news.ycombinator.com/ite

by claar 11y ago

Sam Altman: "it's remarkable how many other problems reduce to the energy problem" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239063 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239063 I hope in 100 years, a "water shortage" on earth will be a silly concept, as you can always just pull more from the ocean.

melling 11y ago
You don't think there will be consequences to massive desalination? http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-impacts-of-relying-on-desalination/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-impacts-of-rel...
- CHY872 11y ago
  There won't be. Scientific intuition and the available studies suggest that apart from perhaps in the immediate vicinity of where they pump the salt back in, the effect is minimal, no matter how much desalination you perform. It's what you'd expect, in fact. The state of California (if my back of envelope calculations are correct) uses in total about 66 cubic kilometres of water each year. If you produced California's entire water supply by desalination, this would be akin to removing 1/10,000,000 of the Pacific's water every year. It's a miniscule amount, and is of order of magnitude the same as not letting the Colorado reach the ocean.
  - markkat 11y ago
    I've wondered if cargo ships couldn't use the very salty water as a source of electricity (ion gradient), slowly draining the saltier water as it traverses the ocean.
    - cpeterso 11y ago
      Or could the very salty water be used, somehow, for renewable energy storage for off-peak hours?
  - melling 11y ago
    I posted a reference because I didn't expect you to take my word for it. Perhaps you can do the same?
    - CHY872 11y ago
      Sure dude http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20633919 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20633919 Summary: Can be bad, but effects localised to tens of metres when done properly (i.e good flushing).
      - melling 11y ago
        That's the summary you chose. Here's what else is said: "It must be noted that a large proportion of the published work is descriptive and provides little quantitative data that we could assess independently. Many of the monitoring studies lacked sufficient detail with respect to study design and statistical analyses, making conclusive interpretation of results difficult." "It is clear that greater clarity and improved methodologies are required in the assessment of the ecological impacts of desalination"
  - rezistik 11y ago
    In addition, the icecaps are melting rapidly which is reducing the ratio on its own. If anything siphoning off water from the ocean and moving it inland significantly helps with the issue of rising sea levels.
    - nosuchthing 11y ago
      Maybe it would be best to leave the melted freshwater in the ocean to offset the acidification [1] until we can address that problem. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification

by claar 11y ago

melling 11y ago

You don't think there will be consequences to massive desalination? http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-impacts-of-relying-on-desalination/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-impacts-of-rel...

CHY872 11y ago
There won't be. Scientific intuition and the available studies suggest that apart from perhaps in the immediate vicinity of where they pump the salt back in, the effect is minimal, no matter how much desalination you perform. It's what you'd expect, in fact. The state of California (if my back of envelope calculations are correct) uses in total about 66 cubic kilometres of water each year. If you produced California's entire water supply by desalination, this would be akin to removing 1/10,000,000 of the Pacific's water every year. It's a miniscule amount, and is of order of magnitude the same as not letting the Colorado reach the ocean.
- markkat 11y ago
  I've wondered if cargo ships couldn't use the very salty water as a source of electricity (ion gradient), slowly draining the saltier water as it traverses the ocean.
  - cpeterso 11y ago
    Or could the very salty water be used, somehow, for renewable energy storage for off-peak hours?
- melling 11y ago
  I posted a reference because I didn't expect you to take my word for it. Perhaps you can do the same?
  - CHY872 11y ago
    Sure dude http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20633919 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20633919 Summary: Can be bad, but effects localised to tens of metres when done properly (i.e good flushing).
    - melling 11y ago
      That's the summary you chose. Here's what else is said: "It must be noted that a large proportion of the published work is descriptive and provides little quantitative data that we could assess independently. Many of the monitoring studies lacked sufficient detail with respect to study design and statistical analyses, making conclusive interpretation of results difficult." "It is clear that greater clarity and improved methodologies are required in the assessment of the ecological impacts of desalination"
- rezistik 11y ago
  In addition, the icecaps are melting rapidly which is reducing the ratio on its own. If anything siphoning off water from the ocean and moving it inland significantly helps with the issue of rising sea levels.
  - nosuchthing 11y ago
    Maybe it would be best to leave the melted freshwater in the ocean to offset the acidification [1] until we can address that problem. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification