What is Digg?54 Comments
- BigManOnCampus, on 03/31/2008, -4/+23And new/developing technology for desalination makes this argument moot in 5...4...3...
- Hobbes24, on 03/31/2008, -4/+19i'm confused...water is not like oil, it's not like once we use water, it's gone.
there's the same amount of water on earth right now as there was 1000 years ago and more, and there will be the same amount 1000 years from now and more
all that's going to happen is we're going to have to clean more, which will be a pain in the ass...but it isn't the big thing we should be worrying about - iziizi, on 03/31/2008, -6/+17more scaremongering *****
- Syntaxis, on 03/31/2008, -0/+8More people, less water. Machines use water, too (water-cooled computers, cars, factories, etc.) - it's not surprising that water becomes less and less available. So, the question arises: Where do we get water for the billions of people that will be here in a few generations? Or will be self-destruct before that problem really becomes important.
So, I suppose.. voting for McCain would be a good idea if you care about future generations becoming too populated. Holy *****.. did I just say that? - artliquide, on 03/31/2008, -0/+6Right, but it seems that the issue in the documentary is corporate controlled water supply. If they're going after the clean water instead of cleaning up the water that they polluted, then clean water will be another thing that only the elite will be able to afford. I think that's the point.
- xNIBx, on 03/31/2008, -1/+6Water isnt running out but our needs for water are increased and the easily available fresh water is decreased. Desalination is easier said than done and it comes at a great economical and environmental cost. You must be stupid if you think this is leftist fear mongering. What does the Left or the Right or whatever have to do with this? How far up your ass can you be?
- smurfsahoy, on 03/31/2008, -0/+4Yes it is. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~etrnsfer/water.htm
Or if you don't like the whole "physics" thing, go to any indoor pool and look at the deep end versus the shallow end. Derr. - smurfsahoy, on 03/31/2008, -1/+4Two big plastic buckets, some hose, and a bunch of sand and rocks can provide clean water for an entire village. http://www.bluefuturefilters.com/lssf.html
Combined with waste water and gray water reclamation, rain collection, and cheap desalinization, poor communities can get by with an initially dirt cheap system and with little or no consistent outside water supply supplement.
And if you have any kind of river, etc. nearby (read: probably about 95% of the world's population), regardless of how dirty or clean, you don't need ANY pipelined or other outside water sources. I'm not seeing the war potential here. - z0mbie2099, on 03/31/2008, -1/+4Yeah, Capitalism works.
- apache2, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3Short answer: Three primary colors of light, Red, Green and Blue. Water is blue because water absorbs Green and Red in short distances.
- xutopia, on 03/31/2008, -2/+5I don't think that's entirely true. The movie does explain how the dynamics of society change when the water goes from a free and accessible natural commodity to one that is handed to you from a company with shareholders. Desalination plants, unless paid for by taxes will find ways to exert control over the population.
- Harabeck, on 03/31/2008, -0/+3Why are worried when global warming is about to free up all that water in the ice caps?
- kaelyiesta, on 03/31/2008, -0/+21) wait until it becomes more profitable to start researching and streamlining desal plants. Tech will become up to par in a blink of an eye. 2) see 1. 3) see 1.
- Wacer, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2Unless he was referring to sites like Google that have steam shooting out of vents on their roof because their systems get so hot that they have to use water to cool their massive computer center.
- waterforall, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2Fuel will run out sooner, but we don't need fuel to survive. We need water. And if we can't manage it properly, we're dead. Once oil is gone we simply turn to solar and hydrogen which is what we should and could have done years ago (if oil companies didn't stop us).
- pkarpenko, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2This is neither here nor there considering all that water is going to go directly into the salty oceans and become useless.
- fireburner23, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2Soylent Green anybody?
- BigManOnCampus, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2You are in the water industry, so you work in materials science lab for the industry then?
- F0RMLESSNESS, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2You might want to read up on desalinization, it's a very energy intensive process not the simple "clean" solution you think is no problem. Plan B 3.0 by Lester Brown is a good book for you to read.
- smurfsahoy, on 03/31/2008, -0/+2No... Firstly, there's not a lot of hydrogen in the sky (What is there is in clouds, mostly, which although made of water, are clearly not blue), and secondly, the blue in water is due to the unique hydrogen bond arrangements. When separate, they won't do the same thing at all.
- DooM, on 03/31/2008, -1/+2Did you not read the "unless paid for by taxes" part..? A representative government function will (usually) result in doing what is best for the people, ESPECIALLY at a local municipality level. Meanwhile, shareholders typically don't give a ***** about local people ESPECIALLY when they get in the way of profits and the financial growth of their investments.
- karolisonline, on 03/31/2008, -0/+1well, I been telling this for years, many don't believe in this. I? I just buy shares of European water companies every year, because it is best long term investment.
- worldthoughts, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1Forget Big Oil. We've gotta worry about Big Water.
- jcims, on 03/31/2008, -3/+4Water cooling? Please educate yourself as to what actually 'consumes' water.
- eihwaz, on 03/31/2008, -0/+1That they were talking about the magnetic axis, not the whole earth rotating on its center. And the switch will be north-to-south, not north-to-east/west. To simplify: if our actual magnetic flux is a rotation that goes IN from south pole and OUT from north pole, in some thousands years it will go IN from north and OUT from south. Whether that will affect the weather or anything else is still to understand.
- artliquide, on 03/31/2008, -2/+3Why do you think that the sky is blue to us? Because there's lots of hydrogen and oxygen up there.
- trollick, on 03/31/2008, -1/+2How long until Air Wars?
- DooM, on 03/31/2008, -1/+2No I'm not forgetting the premise - YOU'RE forgetting that desalination plants owned by the people will behave very differently from plants owned by publicly traded companies. And why would they be the only ones doing it..? Because they would A) have patents to prevent others, and B) they would give congressmen millions of dollars to get their monopoly protected by law. Isn't this how our broken system works right this second?
- kaelyiesta, on 03/31/2008, -0/+1Remember though that people and their infrastructure are a temporary container for said water. So as more humans and their infrastructure are built, more is set aside and unusable while at the same time more is needed. Just as Syntaxis said, "more people, less water".
- fireburner23, on 03/31/2008, -0/+1Not only is the problem of where you going to get it, it is the question of how are we going to return the water to it's original state. So much water these days gets returned to the lake and streams in a worse condition before we touched it.
- BESTenemy, on 03/31/2008, -1/+2Where do you get your water from? Do you distill or filter it yourself at the source, or do you get it from the tap?
The issue is not water for drinking specifically, but the grade of water that is used for maintaining an industrial settlement. There has to be a consistent supply available for everyday needs, not simply because it is drinkable, but because it is necessary for sanitation, food preparation etc.
You can get drinking water easily. Buy a portable filtration system for camping supplies and wait for the rain. However such solution would not be enough for running a city. Those that supply water do business. It has to do not only with filtering water but with getting it pumped to where it's needed. It's literally, water and power. In areas powered by hydroelectricity the company that controls the electric energy often also becomes the supplier of water. It's a monopoly, though not a global one yet.
While energy that pumps water is cheap, water is cheap also. As we run out of oil and supplying water becomes more difficult, there'll also be greater demand for easily accessible water, or one that does not require filtration investment. Water control is about power, both literally and metaphorically. - richiestang78, on 03/31/2008, -0/+1Interesting but there's not enough water in the world regardless. We as a species has managed to over populate the planet in a littel under a hundred year. We live on a planet made for about 4 billion, not 7 billion.
- smurfsahoy, on 03/31/2008, -0/+1Actually the blue light is in part generated new by the water due to energy from red absorption being transformed. It is different than almost any other material in the world in how it does this. So reflection alone is not to blame.
- waterforall, on 03/31/2008, -3/+3I am in the water industry and 1) technology is NOT up to par for desal to work, 2) Desal plants cost so much to make and SO much energy to run that it is not an option to depend on them, so 3) Environmental concerns aside, we cannot survive as a species if we depend on desalination. We don't have the technology, the energy to do it. So if we waste all our ground water and put it in the sea, we're screwed. Stop making everything "a hippy" argument, the trailer tag says "it's not about saving the environment, it's about saving ourselves". This a serious issue and it is people like you that might mean the fall of the human race.
- sndream, on 03/31/2008, -1/+1The movie is not about not having enough water, it's about what will happen if water company are able to control all water source and stop people even from getting water from a river or a lake.
But in reality, the water company only control the water pipe, you can argue they are overcharging for filtering and delivery the water. But I really don't think they can ban people from getting water form a river, lake or even their roof with a bucket.
The best way to help converse the use of water is to stop obsess about having a green lawn, or a golf course, it's look green but it's more environmental destructive than a SUV (No, I don't drive a SUV) Also, it also help too on if people living in a area known for repeated drought and famine stop having 10 kids. - waterforall, on 03/31/2008, -0/+0Very true. The same supply of water is renewable. But it is like oil in that corporations are the ones building the desalination and water treatment plants, so if we get into a position where we depend on them, which we are, then we will have to pay whatever they charge to stay alive.
- Allanon, on 03/31/2008, -1/+1edited the comment and the links got screwed:
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos. ...
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/healthscience ... - BigManOnCampus, on 03/31/2008, -2/+1And what is to stop a local municipality from doing just that? Here where I live in Long Beach we have a municipal desal plant.
- digginDigs, on 03/31/2008, -1/+0Why does this have to be left or right? right or wrong? this is a question for humanity, not for corporations.
- BigManOnCampus, on 03/31/2008, -2/+1And if desalination becomes cheaper and more reliable... Why would corporations be the only organizations doing it? You are forgetting the original premise of this thread.
^^
"And new/developing technology for desalination makes this argument moot in 5...4...3..."
^^ - inactive, on 03/31/2008, -2/+1The constellation for the coming age of Aquarius isn't just a water carrier because of the new testament
"Luke 22:10 reads: "Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water...Follow him into the house where he entereth in." ` - identifiedlogo, on 03/31/2008, -4/+3Drink Oil
- BigManOnCampus, on 03/31/2008, -2/+1No, I'm not, you're assuming that all or many future desal plants will be owned by corporations. That assumption has no justification as far as I can see.
- h3lx, on 03/31/2008, -2/+1Given the current political climate, when corporate water becomes an issue for the US, it'll be the least of problems. Fuel is going to tap out well before this starts.
- zen4444, on 03/31/2008, -4/+2A good example of leftist fear mongering. It's not just the right that loves to keep you afraid.
- Allanon, on 03/31/2008, -4/+2Problem solved:
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos. ... http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/healthscience ... - Swipecat, on 03/31/2008, -5/+2Water should be free! Just like gas, electricity, the internet, gasoline etc should be free! The pixies in my head say they'll pay for it all!
- windandstorm, on 03/31/2008, -6/+1This is BS, yes I KNOW THERE WILL BE DROUGHT, but other parts will be flooded. I saw (I'm too lazy to verify sources ftw) that the earth will turn on it's axis, basically we will have flood + drought but other areas, like the north will have better temperatures. What this means is US will turn into Antarctica, and the Poles will become new hot spots. What do you think?
- slovencek, on 03/31/2008, -6/+13. World war = clean water ware
- Scheissen, on 03/31/2008, -7/+1Let's send in the army to secure your drinking wells! Let's make the water so cheap to the citizen that they can waste gallons of it and then next year the state will call for water-saving measures.
We aren't going to run out of water because we can already refine it out of desolate places thanks to these evil private companies. (hydrogen vehicles anyone?) -
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