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149 Comments
- Sell, on 10/10/2007, -2/+32Holy *****, this is basic Ecology.
- ncairns, on 10/10/2007, -6/+27Ummm. No. Earth is not a closed system. If it were, oh ***** it - science, people. It's science.
- jmpeagle, on 10/10/2007, -2/+21desalinization plants solve this problem. Saudia Arabia and Israel already use them.
- wildfire, on 10/10/2007, -1/+18It's all that Zima no one wants to buy.
- Terr01, on 10/10/2007, -3/+18RTFA.
- cactus476, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16It's all because of this guy:
http://digg.com/health/Marathon_kills_runner_aged_22_from_too_much_water?t=6328231#c6334850 - Justinsb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12The problem with desalinization plants is that they are extremely expensive. More than sewage treatment - more than an oil refinery (Why do you think Ethiopia doesn't have any?) It's not that you can't use them, you can, but it will drive the price of water through the roof.
Here, in Canada, we have lots of water but Parliament is considering withdrawing water from NAFTA because even here the supply isn't inexhaustible and the US uses water like it's free. There are lawns and golf courses in the Mohave Dessert! So yeah, peak oil is nothing. Wait until the phrase 'peak water' hits home. - psygnisfive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12This is correct. Earth is not a closed system. The upper atmospheres of all planets are constantly venting light weight and/or high energy molecules into space, which is one of the reasons only the gas giants can maintain large quantities of methane, etc. in their atmosphere; on the smaller terrestrials, over the eons, the lighter gases have escaped entirely. Water, while still very heavy, can and does escape, because it's gaseous form is lighter than both diatomic oxygen and nitrogen, which constitute the overwhelming majority of the atmosphere here.
Furthermore, water vapor in the upper atmosphere gets bombarded by ultraviolet rays, causing it to split. 2 H20 -> O2 + 2H2, or 3 H20 -> O3 + 3H2. the O2 and O3 becomes part of the atmosphere, this being a possible source of terrestrial oxygen and ozone. The diatomic hydrogen, being much lighter than the rest of the atmosphere, escapes into space. In that way water can be lost as well. - martalli, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Here in Illinois, we have plenty of water. People who live in deserts like Los Angeles, and have water brought in from hundreds of miles by canals should think hard about this. Is water disappearing, or was it not there to begin with? Florida is much the same way - copious water is in sight, but if the water table drops even slightly, the seawater encroaches.
The water supply is constrained by increasing population, but the population shift away from water sources has created much of the current problem, at least in the US. - PhoenixAvatar2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Yeah, but who takes Ecology 101?
- fadeaway, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13Here goes - desalination facilities powered by tidal generators.
Well, that solves that. Just mail me the Nobel.. ;) - crackah, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12He is dead now, so its okay
- smex, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Earth is NOT a closed system. Over 50 TONS of H2O fall onto the Earth everyday by way of space dust.
- Terr01, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8RTFA.
- fartmungerer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8of course, all of the water can evaporate into space, or the molemen at the center of the earth absorb it all, or wait, one better, God is angry at us so he is taking it away so we can all burn in hell!
/sarcasm - emanueljones, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10The earth is not a closed system. Don't ever make that mistake - the earth is powered by the sun. I hate it when creationists use entropy and the second law to try to disprove evolution. Still, in terms of water, it isn't going anywhere.
- ROFLance, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8I'm pretty sure this picture was in my fourth grade science book, when I learned all this 14 years ago.
http://www.treehugger.com/water%20cycle-jj-001.jpg - dylanwalker, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7hahahahahahahhahahahahah. Yeah, maaaaan. That's how they're keeping us down. Keep on going with your awesome ideas, free from the worries of quantitative reasoning...
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -4/+11The Earth is *not* a closed system. We get our energy from outside. /points at Sun
- martalli, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6This is an expensive way to get water, when there is still a lot of fresh water in the right places. I hope my federal dollars won't go to build desalinization plants for southern California.
- rderveloy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7An easy way to illustrate this concept to people is this:
Think of a cooler at a party that starts out with a set volume of water in it. As each person arrives, they take a cup and fill it up with water from the cooler. After waiting a couple of minutes they dump the water back into the cooler. Each guest repeats this procedure every few minutes.
As more and more people arrive, more and more cups are filled. Eventually, the total volume of the cups will become larger than the total volume of water that was in the cooler. As more people continue to arrive, the cups will become less and less full. Eventually, there won't be enough water to go around. Even in this example, it's not a completely closed system. Some water will be lost to splashing, residual drops from the cups, etc...
It's not 100 percent accurate, but it quickly gets the point across. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Actually, we loose some water in space, but we also gain some water from space.
- StopTheBullshit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6It's good to see that there are others who know that we get water from space every day. Closed system my ass!
- Crosswayboy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I found it pretty interesting, Guess I must be a complete idiot. Sorry.
- psygnisfive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5There are other ways in which water can "escape" the traditional water cycle. For instance, by being trapped in rocks. It's theorized that rock-based water was the source of water on Earth in the earlier periods of Earth's formation. The recapture of water by rocks is likely to be commonplace in subduction zones.
- FizixMan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6Harsh. But fair.
- captinherb, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6Don't you read the comments here? People on Digg know everything, seemed a lot better place to ask than a HD forum. But thank you for your insightful comment, you no doubt spent a lot of time coming up with it.
- captinherb, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Maybe someone can answer this: I live with a well and a septic system. Any water we use in the house goes out to a drain field and filters back through the ground. Is there any reason I should bother with water saving devices (other than the very small savings on running the well)? There is no water lost to evaporation
- tybris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I'd like to say something encouraging, but really your first post is just the stupidest thing I've heard all day. Have you taken into account that most other populations (animals) have been decimated in 200 years? The global biomass doesn't increase or decrease easily. Even if it did, it's not a signficant amount. Second, there's plenty of water on earth, it's just not where we want it to be.
- martalli, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Conflict over water is age-old, and precedes wars over oil by thousands of years. The western states have jockeyed for water rights for over a hundred years. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu argue over the Cauvery river, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh argue over the Krishna River. Everyone is looking for more water, whether to water their lawn, feed their cities, or provide for agriculture.
- tybris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4So, essentially you take 2 incorrect statements and then try to explain them... Digg!
- martalli, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I could not help adding that our planet *is* a utopia. Where are you going to find a better one?
- pw378, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Amen! :)
- tybris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Shhhh, we ignore the sun these days. Don't mention it.
- martalli, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Sweet Jesus, do you think the fresh water is disappearing into the biomass of humanity? I think you have been taking "Dune" too seriously
- jhaks, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3You're right; the earth is not a closed system but in terms of matter and not energy it pretty much is. The article said the water cycle is a closed system (it is except for a very small amount leaving from the atmosphere) which is true when you talk about how much water there is.
- Ghostalker, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Goddamit, some of you people make me wonder how we managed to evolve from poo-flinging primates. The level of water on this planet has not decreased in BILLIONS of years. As mentioned before me, water is added daily thanks to stuff falling to us from space (comets, meteors, stuff from the Oort Cloud, asteroid belt, etc). I won't go into how natural life such as plants and animals can make water themselves.
CLEAN, FRESH water however is something we should be watching. North America has some of the largest reserves of fresh water in the world thanks to the Great Lakes, Mountain ranges, and rivers (Russia has #2 with Lake Baikal). Desalinization costs loads of cash to effectively boil water (or flash vaporize water mist that the newer facilities have) and require tons of energy, two things most developing nations on the edge of the ocean don't have. If you live in a first, or even second-world country, you really have nothing to fear. If you live in a country where your leader is ousted-via-military-coup every 2 weeks, you better start saving rainwater. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I see what you did there.
- psygnisfive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4It's more than just that. Atmosphere vents into space as well. See my above response to ncairns for a more detailed explanation of what happens.
- bbschaefer, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6Giggity
- martalli, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I'm with justinsb...the true cost of water should be reflected in water bills. In our town, water comes from a small resevoir just a miles out of town. In LA, some of the water has traversed canals for hundreds of miles. The water bills for folks there ought to relfect the much greater cost of the infrastructure involved, and reimbursement of other areas that are giving their water to LA (Colorado, for instance).
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4I signed up for it, but had to drop it halfway through. I needed more study time for my Common Sense 101 class.
- Jaste, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I blame the bottled water craze! If we stopped drinking water from bottles and drank out of taps like the old days, there would be more water in our "closed system". Instead we must have billions of liters locked up in little plastic prisons where Mother Nature can’t use it ;-)
- maheshee11, on 10/10/2007, -4/+7A good article, I must say.
"the wet will get wetter and the dry drier." - davecor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Your post would have more authority if you knew the difference between "loose" and "lose".
"loose" means "not tight". - schnibitz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Depends on the technology they use. Using Nanotubes will do the trick once they've perfected the technique. Additionally there are other: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/10/71898 ways of extracting fresh water.
- kazamx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2IMHO yes it should. America has started to teach creationism to its kids over evolution. regigion is becoming more important than science. Just look at the level of debate here. For America to thrive it needs to advance its science and Tech. Religion will lead America backwards
- redrock34, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3mmm that acidic rain tastes so good
- drew34, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2You're kidding, right? Do you have any clue what NAFTA is?
- jhaks, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2A little gas does vent from the atmosphere but from a resource and matter perspective the earth is pretty much a closed system, which is what the article refers to. From an energy perspective the Earth is of course not closed.
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