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- webcure, on 10/11/2007, -13/+275We are running out of water and we still fill our toilets with drinkable water. Isn't that a waste?
- dtd00d, on 10/11/2007, -35/+211People this is serious, it's not like water falls from the sky or anything.
- jmpeagle, on 10/11/2007, -16/+190no we aren't...it is called a desalinization plant. Israel, and Saudi Arabia have been using them for years. How do you think they use 150% of their annual rainfall every year. Saltwater can be made into fresh water through a new wonderful invention called "evaporation".
- KMye, on 10/11/2007, -8/+165We're not running out of water; we're filling up with people.
- Tobark, on 10/11/2007, -5/+145"The Chinese government -- desperately seeking solutions -- calls the water shortage a social, environmental and economic crisis."
So stop dumping all kinds of ***** into your rivers you idiot. - capiCrimm, on 10/11/2007, -3/+124yeah. It's got electrolytes and *****.
- bigeye, on 10/11/2007, -20/+123Not only do we face a world water crisis, but the sheer amount of plastic used to bottle the water, and the tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere from flying water around the world makes bottled water an environmental disaster - people in the developed world who have clean water running out of their taps should get a grip. And yes filling our toilets with drinkable water is insane, a small thing people can do is follow the Australian example - "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down"
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -6/+108What we should be filling our toilets with is Gatorade =D
- gotamd, on 10/11/2007, -5/+77We're not running out of water, we're just misallocating it and polluting it. If we stopped our obsession with grass lawns we would save tons of potable water for more useful purposes...such as drinking. We should also be looking for cheaper technologies for filtering water, especially ocean water.
- bigtallmofo, on 10/11/2007, -1/+59I agree with the author's pointing out that bottled water is a waste... But he is so obviously biased, it is not even funny. Look at his byline:
>Martin Lagod is a managing director and co-founder of Firelake Capital Management, which focuses on emerging technology companies.
Look up Firelake Capital Management... Among other things, they invest in companies that create desalinization equipment and other fresh-water providing equipment. Martin Lagod isn't a scientist - he's basically a hedge fund manager who is trying to convince people that something that his investments can readily create is in short supply. He knows that if there is a perception that water is scarce, he can charge more for his investments. - d3lta, on 10/11/2007, -3/+46Desalination is extremely expensive, but it may well become the norm several years from now. These plants require a lot of energy and other resources to treat water, it isn't as straight forward as evaporating wastewater and condensing the fumes, which in itself is very expensive. And this in turn brings the question, where do you get the energy for this?
- Revan01, on 10/11/2007, -0/+42Its what toilet bowls crave
- jrbrewin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+40if only we could harness the power of whining.. then we'd all be set, at least in britain, anyway.
- tobybuk, on 10/11/2007, -10/+49This article is a complete load of crap. Take this statement 'Our bodies and crops will accept nothing else, and we cannot manufacture more' Of course we can manufacture more. Use the ***** sun!
All the water problems in the world can be solved if there is enough effort and will to do so. Desalination is easy and typically the areas its most needed also happen to the ones with lots of sun. Duh!
Here in the UK the water companies are all over themselves to tell us how precious water is and how we should use less, be careful etc etc. Its utter hogwash! What these guys want to do is 'educate' the population as to the scarcity of this 'precious' resource so they can justify installing waters meters in every house and charge the earth for it.
There was a story not too long back that examined the privatisation of the UK water companies. In the agreement there were strict controls on how much money they could spend and pass onto their 'customers', which included a bar on building new reservoirs. However the agreement also stated that if they could convince government that they needed to build new ones then it could be done on a cost+ basis and the whole cost passed onto the water users. So we have the mind-blowing situation in the UK where the pipes leak something like 25% of the total water used, the companies have no incentive to really fix the problem as they want water to be a valuable scarce resource and they fall over themselves stating that if we don’t build more reservoirs we'll run out of the stuff.
Well, ***** you water companies. I'm not on a water meter and I use as much as I ***** well like. I have extra large toilets that flush an ocean down every time I wizz, a 40,000 litre pool that gets re-filled twice a year and the greenest garden in surrey! In fact sometimes I leave the hose on for a whole night because I cannot be arsed to walk to the bottom of the garden to turn it off. - romanxau, on 10/11/2007, -8/+47www.savewaterpissinthegarden.com
I'm doing my bit! - capiCrimm, on 10/11/2007, -3/+41isn't it a waste that people are betting their money on cars powered by water? Just out of curiosity, is there any resource we're allowed to use without getting yelled at?
- HBNDonut, on 10/11/2007, -6/+41Water filters in your plumbing... 10 out of 10 people can't tell the difference. And if they say they do, they're talking *****.
- coit, on 10/11/2007, -7/+41Why do people think flushing the toilet wastes water? Where do you think the water goes? Into the sewer, back to the water treatment plant, and back into the system.
These enviro wackos sure are stupid. - chrisinsocalif, on 10/11/2007, -3/+33Sad thing, tap water is regulated by hundreds of people but bottled water is regulated by one gov employee. So the standards of bottled water isn't watched very closely by the GOV. Some bottled water is worse than tap. Also a random taste test in NY showed that the general public chose tap over bottled.
Marketing tries to get consumers to think bottled water is much safer and better than tap, but that isn't always true. Bottled water generates more income for a company like coca-cola than other products since its much cheaper to produce and produces more profit.
Many water companies use the local municipal water supply and just filter it. Something you can do yourself at your own home for much less of a price. - jmpeagle, on 10/11/2007, -4/+33take your pick: nuclear, tidal, geothermal, solar, coal, natural gas, oil, hydroelectric, steam, wind, biomass, etc.... There isn't some energy shortage, there are just laws regulating where you are allowed to get your energy from. There is plenty of energy out there.
- SpaceMonkeyZero, on 10/11/2007, -2/+28Global Warming is just nature's way of saying "Hey, we need about 5 1/2 billion less people on the planet"
I'm not sure why people want to fight it... - Inverno, on 10/11/2007, -0/+24A Mike Judge movie.
- elsJake, on 10/11/2007, -11/+35Yah sure , try living without a flushing toilet, that would mean returning to the middle ages with all sorts of diseases and ***** (actual ***** beneath / next to your house) .
There's enough water on this planet , it's not all going away. You just need to treat more of it because there are more people around. - jrbrewin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+24nature has a way of doing its own population control, over time.
- Seventus, on 10/11/2007, -3/+25I was drinking bottled water for about a year, and realized how much of a waste it was. Anyone who has ever had good water, and then lived in the city would agree with me that tap water is pretty vile. There was one small town that had a really good water supply, so the water was always crisp. I've lived in major cities for the last 5 years, and it reeks of chemicals and tastes disgusting. Usually a water filter helps, but sometimes bottles are just more convenient.
- meatmcguffin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+22I dunno, but it's got what i crave.
- m0tbaillie, on 10/11/2007, -11/+32Obviously this guy has never been to college. If he had, he'd know what it tastes like to drink yellow water out of rusty, aged pipes. I'm not picky with anything, but most of the "drinkable" tap water you'll find in the majority of college dorms comes out of rusty pipes and is yellow and full of sediment, and tastes just plain awful.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -4/+24My family drinks 2 gallons of water per day between 2 adults and 2 kids. We know a lot about water.
We use a PUR filter on the tap to simply to remove the chlorine. Then it tastes just a good as any bottled water.
We still use lots of bottled water for when we are out of the house, but we refill the bottles a few times before tossing them. We do it because I read that sports bottles can become a bio-hazard after prolonged use. If that was not the case we would not buy bottled water. - colonels1020, on 10/11/2007, -5/+24We're running out of water? What happened to the oceans?
- Strd, on 10/11/2007, -0/+19We should get rid ourself of the nuclear fear, build more nuclear power station and build more desalination plants. Using nuclear power would alleviate pollution and global warming too. About possibility of meltdown - modern designs reactors which are not producing weapon grade plutonium are extremely safe. They can not explode - if something wrong they would just cool down. For example pebble bed reactor.
- Battleloser, on 10/11/2007, -1/+19They'll stop bitching if water has to start being rationed.
- ToastyMallows, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14Yea why aren't we crapping into saltwater?
I doubt the ***** cares. - Mitchum, on 10/11/2007, -2/+16There are some sanitary/health issues associated with that idea, but grey-water (unlike black-water, sewage) is definitely re-usable. It's sad to see that the status-quo of wasting grey-water hasn't even budged yet.
- blaze4metal, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15You must employ the: "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" system at home don't you.
- Caruthers, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14Coasters, try typing "Idiocracy Quotes" into Google and see what you get.
- TDot1980, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14Fun fact for you - meat tastes good.
- SpaceMonkeyZero, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14Just buy an RV and crap out a hole onto the highway.
- vastrightwing, on 10/11/2007, -5/+18We're running out of OIL. We're running out of water! We're over populated! The earth is warming! We're all going to die! Can't someone do something? Save us before it's too late!
- turbopro, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13A guy who was a chemist in a water treatment plant in my county gave a demonstration during a speech class in college. Not only am I a believer in tap water now, after seeing the process of what our county does with it, but I in many respects feel safer drinking it that bottled water.
- triple1k, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16What do you propose we use to fill up our toilets? Kool-Aid
I work for a water department and water is not free. It is a daunting process to get waste water ready for everyone to drink. It only costs $2 to to bring 1000 gallons of tap water to your house or $.01 per 5 gallons. Pretty cheap if you ask me. It would be cheaper to buy a water filter for your faucet rather than buying bottled water. - bschonec, on 10/11/2007, -2/+15Ok, how about this: Make a solar powered generation plant that boils water (salty in this case) into steam, condense the steam and then pump the fresh water to be consumed?
Coming from someone who's NOT an environmentalist, this seems like a great idea..... - floorman56, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16Sorry the thought of someone else's pee splashing on my butt when I "do #2" makes me want to barf
- Modizzle, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13I dugg you down because that's what you get for losing
- hitmonval, on 10/11/2007, -3/+15Dude, it takes energy to desalinate, and that's another crisis on it's own. Saudi Arabia is a petroleum exporting country and Israel is a relatively small nation. Either way, it'll cost us more for our water.
- rarson, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13Are you ***** stupid? I have a septic system in my yard. Do you know how those things work?
I also have a well. Do you need me to connect the dots here? The water that I flush down my toilet goes right back into the water table from which I drink. Duh. - AeonTorpor, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13I know it's perfectly safe to drink. But I'd pay a dollar or two to make it not taste like *****.... or just add lemon. That's probably a little cheaper.
- undersky, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12From Wikipedia about China's Yellow River,
Floods of the river account for some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded in human history. The flatness of North China Plain contributes to the deadliness of the floods. A slight rise in water level would mean a large portion of land would be completely covered in water. If a flood occurs, a portion of the population would initially die from drowning, followed by the spread of diseases and ensuing famine.
* In 1887 the river flooded the North China Plain causing an estimated 900,000–2,000,000 deaths.
* In 1931 the river flooded the North China Plain causing an estimated 1,000,000–4,000,000 deaths.
In 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Nationalist troops under the orders of Chiang Kai-Shek broke the dike holding back the Yellow River in order to stop the advancing Japanese troops. This resulted in the flooding of an area covering 54,000 km² and the death of 500,000-900,000 people. - rarson, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12It's not a bug. The new comment system updates the diggs as yours is registered. So when I dugg him up, it went from +5 to +19. Depends on how long you've spent reading the comments.
- Niten, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12And regardless of how it tastes, unfiltered tap water in the US is perfectly safe. I'm getting sick of all my "organic" friends telling me that I'm putting myself at risk by not using a Brita...
- dickeytk, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12holy crap dude, lay off
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