The colorado river is in crisis, and it's getting worse every day (Fountain: contractors, gated)

[Vision67]

Originally Posted by VikingsToValhalla

I find it bizarre why more money isn't being invested into new desalination technology.
The planet's surface is 70% ocean water, why not use it?

Desalination technology using reverse osmosis is ubiquitous. Just do a Google search. Saudia Arabia has a giant project underway. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/water-d...n-saudi-arabia

The problem is cost and environmental pollution.

It uses a lot of energy and it discharges a concentrated saline brine.

However, the cheapest solution is conservation.

[moguldreamer]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

What I always wonder is who funds those enviro groups that try to stop everything. My deep suspicion is that there are some foreign actors in the mix doing their best to keep us crippled, especially anything to do with transport infrastructure which is a key underlying foundation to compete in a global economy. Having worked for DoD for 30 years I've learned a lot about how our enemies use every means possible to keep us frustrated and now with social media they're able to spread massive disinformation and foment agitation.

China is only too happy to watch (and I suspect fund) the US progressive green movement's march to harm the US Economy.

Any economy is based on combining a handful of inputs into useful outputs, creating value in the process: capital, labor, know-how, IP, technology, supplies, raw materials such as water, and of course energy are the primary inputs.

The eco-warriors primary orthodoxy is to coerce a reduction in the consumption of energy and raw materials without regard to the effect on economic output. Reduction of energy use and raw materials use is seen as an objective by itself. Conservation is mistakenly seen as an objective in and of itself. We see it here in this thread, as some people think "corporation" is a 4 letter word.

The problem with conservation of inputs (water, energy, etc), when taken to the extreme as suggested by some eco-warriors, is it is identically equal to a reduction in the US standard of living. And that's what China wants - China has been in an economic war with the USA since at least 1980, and China actively wishes to become the dominant economic power of the world and actively wishes to reduce the economic power of the USA.

How long before some progressive group declares that Drought is a racial equity issue & demand that water be allocated based on skin color?

[moguldreamer]

Originally Posted by Vision67

Desalination technology using reverse osmosis is ubiquitous. Just do a Google search. Saudia Arabia has a giant project underway. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/water-d...n-saudi-arabia

The problem is cost and environmental pollution.

It uses a lot of energy and it discharges a concentrated saline brine.

Clean nuclear energy to power desalination is a no-brainer.
Discharge of brine at multiple locations at distance in the Pacific Ocean resolves brine issues.

Originally Posted by Vision67

However, the cheapest solution is conservation.

"Cheapest" is a non-objective.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by moguldreamer

Clean nuclear energy to power desalination is a no-brainer.
Discharge of brine at multiple locations at distance in the Pacific Ocean resolves brine issues.



"Cheapest" is a non-objective.

Cost should always be a consideration. As should conservation. For Colorado River water, any area that uses that water should disallow lawn watering, golf course watering, and any agriculture that is water intensive. Crops like cotton, alfalfa, almonds, and such should not be grown where water supply is an issue. Irrigation should be drip, not sprinklers where a third of the water is lost to evaporation.

[waltcolorado]

And that's what China wants

I always suspected that China was behind lawn watering restrictions when I lived in Denver..

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Cost should always be a consideration. As should conservation. For Colorado River water, any area that uses that water should disallow lawn watering, golf course watering, and any agriculture that is water intensive. Crops like cotton, alfalfa, almonds, and such should not be grown where water supply is an issue. Irrigation should be drip, not sprinklers where a third of the water is lost to evaporation.

Lawns & green landscape require a minuscule amount of water compared to farming. Besides, it's not exactly fair or wise to punish residents for a problem which isn't their fault. I'm all in favor of phasing out agriculture in dry/desert regions like southern CA & AZ because it consumes an enormous amount of water. I have mixed opinions about golf courses. More of them are switching to recycled water, but it's currently less than 20%. Even golf courses that use drinking water are less of a glutton compared to most types of agriculture.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by waltcolorado

I always suspected that China was behind lawn watering restrictions when I lived in Denver..

I've no doubt our enemies help fund the green movement, and other movements, where their intent is to delay, disrupt, distract, defuse, confuse, radicalize, harm us and reduce our ability to function in the global economy and on the world stage.

Dis-information campaigns are a traditional tactic to destabilize other nations, used by our government and the governments of the USSR, Russia, China, N. Korea, Iran, etc.

I've no doubt these enemies have millions of bots posting mis-information about various topics; witness the BILLIONS of bots and fake accounts Facebook kicked off their system for posing lies about our elections, etc. Putin's spy apparatus is hell-bent to use our tools against us to divide us and keep us at each other's throat with their dream goal of seeing the USA break up into pieces, which was a stated objective of their government to eliminate the USA as a threat to their goals.

Excerpt from the link: "Facebook said this week it "disabled" 1.2 billion fake accounts in the last three months of 2018 and 2.19 billion in the first quarter of 2019. ... Fake accounts may be used to amplify the popularity or dislike of a person or movement, thus distorting users' views of true public sentiment. Bots played a disproportionate role in spreading misinformation on social media ahead of the 2016 US election, according to researchers. Malicious actors have been using these kinds of fake accounts to sow distrust and social division in many parts of the world, in some cases fomenting violence against groups or individuals."

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

We've got to stop growing cotton in arid places like CA, AZ and TX which is shipped to India for British textile firms to make towels and bedsheets, with low cost labor of color, and then sell back to us at high prices. These are some of the same British textile firms that bought cotton from slave states before the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. When I think about this it is nothing more than the continued colonization of America by the British; we pump our water resources dry to farm cotton with brown labor from Mexico, for these British firms to turn into valued added products with brown labor in India while all the profits go back to merry old England. As long as the Citizens United ruling allows unlimited dark money to flow into our elections from offshore interests the fleecing of America by foreigners will continue as they keep us distracted with culture war nonsense like the insanity of arguing the saying of Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays.

There is no shortage of solutions to our problems, but the biggest shortage we have are big thinkers and political doers. Does Elon Musk have to fix everything?

Well we have sited the U.S.'s second largest city in a semi-arid area. Phoenix and Tucson are in deserts. These create some real conundrums.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by jbgusa

Well we have sited the U.S.'s second largest city in a semi-arid area. Phoenix and Tucson are in deserts. These create some real conundrums.

True, but they use a fraction of the water that ag uses in the state.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

True, but they use a fraction of the water that ag uses in the state.

That I did not know. Thanks for the information.