As someone who works in the water industry, this was an interesting read. Thanks for linking to the article about the costs of desalination. It's good to see those costs coming down. Getting rid of all the brine produced is an issue. As with all technologies there is always something that could cause issues. I work in the wastewater side of things and I am always intrigue by areas of the world who use the wastewater to drinking water technology or potable water reuse. That way you could use the water over and over again which might help in drought heavy places, or in places not near the ocean.
This "amazing" discovery has been occurring on the Earth for millions of years. It's called "The Water Cycle". However instead of collecting the clean water in a bottle, it just falls out of the sky. Just like in the song, the itsy-bitsy spider, the sun comes out and drys up all the water, which then turns into cloud and rains, and starts all over again! Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, repeat!
This is true - but that's not much comfort to the folk living in areas that get extremely low rainfall and therefore suffer from regular water scarcity - which is currently around 4 billion people (https://www.unicef.org/wash/water-scarcity).
And because everywhere is hotting up right now, that list of countries is increasing in length! (I say this on a spectacular hot day in Scotland, one of the Rainier corners of Europe, as England starts implementing hosepipe bans.)
This is a technology that could transform the driest places in the world at a (hopefully) radically low cost, and boost agriculture in those areas too, so it's not just about drinking water...
But where would the arid countries get the dirty water in the first place? Simple evaporation will work, as will distillation (which requires some energy source). Does this new material speed up the evaporation somehow, or is it another clothes washing stone?
technological promises often become dangers in the future. There are no miracles of technology anymore than there are miracles.
There always remains a delusional accomdationist effect when anything is claimed if there is no counterclaims of what might possibly be not so beneficial.
This is the soma that technological advances leading us to believe there is a cure for existence that man can always solve,.
But such solutions almost always end up needing solutions to the problems they create.
As someone who works in the water industry, this was an interesting read. Thanks for linking to the article about the costs of desalination. It's good to see those costs coming down. Getting rid of all the brine produced is an issue. As with all technologies there is always something that could cause issues. I work in the wastewater side of things and I am always intrigue by areas of the world who use the wastewater to drinking water technology or potable water reuse. That way you could use the water over and over again which might help in drought heavy places, or in places not near the ocean.
This "amazing" discovery has been occurring on the Earth for millions of years. It's called "The Water Cycle". However instead of collecting the clean water in a bottle, it just falls out of the sky. Just like in the song, the itsy-bitsy spider, the sun comes out and drys up all the water, which then turns into cloud and rains, and starts all over again! Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, repeat!
This is true - but that's not much comfort to the folk living in areas that get extremely low rainfall and therefore suffer from regular water scarcity - which is currently around 4 billion people (https://www.unicef.org/wash/water-scarcity).
And because everywhere is hotting up right now, that list of countries is increasing in length! (I say this on a spectacular hot day in Scotland, one of the Rainier corners of Europe, as England starts implementing hosepipe bans.)
Another factor: increasing rainwater contamination, before it even falls out the sky! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62391069
This is a technology that could transform the driest places in the world at a (hopefully) radically low cost, and boost agriculture in those areas too, so it's not just about drinking water...
But where would the arid countries get the dirty water in the first place? Simple evaporation will work, as will distillation (which requires some energy source). Does this new material speed up the evaporation somehow, or is it another clothes washing stone?
That truly is amazing!
A bit of good news on this bad news planet.
Sailors have used emergency desalination devices, called solar stills, for decades. A notable example is in the book Adrift.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrift:_Seventy-six_Days_Lost_at_Sea
Wow!
technological promises often become dangers in the future. There are no miracles of technology anymore than there are miracles.
There always remains a delusional accomdationist effect when anything is claimed if there is no counterclaims of what might possibly be not so beneficial.
This is the soma that technological advances leading us to believe there is a cure for existence that man can always solve,.
But such solutions almost always end up needing solutions to the problems they create.