Water: Where will it come from in 2050?

[Essay]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

I learned of the name Brian Fagan on the Daily Show last night, who's written a book called "The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations." It appears to be a very historical view of how past droughts have caused many civilizations in human history to war with one another and ultimately fail. It sounds as if it's a great read, and not littered with the usual inherent politicization that most GW books are. Check it out.


The clip which alerted me to the book:

Brian Fagan | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

I have his Archaeologists: Explorers of the Human Past, but
I want Great Warming. I love time travel.


I haven't read thru this whole thread, so apologies if this repeats....

Desalination is one area that technology may be able to pull one out of the hat. It doesn't seem as if it should be that hard of a problem... simple inorganic or bio-membrane technology.

...and this is a year old, but the first I heard was seeing Dean Kamen on The Colbert Report, last night. [sorry, no links] ...but,

World Water Crises | Outside Online
The 300-pound, electric-powered, dishwasher-size prototype purifies both freshwater and saltwater, basically by vaporizing, compressing, and condensing the liquid. At Deka Research & Development....

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: The Ripple Effect and the Water Crisis

...also, new technology on the horizon....

Originally Posted by PNAS

Highly permeable polymeric membranes based on the incorporation of the functional water channel protein Aquaporin Z

Manish Kumar, Mariusz Grzelakowski, Julie Zilles, Mark Clark, and Wolfgang Meier
PNAS...approved October 30, 2007 (received for review September 15, 2007)

The permeability and solute transport characteristics of amphiphilic triblock-polymer vesicles containing the bacterial water-channel protein Aquaporin Z (AqpZ) were investigated. The vesicles were made of a block copolymer with symmetric poly-(2-methyloxazoline)-poly-(dimethylsiloxane)-poly-(2-methyloxazoline) (PMOXA15-PDMS110-PMOXA15) repeat units. Light-scattering measurements on pure polymer vesicles subject to an outwardly directed salt gradient in a stopped-flow apparatus indicated that the polymer vesicles were highly impermeable. However, a large enhancement in water productivity (permeability per unit driving force) of up to 800 times that of pure polymer was observed when AqpZ was incorporated. The activation energy (Ea) of water transport for the protein-polymer vesicles (3.4 kcal/mol) corresponded to that reported for water-channel-mediated water transport in lipid membranes. The solute reflection coefficients of glucose, glycerol, salt, and urea were also calculated, and indicated that these solutes are completely rejected. The productivity of AqpZ-incorporated polymer membranes was at least an order of magnitude larger than values for existing salt-rejecting polymeric membranes. The approach followed here may lead to more productive and sustainable water treatment membranes, whereas the variable levels of permeability obtained with different concentrations of AqpZ may provide....

...hopefully

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Essay

Desalination is one area that technology may be able to pull one out of the hat. It doesn't seem as if it should be that hard of a problem... simple inorganic or bio-membrane technology.

Indeed, it's more than a rabbit... It's survival itself.

Originally Posted by Essay

...and this is a year old, but the first I heard was seeing Dean Kamen on The Colbert Report, last night. [sorry, no links] ...but,

World Water Crises | Outside Online
The 300-pound, electric-powered, dishwasher-size prototype purifies both freshwater and saltwater, basically by vaporizing, compressing, and condensing the liquid. At Deka Research & Development....

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: The Ripple Effect and the Water Crisis

...also, new technology on the horizon....

Here ya go:

Interview - Dean Kamen | The Colbert Report | Comedy Central

[cyclonebuster]

Don't worry the KE in the Gulfstream and cool water below it will give us all the fresh water we will ever want.

[Tolouse]

polar ice caps can also provide fresh water, couldn't they?

[cyclonebuster]

Originally Posted by Tolouse

polar ice caps can also provide fresh water, couldn't they?

Yes but not if they melt away.

[Michaelangelica]

the slingshot sounds great

What's new with your clean-water and portable-energy projects?
Kamen: They're in very different stages of development right now. (The Slingshot) takes any water, whether it's from the ocean or from toxic chemicals. No matter what's wrong with the water, we'll clean it up and make it potable, pure water.

The energy source is very environmentally friendly. Many of its big advantages include not needing extra maintenance or a power grid. It'll burn any fuel. We ran for 24 weeks two units in two separate villages in Bangladesh, and the only fuel that went into them was cow dung sitting in a pit next to them, going through a natural decomposition process. Yet they ran perfectly and gave these villages electricity.

We have more prototypes and data on electricity generation projects than on water, but for lots of reasons, the urgency around getting some water machines out has been more of our focus. We're further along and hope to be able to introduce water sooner than generation.

What an interesting man-what a good reply:-

Many scientists say we may only have 10 to 20 years to slow down climate change. Do you believe that?
Kamen: I'm not competent to give an answer to that. The good news is, instead of having great debate, why don't we all just say, let's be more efficient, let's use less fuel and do less damage to the environment. Let's make it a goal that we will continue to minimize all these negative effects, and we all win with it.

Segway inventor scoots to bigger matters - CNET News.com
You know, I googled the 'slingshot' just on Australian sites and, in the second driest continent in the world, not one hit.
Has anyone seen a more recent article about this?
The best I could do was 2006

cyclonebuster
Could you please give a little more detail about your last posts? Is there fresh water under the Gulf stream?
What are the tunnels' you speak of
Tar

[cyclonebuster]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

the slingshot sounds great


What an interesting man-what a good reply:-

Segway inventor scoots to bigger matters - CNET News.com
You know, I googled the 'slingshot' just on Australian sites and, in the second driest continent in the world, not one hit.
Has anyone seen a more recent article about this?
The best I could do was 2006

cyclonebuster
Could you please give a little more detail about your last posts? Is there fresh water under the Gulf stream?
What are the tunnels' you speak of
Tar

My "Tunnels" can regulate the climate by regulating SSTs in the Gulfstream if needed therefore they make it rain when drought is happening or by stopping rain when floods are occuring all while generating electrical power for the whole USA which by itself will curb the warming problem. What we are doing now with the climate is unregulated and we have a situation where global warming seems to be running away from us uncontrolled.Computer modeling will verify this idea of mine.

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Interview - Dean Kamen | The Colbert Report | Comedy Central

I'm still amazed by this techology.

Interview - Dean Kamen | The Colbert Report | Comedy Central


Vapor compression distillation? That's so freakin' amazingly cool!

[Michaelangelica]

California Water Law Curtailing New Development
. . .
. . . in Riverside County, a superior court judge recently enjoined a 1,500-home development project, citing, among others things, a failure to provide substantial evidence of adequate water supply.

In San Luis Obispo County, north of Los Angeles, the City of Pismo Beach was recently denied the right to annex unincorporated land to build a large multipurpose project because, “the city didn’t have enough water to adequately serve the development,” said Paul Hood, the executive officer of the commission that approves the annexations and incorporations of cities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/us...hp&oref=slogin

What is happening to the new water harvesting desalination ideas discussed in this thread? Still in Sydney we are building a billion $ de-sal plant based on old membrane technology. Is water desalination like any other new idea (eg Terra preta) and takes 25 years to get established in public consciousness. Have we got that sort of time any more? Perhaps we need some body or organisation to speed up the time between concept/invention and realisation?

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by gribbon

I read a study that claimed that even for the U.S, it would be perfectly economically feasible to desalinate all the water that was needed, providing nuclear power was used.....

I agree, nuclear power is the key to our future in so many ways its difficult to understand why more people cannot see it. We need a plentiful and dependable source of power, nuclear power is that source. Nothing else can supply power in the amounts we really need.