On Monday, March 3, 2014 6:59:21 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Higgs Boson wrote:

On Friday, February 28, 2014 4:57:01 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott wrote:

Higgs Boson wrote:



On Friday, February 28, 2014 1:00:27 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott

wrote:



[,,,]



Greenhouse gases: Not sure I see the relevance, but have a look at



what's been happening in the Middle East.







The relevance is that RO is very energy intensive and unless you

source your



power from non-fossil sources you will be compounding the problem.



Am I naive to speculate that RO won't be the only technology down the

pike?



HB



Probably. It takes energy to get a solute out of a solvent, this is not a

question of technology but known science. We know about distilation and RO,

and both cost energy. It is usually the problem deniers who assume that

unknown science (read magic) or unproven technology ("clean coal") will come

to our rescue and thus we ought not to worry.



I suggest that not destroying our sources of water and not using it so

carelessly (growing rice in drylands and building golf courses in deserts

come to mind) will serve better in the short to medium term. Of course if

tomorrow somebody comes up with a way to make large scale atomic fusion

efficient and practical I will be made to eat my hat. Since the idea was

first shown to be theoretically possible ( say a century ago) a practical

solution has always been predicted to be available in "about 30 years".

Well the greatgrandchildren of those blokes are still working on it.

The biggest problem at this point is educating the public. Maybe people are more socially-minded in OZ, but Up Here (US) it is only a minority of the population who are educated and aware enough to take the simple steps that
would reduce consumption dramatically.

People who have programmed sprinklers don't take care to adjust when water is not needed. In the middle of our dramatic storm last week, the CITY's sprinklers were still going!

As are those of my neighbor, on automatic. That storm soaked everything so well that no watering would be required for AT LEAST a week; I think more.
I know that at least several people including our shared gardener, have mentioned the wasted water, but so far no change...

I'm afraid it will take sky-high water costs -- and they are high anyway --
to make people stop & think. Alas, those high costs hit even the good guys,
like yours truly.

HB