Global fresh water demand will outstrip supply by 40% by 2030, say experts
Landmark report urges overhaul of wasteful water practices around world on eve of crucial UN summit
Nestle: Just as planned
edit: On the bright side, Solar Stills will probably work a lot faster in the future.
I know you are joking, but for people that don't know: Solar Stills are total scams. They might work in a pinch as a survival tool, but for long term it's a non starter.
They have many issues, for example in places that don't have a lot of water and thus would be the most needed, they simply don't work. If there isn't a lot of water in the air, there isn't any to extract. Even in perfect conditions these things produce very little water, in most conditions you'd be lucky to get a couple of drops. Second issue is the water isn't clean, there is so much stuff floating in the air, you can't drink the water that comes out without filtering / boiling first. If that step is required you might as well go with ground or surface water sources. And if there isn't any ground or surface water sources, there won't be any water in the air most likely. Third issue is you are creating a hot and humid environment, which is an excellent breeding ground for all sorts of nasties. Think legionnaires disease and all sort of other bacteria and fungi. Within days it becomes a serious health hazard. Last issue is the materials used are almost by definition cheap and exposed to hard uv a lot of the time. This makes them degrade quickly and fall apart. Leaving plastic waste and chemicals leaking into the water it produces, until it just falls apart.
There have been so many crowd funding campaigns for clean water from the air over the past decades. Maybe some of them are simply naive and well meaning, but almost all are plain old scams. Feeding off the desire of people to help other people, only to fill their own pockets.
And furthermore, the problem with access to clean water is capitalism. There is plenty of water available, we have the means to extract it from the ground, surface and sea. We can process it, clean it, recycle it. Use trucks or pipes to transport it to places that don't have it. The only issue is, that costs money and the people living where the water is needed don't have a lot of money. So bringing water to these places simply doesn't generate a profit and thus doesn't get done. It isn't some kind of huge technical issue, there are many rich places in the desert that have plenty of water. Think oil states in the Middle East, or places in the US like Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico etc. Capitalism is the issue, not technology.
America would rather invade Canada for water than tell private corporations they need to be regulated more.
The Guardian also has an excellent article today on companies like Nestlé and Danone emptying out aquifers.
‘It’s not drought - it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water | Life and style | The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/nov/23/spanish-villages-people-forced-to-buy-back-own-drinking-water-drought-flood
40% huh? Where have I heard that percentage before...
Capital will literally destroy this planet in order to "profit" from cars and carnism.
Well, yes, but many regions that are going to have water supply issues aren't near the animal ag farms. Closing a dairy farm in New Hampshire isn't going to help things in central Africa. The bigger culprit is Climate Change bringing dry air flows to areas that previously had more humidity and precipitation.
Closing a dairy farm does actually help. It means less CO2 in the air, less climate change, and thus less dry air in central Africa.
For the water itself you are correct, but animal farms are very much a reason of climate change.
Well, and people will keep buying said things. Billionaires shouldn't exist, and they're easy to blame, but there's not that many of them. They definitely aren't personally eating that much meat, at least.
unsurprisingly, this "research" is also infected by poore-nemecek 2018
To clarify what this user is referring to, Poore & Nemecek 2018 is a recent, widely cited meta-analysis covering over 1530 studies assessing the environmental impacts of food. It's published in one of the world's top academic journals – Science – and authored by Dr. Joseph Poore, the director of the University of Oxford’s food sustainability program, and Dr. Tomas Nemecek, an expert on agroecology and life cycle assessments from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.
They somehow constantly appear like a spectre whenever this study gets brought up to try to spread FUD about it through vague and unsubstantiated nonsense. They do this because it's extremely compelling, effectively unambiguous evidence that many animal products such as dairy are abysmal for the climate ("because it's devastating to my case!"). I highly encourage anyone interested to read it for themselves. The article is paywalled, but Dr. Poore hosts it for free through their personal website, so you don't have to take either of our words for it.
Edit: the paper they quote (but conspicuously don't link to) below to try to refute this methodology is itself a meta-analysis of 369 LCA studies in the same vein as Poore & Nemecek. I can't; my sides are in orbit. Edit 2: For anyone wanting to read it in full, Lancaster University hosts Clune, Crossin & Verghese 2015 legally and for free as well, so again, you don't have to take either of our words for it.
Dont worry, there will be a considerable drop in demand due to artificial circumstances. So I wouldn't worry if you survive what is to come.
Plus, you know that a human body is like 70% water? If you're one of those billionaire vampires you are going to be just fine.
Also not an issue if you're in the rich part of the world, or just one that has a lot of water. Fortunately I don't think water is gonna be what makes Russia invade, don't know what their supply looks like but I can't imagine it's not enough.
But I need it to cool my AI powered rule 34 service.
I guess, "do not become addicted to water"
It's kind of a funny thing to say, because as the tagline itself mentions demand isn't (totally) fixed. It also doesn't give the source of that exact statement, annoyingly.
What's actually going to happen is that people some places are going to have scarcity and have to cut back or import more at a cost. Either gradually, the way it seems to be shaping up where I live, or suddenly, like whenever California's aquifers finally bite it.
Yeah I mean I wonder how much water would be saved in water scarce places if people just stop having lawns for no reason.
People can put actual effort into their homes exterior and invest in native grasses and plants that way. Save a lot of water and end our troubles with toxic runoff
Good thing we'll only ramp that up in the name of capitalism
Well, the Danes are about to get super rich. Guess they were right to keep hold of Greenland.
Much like Canada though, I don't think they have resources to defend their water
Trumps claim that canada will solve the US water crisis worries me.
Good thing I mostly drink coffee, milk and juices
;)
Is it you, Jean-Jacques Rousseau?
And so the water wars have begun.
Mass migration, armies at the border, and superpowers killing whether they can't profit from.
More likely obligate vegan diets. The economic forces will drive the price of water heavy foods like meat and dairy up so high the masses will stop consuming them.
It’s not like vegetables require a ton of water to grow as well though right… right?
If water consumption doesnt increase from the average of the last 2030 years, we will run out of water in the year 5075
There is nothing to worry about /s
Detroit will make a come back! The city has plenty of water. Salt Lake City is finished and the Mormons can keep the soon to be dry dump.
There's not really a water problem, there's only expensive desalination. Since water is a government controlled resource, we'll just have to spend money on building new desalination plants.
I'm so glad I have a deep well in a place that will never run dry.
