Where is all the water going?

[Anonymous 3]

I'm in southern Europe, and it isn't that the water is "going" anywhere, it's just that we haven't had enough rainfall for several years to make up the deficit. Right now, it's forbidden to water your garden (regardless of the origin of the water), fill your pool or wash your car at home. Add to that the massive consumption of water required for the current forest fires and it's not really a mystery as to why there's a shortage.

I think her point is that there's always the same amount of water in the world and so many places are experiencing that same thing (the chronic droughts are one reason we left California) the water that would usually be there has to be somewhere.

[RIZZY1]

I've read that the term drought is being redefined. It no longer refers to the amount of rain falling but rather the amount of rainfall needed to sustain the human population in a given area.

I suppose, in theory, it could be so hot that the rain evaporates in the atmosphere before it ever gets to the ground. And if the water becomes salinised, it is no longer fresh water so not counted for groundwater.

[Deleted User 1977]

Just a guess.... climate change and global adjustments (for lack of a better word) that should be mandated but are ignored by too many who don't believe in climate change.

But us....people....and how many there are of us now on this planet. More homes being built require water to assist with various parts of building homes and communities. In turn, the people who live in these homes/communities that have already been built place higher demands on water.

[cgd5112]

Sorry, I meant water rights. I don’t know if that adds to your reply.


Maybe the Saudis figured that since they already coughed up 2 billion dollars for J Kushner, they can use all the water they want.

But on a serious note, I read or heard that they actually bought some water rights. It may be what you wrote about the wells. Do they own/lease any of them?

No they lease the land from Arizona’s state land trust. The water belongs to the state, not the Saudis. It’s a bit complicated. Fondomonte Is technically in violation of the terms of the lease and now this company is paying 1/6th what it should be paying by lease terms in addition to an unknown amount of water usage as they have refused to disclose and have not paid for. It is puzzling a lot of people why more action isn’t being taken over this especially since we are in a drought. My rights, the state can auction the water from any and all of the 15 wells on the land to other entities or use it for state needs.

Don't the saudis own some property rights in AZ? With the current drought, AZ may have to pay the Saudis for water ..?

Saudi Arabia.

Sorry a little salty that my state is massively cutting agricultural water usage but exempting the 15 sq mile Saudi owned farm which is growing alfalfa, a high water consuming crop.

In general, water evaporates, clouds fill heavily with the condensation, then rain/snow/sleet returns it. However, with the current climate conditions, the condensation has been evaporating too quickly before it barely “leaves” the clouds, so never making it to the land or our water ways.

[SallyMae]

Fresh water is a serious problem, but there is an answer. Much of the world gets enough fresh water right now from desalinization. In a future with less fresh water and rising sea levels, we'll have to put massive energy into desalinization plants to maintain population areas and agriculture.

This has a some downsides, notably that it is energy intensive. We cannot burn fossil fuels to power this process without making climate problems far worse. However there is an answer for this also. Liquid salt thorium nuclear reactors can provide clean, safe and abundant energy.

We have tech that can solve these problems, we just need a sizable investment in getting started.

[Deleted User 1990]

Fresh water is a serious problem, but there is an answer. Much of the world gets enough fresh water right now from desalinization. In a future with less fresh water and rising sea levels, we'll have to put massive energy into desalinization plants to maintain population areas and agriculture.

This has a some downsides, notably that it is energy intensive. We cannot burn fossil fuels to power this process without making climate problems far worse. However there is an answer for this also. Liquid salt thorium nuclear reactors can provide clean, safe and abundant energy.

We have tech that can solve these problems, we just need a sizable investment in getting started.

We should make nuclear reactors to help the environment?

They are environmental destroyers if things go wrong…

[Anonymous 4]

Fresh water is a serious problem, but there is an answer. Much of the world gets enough fresh water right now from desalinization. In a future with less fresh water and rising sea levels, we'll have to put massive energy into desalinization plants to maintain population areas and agriculture.

This has a some downsides, notably that it is energy intensive. We cannot burn fossil fuels to power this process without making climate problems far worse. However there is an answer for this also. Liquid salt thorium nuclear reactors can provide clean, safe and abundant energy.

We have tech that can solve these problems, we just need a sizable investment in getting started.

We should make nuclear reactors to help the environment?

They are environmental destroyers if things go wrong…

We need to see how it works out for Israel and China.

[Deleted User 1990]

Fresh water is a serious problem, but there is an answer. Much of the world gets enough fresh water right now from desalinization. In a future with less fresh water and rising sea levels, we'll have to put massive energy into desalinization plants to maintain population areas and agriculture.

This has a some downsides, notably that it is energy intensive. We cannot burn fossil fuels to power this process without making climate problems far worse. However there is an answer for this also. Liquid salt thorium nuclear reactors can provide clean, safe and abundant energy.

We have tech that can solve these problems, we just need a sizable investment in getting started.

We should make nuclear reactors to help the environment?

They are environmental destroyers if things go wrong…

We need to see how it works out for Israel and China.

Why?

The risks will still be there regardless of how it works out for them in the short term…

[Anonymous 5]

Fresh water is a serious problem, but there is an answer. Much of the world gets enough fresh water right now from desalinization. In a future with less fresh water and rising sea levels, we'll have to put massive energy into desalinization plants to maintain population areas and agriculture.

This has a some downsides, notably that it is energy intensive. We cannot burn fossil fuels to power this process without making climate problems far worse. However there is an answer for this also. Liquid salt thorium nuclear reactors can provide clean, safe and abundant energy.

We have tech that can solve these problems, we just need a sizable investment in getting started.

We should make nuclear reactors to help the environment?

They are environmental destroyers if things go wrong…

Could existing nuclear power plants be retrofitted? I mean there are currently 93 operational nuclear reactors in the US.

[SallyMae]

Fresh water is a serious problem, but there is an answer. Much of the world gets enough fresh water right now from desalinization. In a future with less fresh water and rising sea levels, we'll have to put massive energy into desalinization plants to maintain population areas and agriculture.

This has a some downsides, notably that it is energy intensive. We cannot burn fossil fuels to power this process without making climate problems far worse. However there is an answer for this also. Liquid salt thorium nuclear reactors can provide clean, safe and abundant energy.

We have tech that can solve these problems, we just need a sizable investment in getting started.

We should make nuclear reactors to help the environment?

They are environmental destroyers if things go wrong…

The old ones certainly were. However the new technology for thorium-powered reactors is better in every way. The new reactors are cooled with liquid salt instead of water, so even if everything goes wrong, the salt cools and freezes, stopping the reaction and containing the radiation. Liquid salt reactors are called "walk-away safe" because even in the case of natural disasters they do not leak or melt down. Also, thorium is plentiful in every nation, and thorium reactors can consume the radioactive waste from the previous generation of reactors.

And there is another reason we need safe nuclear energy. Solar and wind technologies are not enough. They cover too much land and only return about 10-1 on the energy needed to make them work. Fossil fuels return 50 - 1, and that is the kind of energy density we need to run a technological society for everyone. Thorium reactors can return 100 - 1 energy, more than we have ever had. That's enough to provide cheap power for everything, at low risk and non-polluting.

We will need massive desalinization plants, and other giant powered environmental processes like carbon sequestration, to make the world livable in the future. But we can do it. We have the technology.