Unfortunately, water is not a renewable resource - there is a limit on the amount of water on the Earth (barring minor variances). There is a lot of water on the Earth that is not potable (i.e. the oceans) and it is possible to convert that water to potable, but that conversion requires energy which needs to be produce using water. Water used in energy production need not be potable, and combined generator/desal plants on the Arabian Peninsula show how to do that - but those plants do not use renewable energy. Thus, some of the renewable energy projects need to both generate electricity and distill water.
The other issue is transport of water. Water is heavy and until its cost rises, transport of water outside of natural watercourses is too expensive to be feasible. If the cost rises as locales run out of easily available local water, then the riots ensue. Albuquerque is at the limit with the transfer program from one watershed to another - pipelines are the least expensive method to move water but they lack flexibility. Ray Parks Consilient Heuristician/IDART Program Manager V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084 NIPR: rcpa...@sandia.gov SIPR: rcpar...@sandia.doe.sgov.gov (send NIPR reminder) JWICS: dopa...@doe.ic.gov (send NIPR reminder) On Feb 24, 2014, at 11:26 AM, Merle Lefkoff wrote: > Is this really news? I think we already know that humans are rapidly > diminishing the resources of Mother Earth, the community on which our own > existence and well-being depends. Enough with predictions about the coming > catastrophe. Enough with the blah, blah. We're running out of time, guys. > The Center for Emergent Diplomacy is taking DIRECT ACTION, as we all should. > I'll be sending messages to the list soon about Bretton Woods 3.0, to be held > in April, 2016, at the site of the original 1944 BW meeting. This global > conference is being designed to incorporate CAS principles. Our $2m price > tag is being funded by a group of young social entrepreneurs, investors in > renewable energy projects. > > "However differentiated in its modes of expression, there is only one Earth > community--one economic order, one health system, one moral order, one world > of the sacred." Thomas Berry, "The Ecozoic Era". > > > On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 10:30 AM, Roger Critchlow <r...@elf.org> wrote: > The IEEE noticed that peak copper is coming this century, too. 10000 years > we've been mining all the copper we wanted, no trouble, but sometime before > 2100 the tide turns. If you think there's been a lot of copper theft lately, > just wait till the prices double a few more times. > > But the real crunch will no doubt be some out-of-left-field interaction > between resource shortages. > > -- rec -- > > On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 10:11 AM, Parks, Raymond <rcpa...@sandia.gov> wrote: > Mike Hightower and others at Sandia have been predicting that water will be > (perhaps already is) the critical resource at the root of social unrest and > change in our era. Water is needed for life sustainment, it's needed for > food production, and it's heavily intertwined with energy production. > > http://www.sandia.gov/energy-water/ > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > -- > Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. > President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy > Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA > me...@emergentdiplomacy.org > mobile: (303) 859-5609 > skype: merlelefkoff > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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