How much water do nuclear power plants use? I remember that in France, they had to shut down a nuke because there wasn't enough water to cool it. (Also, a lot of fossil fuels go into making nuclear power, I'm told.)
BTW, "peak water" makes more sense to me than "peak oil." Clean water is a "common property resource," sort of like fish in the sea. It is owned by society, but in a economic system (like ours) that encourages individual greed and lacks strong centrally-imposed limits, people, governments, and firms treat it as if no-one owns it. They will thus use as much as possible of the water. The cost to the individual is much lower than the cost to society, so water runs out. It's like over-fishing. In fact, if you think water is going to run out in the future, there's an incentive for an individual to use it up quickly, to beat the rush. It's true you can store water (so it stops being a common property resource), but that isn't currently economical for non-governmental entities. If corporations had large tanks to hold water in, droughts create the incentive for them to tap the publicly-owned water as much as possible to turn it into their asset. In addition, there's always hope that the rains will come... (Los Angeles has been hit by a drought, too.) On the other hand, once oil has been discovered, it's owned by someone, who will not want to use it up before its time. They'll hold back on pumping it (or refining it) if they think prices might go up, etc. It's true that slant-drilling occurs (breaking down the walls created by property rights) but it is also vigorously resisted. On 10/16/07, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > (Posted to science for the people mailing list by Marshall Ambros.) > > It would be great if people started to use less water at their home, but > the statement, "best Foods has swapped its dishes for paper plates and > foam cups," is very scary - if everyone did this than all our hills > would become landfills. > > It is important to fully understand who is using the water so I have > attached an article from the US Geological Survey which gives some > figures. Using this data I have calculated that, for total fresh water > usage in the USA: > > Irrigation uses 137 Bgal/d: 39.6 percent > Thermoelectric power uses 135 Bgal/d: 39.1 percent > Public water supply uses 43 Bgal/d: 12.5 percent > > Further, Public water supplies 85 percent of all residences. If it is > assumed that residences with private water supply (15 percent of total) > use roughly the same amount as a residence with public water supply, > then ((43 multiplied by 0.15) plus 43) is equal to: > > Residential water supply uses 49.45 Bgal/d: 14.3 percent -- Jim Devine / "The trick for radicals has been and will be to make of earth a heaven, but without blind faith." -- Mike Yates.
