Keith, Not to belittle your concern about water, its importance, and the likelihood of wars being fought over it, but I still tend to feel that energy in one form or another is of utmost importance. I currently live in an environment where life is highly dependent upon technology and energy. This has led me to appreciate that man can probably live just about anywhere as long as he has the energy to bring his life support along and to keep it running. He can practically make water as long as he has the energy to do it.
My case in point. I currently live in Saudi Arabia. Life in the past was mostly nocturnal and by a few camel herders. Now, thanks to technology and relatively cheap energy, life is fairly normal here. Of course, it has its price. My house has two humongous air-con units that run constantly in the summer when the temperature outside is at 130 F and more. For water, the compound has a deep well that brings up this stuff that only someone with a good imagination might call water. However, after running it through a reverse osmosis plant it rivals most of the stuff one might get out of the faucet in the States or Europe. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest producer of desalinated water. Basically, the main product of the petroleum fields is petroleum for export. They have this byproduct called natural gas that used to be just burned off (!). Now they are using it to run their electrical generator plants, to their way of thinking, getting something for nothing. The electrical plants have been designed as co-gen plants, and as I understand the process, the waste heat from the electrical generation is used in a process of evaporative desalination. So, they get gobs of water from the sea as a byproduct of electrical generation. Consequently, in one of the driest of spots on the globe, there is plenty of water. And guys, please don't flame me on the waste of energy, etc. I'm not saying that I think this is a great idea and the way it should be. I'm basically stating what I have observed. But still, the water goes around and around and is recycled in nature. The supply of water mostly becomes a problem by being impure or not being in the right place at the right time. Energy use can change that. Therefore, I tend to think that of the two the most fundamentally important is plentiful energy. Derek W. Hargis [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 10:43 AM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Musings about toilet tissue <Major Snip> > I'm rather alarmed by the fact that, in China at least, they're > increasingly using flush toilets, surely the most wasteful device > ever invented. And this at a time when water is increasingly being > seen as THE scarce resource (not oil), over which future wars are > likely to be fought (again, not oil). Along with the immense waste of > soil fertility and resulting pollution. Truly insane. This in a > country that's maintained its soil fertility and fed its growing > population for 40 centuries. And they're far from alone. > > There's some background here: > http://journeytoforever.org/compost_humanure.html > Humanure > <Major Snip> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
