I just finished watching the informative documentary TV program called, “The History of Water.” This documentary did an excellent job in describing the fresh water shortage throughout the world with a major segment focused on the desert southwest. While southwest state governments, under pressure from the US federal government, bicker on how this limited resource should be divided, it seems no one is really working on a long-term solution to the problem. Big cities with lots of taxpayer money think that using their wealth to buyout agricultural users is the answer, but we know that is not a solution, but a temporary patch. In the long run, this approach will result in increased food costs and potential food shortages.
While states bicker about who should get limited water resources, a July 19, 2016 article in Scientific American magazine shows that some people are solving this difficult problem using the latest advanced technology. The article is entitled, “Israel Proves the Desalination Era Is Here–One of the driest countries on Earth now makes more freshwater than it needs.” The article continues, “Israel now gets 55 percent of its domestic water from desalination, and that has helped to turn one of the world’s driest countries into the unlikeliest of water giants.” So with the abundance of available desalination technology and virtually unlimited potential solar power, why aren’t we working on similar solutions? Like most situations, it seems our government will wait until a crisis situation exists before taking action on a problem that affects tens of millions of Americans.
—Robert Kumza
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2016.
Has the writer looked at a map of Israel?
Negative arguments regarding desalinization are abundant. Costly, energy inefficient, high carbon foot print contributing to greenhouse gas effect, negative environmental impact resulting from excessive brine. Conservation is easier, cheaper and can be accomplished at corporate, institutional, and individual levels.
Much of the water that AZ agriculture uses is wasted on low-value crops like alfalfa, which is mainly used for cattle feed. Americans are going to have to eat a lot less beef in the near future if we are going to successfully conserve water to the extent necessary.
I see that What, Again is WRONG AGAIN.
I also see that you gave yourself an upvote.
What, A Troll!
Thank You Tucson Weekly!
Drop the junk classes in public schools and promote science and technology to solve our problems. We will make our own water soon.
An atmospheric water generator (AWG) is a device that extracts water from humid ambient air. Water vapor in the air is condensed by cooling the air below its dew point, exposing the air to desiccants, or pressurizing the air. Unlike a dehumidifier, an AWG is designed to render the water potable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_water_generator
Let’s move forwards, not backwards.
A contrarian climate-change prognostication that’s gaining credibility — check out the dry-as-a-prune West Coast sometime! — is that Southern AZ may soon be gaining desert-oasis status, a permanent solution to the challenge of scarce water.
As El Niño becomes a permanent fixture off San Diego, superheated Pacific Ocean water vapors are rising higher in the atmosphere each year, creating the near certainty of regular rainfalls here as rain clouds more frequently clear the San Diego mountains, eventually doing so all the time. Combined with the increasing frequency of tropical storms and even hurricanes in the Gulf of Baja California, this phenomenon may result in monsoons that really are monsoon and on the ground, rivers that really are rivers. (Phoenix will not be so lucky: it will only get hotter and hotter.)
Whether or not the entire scenario comes true, it is a known fact that radical changes in the weather induced by climate-change happen rapidly, in fairly recent history as quickly as in two to three years. Keep your life vests handy!