California Colloquium on Water - William M. Alley

[ficken3]

Increasing desalination efficiency is not easily done. You are limited by laws of thermodynamics. Water must be heated to a certain temperature to kill bacteria, and it must be turned into steam to eliminate most of the salt. I do believe California should be forced to use desalination and leave the landlocked states the Colorado river water, but I am biased being from one of those states.

[frnnk]

I believe that this borders on fearmongering. If we believe freshwater is running out, we may as well believe that fresh oxygen is running out as well. We all acknowledge that modern understanding of technological evolution: If we have a problem, we can infinitely invent our way to the solution. Therefore, just as we've increased solar power efficiency, desalinization technology shall aslo be. Watch this at your own risk.

[Chainslaw4]

@frnnk But it will get harder to get fresh water. Yes, there is plenty of water around, but in the case of 99% of it (98% seawater, 2% ice caps), to get it drinkable takes an enormous amount of energy, whether through desalination, melting, or using a still. Groundwater is valuable because it takes minimal energy to get at it and it's easily made drinkable.