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B4 the Bell Weakend Thread


Guest yobob1

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I like to find blogs from Iraqi people that tell me more about real life there.

Here is one that I enjoy, except today she has not translated to English.

just scroll down for a flavor of her experiences

http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

 

 

These are pics posted by Faiza this week. They tell a story.. life goes on.

http://picturesinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

 

and if you think what happens to people on the other side of the world

is not relevant to markets and our future, then just skip my post.

 

However, I am trying to figure out a way that I came create a business

that will be helpful to people in say, India, Iraq, and create enough income

to pay for the costs of doing business at least. Good Will is a benefit

that is important for me. I am considering going to some other countries

and trying to help the people learn skills/technology that will ensure a

better future for their communities. I am too old for Peace Corps, but I

am long on experience. LOL

 

Sherlock

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Amen- to the Bill Moyers article posted by WonMug. In regard to Desal it simply doesn't work, you can't produce enough water and the water you get is stripped of all minerals as part of the process. The advocates of Desal are like the wingnuts who think all the electricity we want can be provided by wind farms. On a small scale projects like these can be a adjunct to an existing system a very small adjunct.

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What about desalination? any good companies there?

Who is following this water thing from an investment perspective?

The Army Corps of Engineers will control the water.

They have caused more environmental damage than any other

entity in the history of our nation.

 

Desal in Tampa Bay is a high cost disaster.

 

Plus, if you put to much desal water into the pipes the older

pipes collapse.

 

And then you have to get rid of the minerals.

 

Sorry, no answer.

 

We are trained to piss and shit in the potable water.

 

We could have solved these problems, but Bush Co. blew the

money in the invasion.

 

Depressing, isn't it.

Bermuda has had a sucessful desalination operation since the early 1960's

which suppliments the governments rain catchment operation. Also, Kindley AFB and NAVSTA Bermuda had desal operations.

 

The hotel industry has expanded greatly and Bermuda is in the process of building the second desal operation.

 

All residents catch water on their roof and route it to their cistern....the way it was

done 350 years ago.

 

Saudi desal operations pipe water to agriculture lands with impulse-sprinkler irrigation system.

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Ok, Brian4 says that desal removes all the minerals from the water.

 

Hunter65 says the Saudies are piping desal water for irrigation.

 

Plants need minerals, Right?

Humans need minerals, so what about us?

 

How do I reconcile these matters on the utility of desalinated water,

beyond understanding they make water for my steam iron the same way.

 

 

Sherlock :o

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How do I reconcile these matters on the utility of desalinated water, beyond understanding they make water for my steam iron the same way.

The minerals in salt water pile up by the truckload.

Too toxic for plants. The water from desal is

called 'hungry'. Very corrosive to existing pipes

in the ground. Tends to cause leaks in them.

 

Dumping the minerals back into the ocean creats

dead zones.

 

However, in your home a Reverse Osmosis system

produces good water in small amounts for drinking

only.

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Guest libertas
California wouldn't have a water problem if we didn't waste it on things like that.

Excuse me. But 85% of California's water supply goes to agriculture. Domestic and industrial consumption are only 15%.

 

While growing lawns in a desert is wasteful, growing rice in PADDIES - flooded fields in a desert - is waaay over the top. But that's what the farmers do.

 

California's Enemy - The State

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California wouldn't have a water problem if we didn't waste it on things like that.

Excuse me. But 85% of California's water supply goes to agriculture. Domestic and industrial consumption are only 15%.

 

While growing lawns in a desert is wasteful, growing rice in PADDIES - flooded fields in a desert - is waaay over the top. But that's what the farmers do.

 

California's Enemy - The State

I sit corrected. Where I lived, however, the agricultural use was primarily trickle irrigation, going directly to tree roots, the most efficient use of water. No wasteful flooding. (Friends who owned orange ranches told me that trickle irrigation was the industry standard there.) However, the ridiculous residential watering was by sprinkler systems, and of course swimming pools have massive evaporation.

 

I have no statistics to back this -- but I know that at least with my house, far more than 50% of water usage was wasted on lawn maintenance. Wouldn't saving 50% of residential water use be a significant help at a time of water shortage?

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Nope, I take it back. I just read the article on water usage. Yes, agriculture uses 85% of the water (I'll accept their statistic) and obviously much is wasted.

 

However, food is a necessity. Lawns are not. Wasteful agricultural practices, and the oversubsidization of marginally economic agriculture should certainly be stopped. But if the Central Valley of California were a country, it would have the 10th highest GDP in the world. (That statistic is several years old, but you get the idea.) It provides the livelihoods for millions of people, and the food we eat. Do you like peaches, oranges, walnuts, and other tree fruits? I'd much rather see water going to that instead of people's swimming pools and lawns.

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Guest libertas
Nope, I take it back. I just read the article on water usage. Yes, agriculture uses 85% of the water (I'll accept their statistic) and obviously much is wasted.

 

However, food is a necessity. Lawns are not. Wasteful agricultural practices, and the oversubsidization of marginally economic agriculture should certainly be stopped. But if the Central Valley of California were a country, it would have the 10th highest GDP in the world. (That statistic is several years old, but you get the idea.) It provides the livelihoods for millions of people, and the food we eat. Do you like peaches, oranges, walnuts, and other tree fruits? I'd much rather see water going to that instead of people's swimming pools and lawns.

Agriculture is somewhere around 2-2.5% of California's economy. The issue is that water supplies to agriculture are being heavily subsidized at my expense, leading to wasteful practices.

 

Charge me for the water in the price of the peaches, where I have a choice, not in my taxes. But by the way, 25% of the water goes to producing alfalfa. People don't eat alfalfa. At least I don't.

 

"Alfalfa uses 14% of the land but 25% of the state's irrigation water while producing 4% of the agricultural revenue"

 

California Water Policy - A Unique Opportunity

 

Could we compromise on the alfalfa?

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Nope, I take it back. I just read the article on water usage. Yes, agriculture uses 85% of the water (I'll accept their statistic) and obviously much is wasted.

 

However, food is a necessity. Lawns are not. Wasteful agricultural practices, and the oversubsidization of marginally economic agriculture should certainly be stopped. But if the Central Valley of California were a country, it would have the 10th highest GDP in the world. (That statistic is several years old, but you get the idea.) It provides the livelihoods for millions of people, and the food we eat. Do you like peaches, oranges, walnuts, and other tree fruits? I'd much rather see water going to that instead of people's swimming pools and lawns.

Agriculture is somewhere around 2-2.5% of California's economy. The issue is that water supplies to agriculture are being heavily subsidized at my expense, leading to wasteful practices.

 

Charge me for the water in the price of the peaches, where I have a choice, not in my taxes. But by the way, most of the water goes to producing alfalfa. People don't eat alfalfa. At least I don't.

A-friggin'-men.

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