Collectively, we can't afford to leave our future purely in the hands of bereft and wayward leaders tending to cater for selfish interest. Nor can we take any confidence in much of vested interest which is often simply orientated to their financial gain.
We need to become involved..
If we sit silently on the sidelines society, quite frankly, is doomed - selfish interest will become the order of the day.
Desalination: Drink a cup of seawater? - US Geological Survey. The USGS Water Science School Thirsty? How 'bout a cool, refreshing cup of seawater? No, don't take us literally! Humans cannot drink saline water.
The "simple" hurdle that must be overcome to turn seawater into fresh water is to remove the dissolved salt in seawater. What makes water saline? What do we mean by "saline water? " Here are our parameters for saline water: Fresh water - Less than 1,000 ppm Slightly saline water - From 1,000 ppm to 3,000 ppm Moderately saline water - From 3,000 ppm to 10,000 ppm Highly saline water - From 10,000 ppm to 35,000 ppm By the way, ocean water contains about 35,000 ppm of salt. The worldwide need for freshwater The scarcity of fresh water resources and the need for additional water supplies is already critical in many arid regions of the world and will be increasingly important in the future. Desalination is not modern science In nature, this basic process is responsible for the water (hydrologic) cycle. Your own personal desalination plant. Desalination - Energy Down the Drain. Energy Down the Drain The Next Worst Idea The next worst idea to turning tar sands into synthetic crude is turning ocean water into municipal drinking water.
Sounds great until you zoom in on the environmental costs and energetic consequences. It may be technically feasible, but in the end it is unsustainable and will be just one more stranded asset. In 2003, I was one of two elected officials invited to serve on the California Desalination Task Force. The task force was the result of Assembly Bill 2717 (Hertzberg), authorizing the Department of Water Resources to study desalination facilities and “report on potential opportunities and impediments...” For nearly a year, an unwieldy group of individuals representing a multitude of agencies, industry, and environmental organizations convened around the state to study and prepare a report with their recommendations. Figure 1: reverse osmosis membranes The Water/Energy Nexus Make no mistake, California has a serious water crisis.
Too much Water. Energy Efficient Desalination Takes A Step Forward. The delivery of energy efficient desalination received a boost with the establishment of a major new research collaboration between CSIRO and nine of Australia's leading universities. The research aims to dramatically increase efficiency, and reduce the financial and environmental costs of producing desalinated water.
The research will help advance water desalination as an alternative water supply option for Australia. The research addresses one of the biggest challenges currently facing Australia, the delivery of sustainable water supplies. It will focus on energy efficient and environmentally sound desalination and water recycling programs. CSIRO, through the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, and in partnership with nine Australian Universities, has established the Advanced Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment Research Cluster.
"We also aim to improve membrane 'anti-fouling' properties - that is, the ability of the membrane to 'self-clean'. Email This Article. Small scale, energy-efficient desalination demoed. Right now, estimates are that a few hundred million people suffer from limited access to fresh water, and population growth and climate change are expected to rapidly exacerbate that problem. Many of these people have access to brackish or salty water, but desalinization plants only work efficiently on the large scale, with an attendant infrastructure. A paper released by Nature Nanotechnology on Sunday describes a microfluidic approach to desalinization that is roughly as energy-efficient as a large-scale plant, but compact enough that it could operate as a small, battery-powered device.
The basic idea behind the device is extremely simple: send a flow of salty water down a channel with a Y-shaped junction, and convince all the charged items, whether they're salt ions or cells, to take the left turn. That leaves a flow of relatively pure water running down the right fork. Convincing everything to make a left turn requires a technique termed ion concentration polarization. Encyclopedia of Desalination and Water Resources: Why Use Renewable Energy for Desalination. The scarcity of fresh water resources and the need for additional water supplies is already critical in many arid regions of the world and will be increasingly important in the future. It is very likely that the water issue will be considered, like fossil energy resources, to be one of the determining factors of world stability.
Many arid areas simply do not have fresh water resources in the form of surface water such as rivers, lakes, etc. and have only limited underground water resources that are becoming more brackish as abstraction of water from the aquifers continues. The world-wide availability of renewable energies and the availability of mature technologies in this field make it possible to consider the coupling of desalination plants with renewable energy production processes in order to ensure the production of water in a sustainable and environmentally friendly scheme for the regions concerned. The Need of Energy for Desalination. Large scale desalination: is there enough energy to do it? | lightbucket. Desalination & Water Reuse. Desalination - Ask an expert - The Lab - Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science. Cheaper desalination: Current thinking. Science/Nature | Desalination 'not the solution'
Turning salt water into drinking water is not a solution to tackle global water scarcity, the WWF has said. A report by the environmental group said a growth in the energy intensive technology would increase emissions and damage coastal and river habitats. More attention should instead be paid to conserving supplies, it suggested. The study was published as Australia announced plans to build one of the world's biggest desalination plants to supply drinking water to Melbourne. "Desalinating the sea is an expensive, energy intensive and greenhouse gas emitting way to get water," said Jamie Pittock, director of WWF's global freshwater programme.
"It may have a place in the world's future freshwater supplies but regions still have cheaper, better and complementary ways to supply water that are less risky to the environment. " The report called for greater emphasis on managing existing supplies before the go-ahead was given to major water projects. Securing supplies.
Major Breakthrough With Water Desalination System. Concern over access to clean water is no longer just an issue for the developing world, as California faces its worst drought in recorded history. According to state's Department of Water Resources, supplies in major reservoirs and many groundwater basins are well below average. Court-ordered restrictions on water deliveries have reduced supplies from the two largest water systems, and an outdated statewide water system can't keep up with population growth. With these critical issues looming large, researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science are working hard to help alleviate the state's water deficit with their new mini-mobile-modular (M3) "smart" water desalination and filtration system.
In designing and constructing new desalination plants, creating and testing pilot facilities is one of the most expensive and time-consuming steps. "The last time UCLA went into the field with its own newly built pilot system was in the '60s," Cohen said. Desalination. Home - Metro Transit. Light rail – The safest public transit mode! « Rail For The Valley. The following item is from Phoenix’s METRO Rail and addresses the safety issue of light rail. Much is said about the safety of on-street light rail or streetcars safety, especially at intersections, yet statistical analysis shows that a light rail/tram automobile intersection is much safer than an automobile automobile intersection. Accidents will happen and in the vast majority of cases of a tram/auto collision, it is the motorist who is at fault.
Of course, those who decry at-grade/on-street ‘rail’ operation never mention that SkyTrain annual death rate is two to three times higher than Calgary’s C-Train death rate. The recent non-fatal accident on Seattle’s new hybrid LRT system, caused by a car driver deliberately disobeying a traffic signal and driving in front of a moving tram, was given prominent display by major media, including national media over several days.
Yet this fatal accident, with a school bus is given just a footnote in the local media, as it was too common place!. Light rail notches a success in the West - Light rail, Mass transit | TerraPass: Fight global warming, reduce your carbon footprint. Any proposed new mass transit system inevitably touches off a religious war between those who see light rail as the saving grace of car-choked, sprawling metropolitan areas, and those who view it as an expensive boondoggle. Unsurprisingly, my sympathies lie with mass transit advocates, but of course it’s important that expensive public works projects actually serve the taxpayers that foot the bill.
So it’s nice to see that Phoenix’s new light rail system has surpassed ridership expectations. The 20-mile system linking Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa was projected to carry 26,000 riders per day. Currently it’s averaging 33,000. Moreover, the rail line has attracted $3.5 billion in private investment along its length, and the newly accessible downtown area has seen its revenue rise by 13%, even as revenue in the rest of the city has fallen by 16%.
The pattern of ridership in Phoenix is unusual. Types of Public Transit | BayRail Alliance. We have many different types of public transit, including buses, paratransit, shuttles, trolleys, light rail, subways and heavy rail, regional rail, and hopefully someday in California, a true high-speed rail service. When it comes to providing public transit, both the type of transit vehicle and how it is planned to be used, matter. Public transit is not "once size fits all". Every type of transit has a niche and a type of travel need that they serve best. U.S. planners and politicians who fail to recognize this build expensive projects that fail to meet most people's travel needs. The lack of understanding about appropriate transit type may stem from the car culture prevalent in the U.S., where many people here have little experience with public transit.
In the U.S., motorists can use the same automobile to drive to a store 3 blocks away, or across town, or to a city 50 or 500 miles away, or even across the country. One can't take a local bus and make it go 125 or 180 miles per hour. 3 Reasons Light Rail is an Efficient Transportation Option for U.S. Cities >> MetaEfficient. Public Transit = Much Safer Travel. Public Transit = Much Safer Travel Light Rail Progress – March 2001 Public transit – particularly light rail – is a very safe and efficient way to travel – certainly, one of the safest modes of urban transportation, and far safer than the automobile.
Incredibly, some roadway zealots and spokesmen for roadway industry interests claim that, even with more than 40,000 officially recorded street and highway deaths annually in the USA, the private automobile is somehow safer than mass transit. This fantasy immediately evaporates with any reasonable look at solid statistics, such as the data in the table and graph below for 1997 (the most recent year for which fatality data for all surface modes could be compiled). [Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics/National Transportation Statistics 1999 and FTA/National Transit Statistics and Trends 1998; average motor vehicle occupancy rate of 1.5 calculated from 1998 FHWA data] Fatalities are all reported; they can't be hidden. Light Rail vs. Trolley Bus - Mass Transit. With fuel prices on the rise and concerns about climate change, traffic congestion and parking weighing increasingly on the minds of commuters, transit systems across North America are looking for ways of convincing people to leave their private vehicles at home.
In the course of their deliberations, the minds of planners may drift toward systems that don’t use fossil fuels — systems such as electric trolley buses or various forms of electrified rail (light rail transit and others). Greater Vancouver uses a variety of transit modes, including electric trolleys and automated rail. Electric-powered transit has been a part of the region’s life for more than a century, and Vancouver retains the second-largest electric trolley fleet (after San Francisco) in North America.
In 1897, the BC Electric Co. introduced its streetcar system. By the 1940s, though, tracked systems were starting to fall out of favor, and BC Electric started moving to rubber tires. Trolley vs. Biogas. Improved smokeless stoves conserve 25% of the firewood needed for a traditional stove. This efficiency saves firewood gathering time and forest resources. The chimneys attached to these stoves remove smoke from the home environment particularly benefiting the health of women and children. The cost of improved smokeless stoves is affordable so they benefit even the poorest homes. Biogas Systems: • destroy methane, the highly destructive greenhouse gas, so it does not go into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming; • provide clean-burning fuel for stoves and lamps instead of using wood or dung which lose their soil building and fertilizing value when burned; • reduce labor, since women now spend one day a week to collect a backbreaking 60 - 80 lb. load of scarce wood or fodder. • protect the remaining forests by reducing the need to gather firewood; • reduce respiratory disorders caused by smoke from cooking with firewood which especially affects women and their small children;
Biogas China. ISIS Report 02/10/06 Biogas from biological wastes tops renewable energies as it also prevents carbon emissions and environmental pollution. It is at the heart of a burgeoning eco-economy in China, but certain constraints need to be addressed for its full potential to be realized. Prof. Li Kangmin and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members’ website, or is available for download here What is biogas? Biogas is a combustible mixture of gases produced by micro-organisms when livestock manure and other biological wastes are allowed to ferment in the absence of air in closed containers [1] (Dream Farms). Brief history There’s evidence that biogas was used to heat bath water in Assyria during 10 BC; and the first digestion plant to produce biogas from wastes was built in a leper colony in Bombay India in 1859 [2] (Sustainable Food System for Sustainable Development).
Figure 1. Why use biogas? Rich fertiliser and feed from anaerobic digestion. China Turns to Biogas to Ease Impact of Factory Farms by Eliza Barclay. 11 Nov 2010: Report by eliza barclay Ye Kaifang says his parents never dreamed he’d become a farmer. They made a fortune selling shipping boxes to computer companies and assumed Ye would take over the family business.
Instead, he took his trust fund and used it to buy pigs. Ye now has 8,000 of them on an 82-acre farm near the town of Cixi in Zhejiang province in southern China. The farm is set in a carefully cultivated green valley that’s quickly transforming from subsistence agriculture into agri-business. His farm is what might be called a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO, in the United States — an intensive model that’s been heavily criticized by environmentalists. But Ye, who’s 30, isn’t your typical farmer — he studied business in England and has a bachelor’s degree, and he prefers loafers to boots. Photo by Eliza Barclay Ye Kaifang stands in front of his farm's biogas digester, which converts animal waste into usable fuel. over one-fifth of the global total. Biogas Energy Inc. - Pig Manure Information. Is Algae the Biofuel of the Future? The Future of Algae Fuels Is ... When?
AlgaeFuel Biodiesel from Algae as a Fuel Sustainable Green Power Alga BioDiesel Biofuel development located in the San Francisco California Bay Area. Algae as Fuel of the Future Faces Great Expectations -- and Obstacles. Bill Gates invests in algae fuel | Green Tech. Fuel from algae growing beyond the laboratory. Aviation Fuel from Ohio Grown Algae Tested. S. Korea to Build World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm, Industry. Canada cuts environment spending | Environment. Deforestation in Amazonia. The bloody cost of Amazon deforestation | Benjamin Dangl. Deforestation Escalates in Brazilian Amazon. Deforestation: Chopping down the Amazon. Deforestation in the Amazon. Amazon Deforestation: Earth's Heart and Lungs Dismembered. Amazon rainforest deforestation - The main causes | Ecological Problems. All About the Indonesian and Congo Basin Rainforest. Rainforest Deforestation. Deforestation in Indonesia. Deforestation, Poaching and the Wildlife Trade in Indonesia.
Deforestation campaigning led to my deportation from Indonesia | Andy Tait | Environment. Congo activist works to halt deforestation. Report: Dangers of fracking greater than previously understood. Hydraulic Fracking | Green World Investor. Fracking the Future - The Dangers of Gas Drilling. Big oil companies face growing concern on fracking. Opposition to Natural Gas Fracking Heats Up « Only Ed. Big Oil- MojoMom.com. A Fracking Chemical Appears in Wyoming Aquifer. EPA links fracking to contamination of Wyoming aquifer. Torture. Solidarity Online » Wikileaks documents show who the real terrorists are. RW ONLINE: The Injustice of the U.S. Death Penalty. The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides. Death penalty produces injustice - Viewpoint. Troy Davis execution: Did the death penalty deliver justice? Capital Punishment In China: Death Vans & Organ Harvesting.
Wildlife Smuggling: Why Does Wildlife Crime Reporting Suck? (PHOTOS) Wildlife smuggling: Low-risk, high-profit - World news - World environment. Asia's Wildlife Trade. Wildlife smuggling rarer, but not extinct. Middle East’s Wildlife Smuggling Putting Species At Risk. Has exotic-animal smuggling got out of hand? | Environment. Wildlife Trafficking | People & Places. BBC World Service - Documentaries - The Wildlife Smugglers. Justice in the forests: Malawi | Natural Resources. Why Politicians Lie, and How They Get Away With It. Why Politicians Have to Lie (Thinking Hard about Politics) How Politicians Answer Questions Without Actually Answering | Lies, Deceit & Politics. ActNow - Global Poverty and Slavery. Down to Slavery. Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery in India. The New Slavery — Human Trafficking | Go Ye – Serve the World: Sharing Christ Glocally. SLAVERY TODAY IN AFRICA | 21st Century slavery | Modern Slavery.
Stop Chocolate Slavery. Hypocrisy and people smuggling - La Trobe Law Forum. Cambodia/ Malaysia: Domestic Workers Face Abuse. Rights of the Child. Help Stop Child Prostitution. Religion and Child Abuse News. Child Rights in Sri Lanka. Combating child sex tourism. AFGHANISTAN: Child Sex, Bacha Bazi and DynCorp. Soldier Children: Global Human Rights Issues - Children as Volunteer Soldiers, Children Forced into Military Service - Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society. Human Rights Violations: Child Abuse in Bangladesh. Children's Rights. Power, corruption and lies | World news. China, Russia and Corruption | China Power.
Corruption is eating rising powers. Corruption in China: The anger boils over. Bribery and graft taint every facet of life in China.