[ExI] water control

spike spike66 at comcast.net
Mon Jul 16 23:12:17 UTC 2007


> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Jef Allbright
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Regulation vs. Freedom
> 
> On 7/16/07, Technotranscendence <neptune at superlink.net> wrote:
> 
> > (E.g., in the
> > California, much of the water for farming is shipped around in open air
> > canals -- meaning a huge amount of it evaporates.
> 
> I've wondered for a long time how much of that water is lost to
> evaporation. Can someone here provide a practical quantitative
> assessment or a pointer to same?
> 
> Dan, always good to have your participation on the extropy list!
> 
> - Jef

Jef, the phrase "lost to evaporation" is exactly what it was I was trying to
point out in an earlier post.    Water that is evaporated is recycled, in
the sense that it is carried high from whence it came, so that it can fall
again as snow on the mountains and irrigate the land anew, as wells as
produce power on its way to the sea.  

Granted, as Damien the Texan points out, some of that water falls where it
is not wanted or cannot be used because it is too low in elevation.  But I
would argue that this too is merely a water control issue.  Texas has been
recently pounded by excess rain.  Pahdnuh.  But this is a problem that can
be solved.  So in a sense, some of the water in an open canal is gained to
evaporation.

What if we had closed pipe everywhere replacing open canals?  Would not the
water that once evaporated now be taken out of the cycle?  Would not the
arid west become still dryer?  We could arrange open canals and vast fields
upon which to intentionally evaporate water in the dry west, while
simultaneously diverting some of the water in the Mississippi into closed
pipe to reduce the high humidity there.  We could even out the humidity and
rainfall to some extent, thus constructing habitat for humanity.

spike








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