[ExI] Top Soil Depletion

[Kelly Anderson]

On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 5:22 AM BillK via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 16 Feb 2024 at 06:12, Kelly Anderson via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >
> > I see ground water depletion as a fairly easily solved problem once
> > one has sufficient energy resources. Simply desalinate and pump. With
> > fusion, it's fairly easy to see how that problem gets solved by a
> > future of energy abundance.
> >
> <snip>
> >
> > -Kelly
> > _______________________________________________
>
>
> Well, I see a few problems with that.  :)
>
> First, fusion power is always sometime in the next 30 years ahead.
> It would certainly be nice to have, but it may take a long time arriving.

That is true traditionally, but I believe it is now 20 years away, and
we may not deplete ALL the ground water before then...

> Groundwater depletion needs solutions quickly. Humans (and
> agriculture) cannot survive without fresh water. That's why current
> expensive desalination plants are still being installed. 'Necessary'
> overrides the expense.
> Though some installations may be able to use solar power.

The real solution is to desalinate for places like Los Angeles, and
let those upstream keep the water that naturally falls there. Of
course, this could be very difficult politically... but it beats
pumping water uphill 4000 feet.

>
> Then there are the environmental impacts. What to do with all the
> brine (concentrated saltwater) polluted with chemicals that is
> produced? Dumping it into the sea will harm marine life. The intake
> pipes also cause harm as they suck in plankton and small sealife.

If brine is pumped far enough out it will dissipate in the currents.
I'm not sure what chemicals are there that aren't already in sea
water. It would be virtually impossible to concentrate the ocean other
than perhaps in a very localized area.

> It all may be solvable eventually, but populations are faced *now*
> with wells drying up and land subsidence.

Sure. That's a problem in SOME places. Just like climate change and
soil deletion are a problem now in some places. If you have evidence
that one problem is bigger than the other in some way, I'm all ears...
but not everywhere has the problems that say, Ukraine has at the
moment. Different places, different problems. In the place I live, I
am suffering from an over concentration of governmental power in the
hands of the incompetent and malicious... hopefully, that's not a
problem everywhere... sigh.

-Kelly