https://hannahritchie.substack.com/p/forget-more-reservoirs-should-the
This is a really interesting read about the economics of desalination plants vs reservoirs.
I always just thought that desalination was prohibitively expensive unless you had no other option.
>no other dwindling options
Debbie says we're going to have to have desalination plants
I think the part that I really hadn't thought about is that most desal plants are designed only to fire up when there is extreme need.
That has the two obvious follow-on consequences mentioned in the article
1. It means they are super expensive per unit since most of the time that massive investment is idle
2. They are super unreliable because you don't do routine maintenance so when it's time to actually start them up, they don't start.
So much cheaper than I thought in places where they are base infrastructure and run full-time. Much more expensive than I thought in many common implementations
Inland coastal waters here are already suffering from creeping salinity --been ongoing for decades now. As arridification sets in and snow packs, glaciers, & aquifers disappear taking rivers & streams with them there is just not going to be fresh water available everywhere.
When golf courses are criminalized, only criminals will play golf.
>When golf courses are criminalized
reddit started working on that idea recently