Majority of groundwater stores resilient to climate change:
Fewer of the world's large aquifers are depleting than previously estimated, according to a new study by the University of Sussex and UCL.
[...] Previous global studies of changes in groundwater storage, estimated using data from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite mission and global models, have concluded that intensifying human water withdrawals in the majority of the world's large aquifer systems are causing a sustained reduction in groundwater storage, depleting groundwater resources.
Yet this new study, published in Earth System Dynamics, reveals that depletion is not as widespread as reported, and that replenishment of groundwater storage depends upon extreme rainfall that is increasing under global climate change.
Aquifer depletion is occurring only in 5 localities.
(Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Thursday August 27 2020, @09:51PM (14 children)
Summary says
But the article is a little more nuanced:
Good news for both climate alarmists (zomg groundwater depletion) and actual science respecting persons (ok, there's some loss of groundwater, but not as bad as we thought), but not so far as to say that there is no effect outside five locations.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Thursday August 27 2020, @10:31PM (6 children)
Don't worry about "depletion". The water doesn't go anywhere. Very little of it evaporates into space.
Contamination, that can be bad news. We're turning the aquifers into a giant piss pot
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2020, @10:38PM
Many aquifers are not recharging faster than they are being drained. Earth isn't losing water, but the communities that rely on aquifers will eventually be in pretty big trouble.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday August 27 2020, @11:12PM (4 children)
The climate-change related problem with water isn't that the water disappears, but that it replaces fresh water with salt water. And the salt water doesn't do well with crops.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday August 27 2020, @11:18PM (3 children)
Yeah, that's part of the 'contamination' issue. We don't lose water, we poison it.
And really, we should be on desalinated water by now anyway. We really don't have to do anything more than collect what falls out the sky out over the oceans.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday August 28 2020, @12:13AM (2 children)
Alternately, we could do what I did, namely factor in available fresh water supplies in choices about where we live and even more importantly grow crops and livestock, favoring "right near huge amounts of fresh water" over "in the middle of a friggin desert". That's what humans largely did before modern times, after all.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday August 28 2020, @12:37AM
I hear ya, man! [youtu.be]
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @02:50PM
> what humans largely did before modern times
So now all our metropolis's are built on top of the sites with the best farm land in the world. Thanks, old humans.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 28 2020, @01:15AM (6 children)
Natural aquifer depletion may only be happening in 5 places due to climate change, but human driven aquifer depletion is increasing EVERYWHERE (that humans live, or grow food), and will only be getting worse until cold fusion or something similar makes desalination practical/economical for more than the top 2% of the wealth curve.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday August 28 2020, @04:22AM (3 children)
*nod* but what are we going to do with the salt? Desalination processes split a stream of salt water into two streams, fresh water and salt-heavy brine, and adding that brine back to the sea in any quantity amounts to pollution (even though it came from there in slightly different form).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 28 2020, @02:21PM (2 children)
A "proper" desalination process would take the salt and spread it over a wide area. Since we've already got cheap energy, you can build and fuel supertanker sized "salt shaker ships" with that and send them on trans-oceanic voyages where they slowly dump the salt back into the oceans at a rate that doesn't negatively impact the water chemistry.
Rain clouds form from evaporation off the oceans which increases the salinity of the top layer - the salt shaker ships just have to spread it wide enough to reduce their impacts to an "acceptable level."
Meanwhile, it's a big planet. West Texas looks like a good place for salt mountain: national strategic bromide reserve.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:28PM (1 child)
The winds in West Texas will disperse the salts far and wide. Believe it or not, there are some prime agricultural lands there, and the salts would have a major impact on agriculture.
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:49PM
West Texas encompasses a pretty big area... I'm sure the locals would be pissed, but you could start by filling up the canyons around McKittrick / Guadalupe Mountains, that should cut down on the wind dispersal.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday August 28 2020, @06:31AM (1 child)
oooo, just had an idea!
We could solve several problems at the same time.
First, reprocess spent nuclear fuel rods to get the 3% of it that can't be used and recycle the rest. This reduces the amount of nuclear waste that needs to be stored. The average spent rod is 96% U-238, 1% Pu-238 (both can be reused) with just 3% of the fuel rod being various isotopes left over from splitting U-235 and Pu-238. Some of these isotopes are are neutron poisons and shut down the reactor so they when they hit 3% of the fuel rod the rod gets replaced or the reactor can't maintain a self sustaining reaction.. Now what make the 3% very interesting is that if you vitrifie the waste material you get a black glass that is both highly radioactive AND puts out a lot of thermal heat. So end product of cleaning up nuclear waste is a bunch or hot black glass that could be turned into marbles. Remember this part.
Second, build a modified Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) [wikipedia.org], which normally uses the temperature difference between deep cold ocean water and warm surface layers to generate both electricity AND fresh water. The temperature difference of the deep and surface water is usually 25 degrees C at best. But instead of using warm surface sea water use the vitrified nuclear waste in a pebble bed [wikipedia.org] configuration to heat sea water to feed into an OTEC power plant!! Enough of the vitrified waste could probably heat the water, via a heat exchange of course, to temperatures that the the OTEC could use.
Sure the efficiency of the plant would be low but so many problems would be solved.
What do we do with nuclear waste that has to be kept cooled?
How do we reduce the amount of nuclear waste that needs to be stored?
how do we cheaply heat water to steam distill it into drinking water?
How do we generate a electricity to meet base load?
answer: use the hot nuclear waste to heat the water to generate electricity and distill the steam into potable water.
The power plant would generate electricity and fresh water using the decay of radioactive isotopes. Clean nuclear power.
OK, I now open the floor to everyone who knows more about this stuff than I do and can explain why it wouldn't work.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @02:55PM
https://www.offshore-technology.com/features/feature-the-worlds-deadliest-offshore-oil-rig-disasters-4149812/ [offshore-technology.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday August 27 2020, @10:39PM (1 child)
Even in places where a desalinization or treatment plant alone or a solar plant alone wouldn't justify the cost for building it, building a combined power station and desal/treatment plant would be a good idea. I've been saying this since college. My design idea is a large thermal-mass solar installation that would use some of either the heat or the power to steam-distil water.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday August 27 2020, @10:49PM
(Score: 2, Interesting) by krishnoid on Thursday August 27 2020, @10:55PM
It's leaving the aquifers, no question. It's just that the underground Greenland water pipeline runs straight into them -- but I've probably already said too much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2020, @11:44PM (15 children)
Ground water is for the dirty low-life plebs.
Us elites drink river water melted from mountain snow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2020, @11:48PM (10 children)
*rolleyes*
River water IS groundwater. Unless you have some mechanism which ensures that all the rain in your region falls on the rivers, and never touches the ground. Oh wait - the river itself is on the ground!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2020, @11:54PM (9 children)
Groundwater is well water, stored in the water table underground, filtered thru the rocks with all the minerals making it hard.
River water flows out to the sea unless kept in reservoir - it don't stay in the ground.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Thursday August 27 2020, @11:57PM (1 child)
> filtered thru the rocks with all the minerals making it hard
so drink that instead of buying viagra, duh.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @01:05AM
what do you care about penis, you cheap piece of metal heap.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday August 28 2020, @05:42AM (6 children)
Rivers and streams are in fact fed by aquifers. They're the big leak.
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/rivers-contain-groundwater?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects [usgs.gov]
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/aquifers-and-groundwater?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects [usgs.gov]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:53PM (5 children)
Rivers are basically open sewers... just ask the mountain goats where they piss.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday August 29 2020, @06:08PM (4 children)
Shhhhhh!!! You'll create mass hysteria! Don't let the masses know that much of their water comes from "reservoirs" where there is legislation saying that no fecal matter is allowed to fall in, not from birds, nor animals, nor humans, not even worms.
Okay, /s and all, but all kinds of bad stuff gets into rivers and reservoirs and even aquifers, from which the water is "treated" with chlorine and I don't know what else but that's "tap" water.
Keeps the immune system exercised and invigorated. :)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:06PM (3 children)
Not when it's treated with chlorine...
Now, our well water aging tank - that has hanging slime gardens in it (no sunlight allowed, so they're not green slime...) I figure since we're not dead yet, that must be friendly slime and is likely to overcome any stray lizard poo bacteria that finds its way in there. That's how I keep our kids' immune systems exercised.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday August 30 2020, @01:14AM (2 children)
Especially when it's treated with chlorine! It's like jogging- you can jog on a flat surface, or you can jog up hills for a much better workout. Or athletic training- you can do so at sea level or at 12,000 feet for real strength and endurance. :)
Not sure how serious you are about the Hanging Gardens of Babbling in your tank, but I'm glad you're doing something to strengthen those immune systems. I got into a lot of things as a kid, including eating dirt a few times, and I seem to have a really strong immune system, and _no_ allergies. (As wacky as I can be, I'm 100% serious).
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 30 2020, @01:33AM (1 child)
The kids do pretty good as far as immunity / allergies go - although, they're kids - I seem to recall stepping on a rusty nail that put an orange mark on the back of my big toenail and not telling my parents because I didn't want the hassle that would inevitably ensue, not dead of tetanus yet...
I still fail to see how consumption of chlorine ripped gunk is training the immune system "better" than letting in live stuff that can reproduce?
One of my favorite quotes discouraging tongue piercings is the mouth bacteria found in the brains of people with tongue piercings... sometimes it gets out of hand in there.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday August 30 2020, @03:22AM
Immune system must learn of all attack vectors, including mutant zombie bacteria which survive chlorine. GGGRRRRR!!!!!
I wonder which is cause and which is effect...
Either way, seems to be a vicious cycle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @12:15AM (2 children)
Real elites drink distilled water mixed with precise amounts of minerals, and they drink it out of glass. No microplastics or fish pee.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @12:23AM
fish pee is how us elites get organic vitamins, fool.
Obviously, you are no elite like us, just fronting, a wanna-be elite.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @03:01PM
You mean electrolytes?
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Sunday August 30 2020, @07:37AM
How do you elites filter out the beaver piss?
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @01:43PM
Open them full blast
https://newrepublic.com/article/125450/heres-real-problem-almonds [newrepublic.com]
(Score: 1) by MIRV888 on Friday August 28 2020, @06:05PM (2 children)
'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. '
Game on people. It's ours to burn.
Why is god speaking like a schizophrenic?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:55PM
Because He was invented and later translated by a wide variety of people across the centuries. Even the Pope changes his mind, occasionally.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @03:53AM
There's too much popular misconception regarding God and the Bible. You missed the part where God told man (Adam) to take care of God's creation- Genesis 2:15 "The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it."
Dominion, yes, but that was before sin and the fall of man. Ever since, our souls (for those who have one) have been contaminated with sin and evil. Spiritually enlightened people inherently understand the difference.
https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/care-for-creation [usccb.org]