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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2002
Location: New Jersey, USA
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 34747
Location: yes
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 Posted: Sun Apr 05, 15 8:30 pm Post subject: |
 
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iirc desalination seems as though it should be easy but it isnt either on a small or large scale unless you use a lot of energy to boil or pump or cool or alter the pressure and similar difficult stuff.
the natural version uses a massive surface area of sea,huge amounts of sunlight and a large set of mountains drop the temp and pressure to get the vapor to condense into rain
mangrove trees are quite good at living in saline water and some plants have salt vaults that are shed with old leaves but most terrestrial flora and fauna is dependent on the rain cycle |
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2002
Location: New Jersey, USA
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 10318
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| Posted: Mon Apr 06, 15 7:39 am Post subject: |
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Rather sounds like too little too late, but a step in the right direction. I am pretty sure in the UK you have to have a licence to either extract water from rivers or groundwater, and there is some vague threat about utilising what falls on your own ground.
It is possible to get fresh water from saline without using a lot of power or high technology, but it probably wouldn't produce anything like enough. Just using the suns heat to evaporate the water under a plastic cover shaped to drop the condensate into run off channels will produce a fair bit even in the UK, but as I said, probably nothing like enough. |
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Tavascarow
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
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| Posted: Mon Apr 06, 15 10:13 am Post subject: |
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From what I've read on the subject the almond crop alone uses around 3.5 billion cubic metres of water per annum. When I first read that I didn't believe it, until I read that there is around one million acres of almonds there, & more being planted.
Walnuts & pistachios are also big orchard crops there, although almonds are the greatest.
The problem with orchard planting is the time investment.
In times of drought a salad or soft fruit grower can cut back production till water is abundant again. Sometimes it's more profitable to put land to fallow rather than pay for extra water.
Orchard trees are long term investments & need copious amounts of water to keep them alive.
Marzipan is going to be expensive this Crimbo. |
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 34747
Location: yes
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| Posted: Mon Apr 06, 15 12:06 pm Post subject: |
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yucca and prickly pear etc etc would require little or no water.
growing almonds is a bit of a luxury crop for what is a desert landscape with a few rivers from the hills. |
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Tavascarow
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 10318
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| Posted: Thu Apr 09, 15 6:50 am Post subject: |
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He is talking a lot of sense. The first rule of farming is to work with the water, land etc. that you have to get the best crops, not try to change it out of all recognition because you have the technology. Think that is one of the problems with the almonds etc. in California. They are trying to grow too much of a crop because they have the sun and temperature without thinking sensibly about the water.
There is an attempt round here to stop the water run off from new estates by building soak away ponds, but I am still not too happy about it, and think there could be flooding 'downstream', although the only streams are winterbournes further down the valley.
Ploughing across slopes does a lot to do the same as his catchement ponds, but with tractors, that is too dangerous. With horses and oxen, it was usual and resulted in the lynchets or field systems we have round us. |
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2002
Location: New Jersey, USA
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 10318
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 15 6:41 am Post subject: |
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Think the idea of putting the water from treated waste back into the aquifers is a good one. Not only does it make it seem 'cleaner' but it picks up the minerals so is better for people to drink. |
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Tavascarow
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
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| Posted: Sat Aug 22, 15 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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Nestle Pays Only $524 to Extract 27,000,000 Gallons of California Drinking Water!!!! Yes twenty seven million American gallons of water for five hundred & twenty four dollars.
We live in an upside down world where Americans have been arrested for protesting because they need a fifty dollar permit first (I kid you not). & a multinational like Nestle rob the country of the very essence of life from a state that's suffering it's worst ever recorded drought.
There are times when I can't believe how crazy the world has become. |
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