"The list goes on and on for what we can do better. The fact remains, the desert southwest is going to continue to grow. We can't only have the monsoonal rains and Colorado River to depend on. We need to get smarter, and fast."
Did you hear about the horrific fires in Colorado late last month? Fueled by high winds and - drought. Drought? In the Colorado Rockies? In December? Yes, just like the drought which gripped much of the country last summer. Once again, we sit on this big blue marble (Mother Earth), which is comprised of 71% water, having droughts. Is it not time we learn to harvest water? To make sure that water starved locations on Earth, have access to at least some water? Do we have the technology to do so? Maybe, yes.
Water. Made up of two elements in our universe, of which there is plenty. Two hydrogen atoms, and one oxygen atom. They share electrons, which binds them together, to make water. That is it. This simple ingredient, which is absolutely critical in bringing and maintaining life. Plant life, and animal life. Us. Yet for some reason, we are still harvesting water the old fashioned way. Taking water out of rivers, Taking water out of the ground. Praying for rain. Yet, the vast majority of our planets water resources go untapped. Why?
Consider this interesting fact for a moment. In the heat of summer, when many of us are dripping sweat from the heat and HUMIDITY, there is a whole lot of water in the air we breathe. How much? About 4% of all water on Earth is trapped in the air. That would be about 37.5 million billion gallons of water. Right in front of our noses.
Right now, we have many products which can extract water out of the air. Dry air, moist air, it does not matter. Some run on solar power. The smallest home units can produce a few liters a day - the larger ones, hundreds of liters a day. We need to upscale this technology so we can extract (at an affordable price) millions to billions of liters per day. The water is there for the taking.
Runoff from storms. The amount of water which comes down as rainfall, which does not go into ground water, but instead is runoff - is simply astounding. Consider this - an average thunderstorm which produces one inch of rain, yields about 27,000 gallons of water per acre. Some of that goes into ground water (good), some gets evaporated, and some gets runoff into storm sewers, rivers and creeks. Much of our runoff, eventually makes it to the oceans. That fresh water then becomes no longer fresh.
The graphic in this article, is a picture of Earth taken from one of our satellites. It shows a view of our planet which is almost all water. Having flown from LA to Sydney, I can testify how much water I flew over. It was never ending. Bottom line? We will never run out of ocean water to make fresh water. Especially since many of the scientists are predicting a rise in ocean levels. To desalinate is expensive for sure - but the technology has been around for decades.
It is time for us to get smart on our water resources. Use more drip irrigation. Have more rain barrels in homes. Trap more runoff water, before it goes into the oceans. Extract more water from the air we breathe. The list goes on and on for what we can do better. The fact remains, the desert southwest is going to continue to grow. We can't only have the monsoonal rains and Colorado River to depend on. We need to get smarter, and fast.
How long can plants and animals last without adequate water? Not long. Some plants can store up water and go for long periods of time. However, most plants and animals cannot. Humans can only go three days before becoming dehydrated. Death comes shortly after that.
Harvesting of water should be a necessary part of our Agriculture Department. Food and water should be its mainstay. Take the food stamps our of Ag, and put it in the Heath and Human Services Department. The Ag Department needs to "stick to their knitting". Time to get smart folks. We can do this. No time like the present.
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