Comments on: Global Groundwater Reserves Under Threat

By: chris

chris — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:11:00 +0000

The truth hurts sometimes i know

By: chris

chris — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:09:00 +0000

And you eat what besides beef? Chicken eats what? Vegetables and cotton need what? Lets just attack meat. Easy to point the finger at something you despise.

By: jonatpoly

jonatpoly — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:48:00 +0000

Desalination is not up to the challenge on a scale we’re talking about
here. It is still energy intensive and pollutes the surrounding ocean
water with excess salt, thus killing off sea life which is used as a food
source the world over. Desal is just moving the problem into someone
elses back yard. Also, do you really think taking water from the ocean is
going to lower sea levels somehow? Perhaps a better idea is to
reprocess runoff water on site or adapt crops to the local climates.

By: brian

brian — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:39:00 +0000

and all that watering foes for what? Alfalfa hay or corn for feed lots? Hence, 2400 gallons for one lb of ground round.

By: Guy Holder

Guy Holder — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:30:00 +0000

There is no environmental problem that isn’t a direct consequence of an ever increasing population. One day the world will seek to limit growth. There is no hurry as the economic consequences would be extreme.
I view it as an issue of child wellfare – babies deserve to be born into a family and society that wants them. Parents should be emotionally, intellectually and financially able to meet the needs of any child they bear.
There is currently the view that people have an absolute right to children but who is safeguarding the rights of the child not to be abused, the right to shelter, healthcare and education.
How about the availability of a good job. It seems impossible, over the long term to reconcile technology and efficiency with good jobs for an ever increasing population.
For me, sustainability is about one thing – stabilizing the population. Stop the babies – save the planet.
We have grown from 1 billion people to 7 billion people in under 200 years. Our environment as well as our infrastructure is continuously pressured as a result of this growth.
Some would suggest that population isn’t a problem – all the people of the world could fit in Texas. Using this logic, India is sparsely populated and Dade County FL is a big empty park.
Don’t think you’re impacted by population? Calculate how many hours a year you sit in traffic. Take note of the increasing percentage of your income to cover food and energy. When was the last time you visited a desrted beach? How long did you have to wait in a hospital emergency room before being seen? Does your child receive the attention he needs from his teacher or is the teacher distracted by ever larger class sizes.
While the more elite members of our society may not be as impacted, the rest of us are and so is the environment.
It’s a pity that an imaginary problem like the use of fossil fuels merits more attention than solutions for a better world and happy and healthy children with a future to look forward to. I won’t be around and neither will you, but I suspect that the world in 2100 – a world with up to 12 billion people, will face many more serious problems (as we do now) than the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere – if anything the increase in CO2 will benefit food production.

By: The Universe

The Universe — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:28:00 +0000

<– this comment was wayyyy wrong. NVM

By: chris

chris — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:07:00 +0000

Desal is the future for sure. Dearhound ur right on. And 2400 gallons of water for one lb of beef is nothing in comparison to a circle sprinkler on a section of land running at 800 gallons a minute for 18 hours. Try a million gallons a day.

By: chris

chris — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:45:00 +0000

And the article ends by saying don’t eat meat to save water. Really? And watering useless urban lawns are more important than food I suppose.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Well said sir.

By: Dearhound

Dearhound — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 09:34:00 +0000

Desalination of sea water technology is capable of meeting the challenge…..If you believe that sea water levels are going to rise then it’s time to harvest fresh water from the oceans or a pipe line from the arctic to satisfy our needs…….