Break through in desalinization!

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Just to get ahead of the game let me ask this: if we desalinate enough seawater to make the Saharan Arabian, and Namibian deserts arable what will be the world wide effects? We'd have to put the leftover salt somewhere. If it's dumped back into the ocean wouldn't the area near the dumping point become toxic to sealife? OTOH planting crops in a large part of the globe that was desert and probably acted as a heat reflector might actually partially counteract global warming.

Wouldn't it exacerbate global warming?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I wonder though, what will be the effect of all that heat that would normally be radiated back into space being converted into electricity and turned into heat elsewhere.

It'll be radiated back elsewhere...

[Odin]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

This desalinization technique will help save our water up here.

And the Everglades.

[Az]

Fusion w00t

[Theben]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
OTOH planting crops in a large part of the globe that was desert and probably acted as a heat reflector might actually partially counteract global warming.

Which would be counteracted by increased human activity due to increased population.

More plants could help scrub the air of pollutants, though.

[Chemical Ollie]

Give it to the palestinians, so they could use the dead sea for irrigation.

[pchang]

Can't we also generate electricity by tapping into the water flows of the tide? We would just build one of those in conjunction with the desalinizer.

[Ted Striker]

A couple of years ago I read that most wars in this century would NOT be fought over energy resouces, such as oil.

They would be fought over WATER.

This is a breakthrough if it works, especially for Africa.

Here in Cali, we would hopefully be able to produce all of our own water instead of stealing it from other states.

[mrmitchell]

Where will they put the salt from the desalinization efforts? It will be toxic waste.

On our french fries.

Duh.

[aneeshm]

Fantastic !

Of course , Amerika should be worried about it's interests being threatened by a stronger Middle-East . Good for Australia , though .

As for the waste , it can safely be dumped in the arctic waters/ice that will soon be melting . The salts can also be sold ( bringing about a great price reduction in salt ) .

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Just to get ahead of the game let me ask this: if we desalinate enough seawater to make the Saharan Arabian, and Namibian deserts arable what will be the world wide effects? We'd have to put the leftover salt somewhere. If it's dumped back into the ocean wouldn't the area near the dumping point become toxic to sealife? OTOH planting crops in a large part of the globe that was desert and probably acted as a heat reflector might actually partially counteract global warming.

There are plenty of places where salt can be deposited under ground and stay put for millions of years. This is the reason salt mines can exist in regions that have no salt leaking into their ground water from those salt deposits. I don't think there is any practical limit to the amount of salt we could store in this manner.

[The Mad Monk]

I...doubt you have to worry about that.

Without looking into it further, I have to believe the "waste product" of these plants would be slightly saltier seawater, not salt solids or concentrated brine.

[Pekka]

drosedars, hey I drove through the Nevada deserts. There's no 'sensible desert' and 'insensible desert'. It's really a desert, and just because there are small areas where some grass grows, it still is a desert. The people who really want to live there, by all means, they should do that if they want to. But they are moving into desert. Fact.

To me, it's like 'hey I want to move in a war zone'.

[Natalinasmpf]

Hmm, how is this is breakthrough?

We released the NeWater scheme one and a half years ago...there's about 14+ reverse osmosis plants scheduled to be built by 2010, in fact, for desalinization purposes.

[Pekka]

ohh this anti-semites just keeps popping from under every rock.. Go live in the desert!