why aren't we doing....

With the fact we still have:

a lot of people unemployed/under employed

a real need to increase the amount of clean drinkable water

a real need to grow more food

a real need to create more energy and protect our energy sources

a real need to rebuild and expand on our infrastructure


I keep wondering why we aren't doing more to:

Desalinate water on a larger scale through building multiple desalination plants along the coastline with finding ways to supply energy to the desalination plants that would not be a drain on the resources we already use

use large arid areas that are known to be hot as farm land with creating a water pipeline from one or more water desalination plants to have a constant supply of water for the crops and any farm animals that can tolerate the heat well enough to thrive.

find more sources of energy and up scaling those energy sources that are already proven to work but are still in small scale and to incorporate things like solar panels into new building as part of the overall part of the design of the facade to incorporate the panels into the overall look.

actually deal with the crumbling infrastructure that we call our modes of transportation, our utilities and such to the point that we actually expand on what is already there to accommodate the ever growing populations with using double or triple the expected population growth in upgrading and expanding so we don't fall short of what we need.

doing this would help solve a lot of the problems plaguing our society while also putting millions of people to work partly with short term jobs with things like construction and manufacturing and permanent jobs that includes creating the water, growing the food/energy, the upkeep of the infrastructure, and the manufacturing jobs that would be needed to be able to maintain each of these.

thoughts on the drought going on in the western part of the U.S.

In the western part of the U.S. there has been a drought going on for the last few years with no real change in the foreseeable future by meteorologists.

The question is what do the municipalities and companies going to do about the need for water versus the lack of available drinkable water.

I think that each U.S. state that has coastline should be desalinating water with the states closest to the drought stricken areas of the country doing the most desalinating given the increased need for water.

Yes desalinating sea water is expensive but what I'd like to see happen is that the water itself be directed on the intake end in such a way that would help create as much of the energy needed as possible.  Where we use dams in rivers to create reservoirs and to create energy, why cant we design large scale holding tanks that permit intake from the tides and by a siphon with the intake having water turbines that can be powered by both the siphon and the high tide?

Where there are water turbines that work with the ocean currents and a siphon creates a man made current in a tube, why can't they be adapted to be used with a siphoning effect for the intake of ocean water for a water desalination plant to help create the needed energy?

Why can't we use the facade and roofs of the buildings that would be a part of the desalination process to house solar panels facing the path of the sun?

Given the advances in windmill technologies why can't we have rooftop windmills on the property or rooftop windmill type windmills in strategically placed areas between buildings to catch the wind as it goes around the buildings where the space between buildings can act like a wind tunnel.

The cost of desalinating water is expensive but what are the economic and environmental costs of not doing as much large scale water desalination as possible in the areas where we have millions of people and countless farms that would be hurt or helped by doing or not doing desalination?

If we started doing a lot more large scale desalination we would create badly needed jobs for every step along the way from building to running the plants.

Jobs and the crazy weather

The rich are saying that the middle class and the poor need to find jobs, while the middle class and the poor have made the point that the jobs that they are being told to get just aren't there due to the rich not creating jobs like the Republicans are saying they are doing by having a cap on the taxable income and the ever lowering taxes for the rich.

In the Midwest stretching from the Mexican boarder to the Canadian boarder that whole area has been been in a drought all year and it appears to be getting worse as time goes by. 

I would like to know why no one has thought of creating jobs by desalinating water on a scale that would help the Midwest with its water problems?  We have a total of 23 states that have some coastline and more than one territory that has coastlines, why not create jobs by building desalination plants along the coastlines of those states that have direct ocean access or build desalination plants a little way inland and build pipelines to the plants with there being multiple plants in each state that has the room for such endeavors.

some thoughts for and ideas on how to power water desalinziation

When dealing with the Earths population having a shrinking water supply as the population grows, we have to deal with an issue that people think will need to happen but think it will not have to be done in their lifetime. This is desert farming; this has to be taken serious due to the fact that if we choose not to entertain the idea now we will lose even more of the rainforests which help maintain our various geographical climates.

We also have to couple this with large scale water desalinization which would primarily be for the desert farming while making sure that the water desalinization plants that are built for the sole purpose of purifying water for farming are as self sufficient as possible which would mean utilizing the power of the water as a power source.

Water desalinization has to be a top priority for every country with out regard to whether they have a coastline to utilize for the process and is especially needed in arid areas. As for the areas with established farmland where the water has to be split between crops and drinking water should have large enough quantities of desalinized water available for the farmers so that those municipalities that have to deal with the water issues don’t have to worry about finding the water to maintain their populations and the farms.

Given the facts surrounding deforestation and diminishing rainfall as a result, we need to reseed those forests with the types of trees and plants that are in that forest while making sure that we give the quantities of water that have been shown to grow and maintain those forests while making sure that the local populations that are willing to destroy the forests for money are shown that the forests if properly maintained can sustainable profits by finding markets for the stuff that the forests continually produce that is easily renewable and sustainable.

Here is a plan of action for designing desalinization plants:

· Design the system to have two aqueducts types, one for the intake of ocean water that is basically a holding tank for the water waiting to be treated, and the other for water that has been treated and waiting to be loaded into the vehicles that are meant to carry it to farms. Do this while making sure that the rate of the water flow for both the intake an outtake are at the same flow rate.
· When designing the power system, design it so that way the water itself is creating as much of the energy as possible starting with the intake. Design the intake to be a siphon to reduce the power needs while designing a water turbine that is meant to be used horizontally instead of vertically to be specifically used in the siphon. When designing the outtake design it to be like a dam with vertical water turbines that feed the plant like the turbines would on a normal dam but instead of feeding a river they would feed the desalinization plant at a constant rate that the plant can handle.
· When designing the desalinization plant itself, design it to be able to handle a constant flow of water from the aqueduct, while at every step of the way if there is a way of utilizing the water for power generation, design it to do so as long as it doesn’t contaminate the water or re-salt the water. With the areas where there is the possibility of water loss through steam, create a way of reclaiming that water while utilizing the power that the steam can offer to help with power generation.
· With the large structure that would be standing for both the aqueduct and the desalinization plant, position them so that way there are at least two full outer walls of each that has sunlight on it for as long as possible each day so that a solar arrays could be incorporated into the design of the walls making sure that as much of the walls could be covered by solar panels. Also you could design the roofing structure to have solar panels
· If there is extra energy produced by whole process then provide that extra energy to the local municipalities that could use it if they are within the area where the power can travel in the power lines.

thoughts on water and energy

With the ever worsening oil prices and the water shortages that are becoming more common place and more apparent we have to start looking at new ways of doing things that require less water being used for non environmental purposes, while increasing the drinkable water with limiting the amount of oil based products to clean the water.

We know that eventually we will have to do large scale water desalinization but most people in a place to make sure it actually happens doesn’t see a real need at this time even though we are starting to show a real need now instead of the timetable that the people in power foresee the need.

We also have a real problem with actually desalinating the water due to how energy intensive it is to do desalinate the water and the most efficient power source we currently have is fossil fuels. We have a real need to desalinate the ocean water and a real need to start using the energy sources that are not fossil fuels in larger scales that are already in the mainstream for power generation.

Those energy sources that look promising and that are far enough along in their testing to attempt a commercial venture should be put into commercial use so that we can benefit from the power generation and to allow their developers to see where the real life can and should be for that specific power source.

With that in mind we need to use hydro, solar, wind and alternative power sources to power any and possibly all water desalinization plants with making sure that any heat generated during this process is also used for the water desalinization process through some sort of heat recovery system. We should also think about how to utilize any point where steam needs to be vented as a power source as well along with trying to recapture that escaping water to some degree.

If the power generation exceeds the needs of the water desalinization plants then that power should be diverted to the local municipalities or to the National Grid to offset any power generation that would otherwise be needed for that area. This would permit the power plants to use less of the needed fossil fuels that fuel the power generation.

Also find ways of designing newer power plants that take advantage of the commercialization of those alternate fuel sources in an attempt to move away from fossil fuels and to learn how to make those alternate fuel sources more reliable and more efficient in real life applications, while utilizing hydro power where available, along with solar and wind sources that would all tie in together to produce the energy for the given area.

Moving away from fossil fuels is a hard sell for everyone who is by nature accustomed to using them but everyone needs to realize that in the short term it isn’t as profitable due to having to start the mass production of some of the sources of energy and to build power plants that utilize non fossil fuel energy sources as their primary source of fuel.

With the way oil futures and prices are going which will oil be the most cost effective in producing the energy needs for the industrialized world in a few years?

in response to atlanta's worsening drought, a reworking of something I wrote

Water Pipeline, solar energy, water desalinization and desert farming

By no means is water desalinization a cheap way of producing clean drinkable water but it has to be seriously considered and transporting the water in the quantities needed also has to be addressed when it comes to bringing clean drinkable water to people who need it, in an attempt to get around the geographical barriers like mountain ranges such as the Rocky Mountains of North America, and the mountain range that goes down the western side of the African continent that has made much of the African continent that acts like a barrier keeping the clouds from moving into the arid areas which are growing in size at least in Africa, I hope this is a workable idea that could be used but the people that have the capability to get it done.

In areas that are desert terrain due to mountain ranges being too tall to permit rain clouds to move past them, build water pipelines that travel over and through the mountain ranges to large desalinization plants in the deserts.
Power the desalinization plants using the technology currently being used in the solar one project (thermo-trough solar arrays) or another large scale solar power array so as not to use any type of fossil fuels.
Each desalinization plant would need to be large enough to exceed the needs of the population of the desert communities that they would be serving them to account for the water loss due to the excess heat of the desert.
In an attempt to contain the water and to provide climate controlled farming for these desert communities, build greenhouses that are based on the bio-dome concept, while compensating for the excess carbon dioxide that is more than the plants can handle in the self contained environment, install a bioreactor based on the design tested by MIT for GreenFuel Technologies Inc. which uses algae to collect carbon dioxide.
When deciding what to farm in the bio-dome style greenhouses, for crops grow food that the communities traditionally eat and would be willing to eat along with breeding what they traditionally call farm animals that have the ability to roam anywhere in the facility that is used for growing plants except for where the crops for the communities are grown.
Utilizing some of the extra desalinized water and extra growing space, provide greenhouse services for the communities specializing in plants, bushes and trees indigenous to the specific region with a section geared towards the rare foliage in an attempt to keep the plant, bush or tree species going.
When designing the system as a whole, design it to permit a minimum or maximum amount of water loss and design it to be a water dispensary so that a predetermined amount of water can be distributed to other areas in the desert communities and to create and maintain periodic placements of water facilities for travelers.
Any brine that is unusable either pipe it back into the ocean if it has little to no negative impact on the regions it is being placed into even if it means dispersing it over a wide area, or allow it to dry out to provide sea salt to those who use sea salt.

Water desalinization and water pipeline, retooled a little

Water desalinization and water pipeline

By no means is water desalinization a cheap or easy way of producing clean drinkable water but it has to be seriously considered and transporting the water in the quantities needed also has to be addressed when it comes to bringing clean drinkable water to people who need it, in an attempt to get around the geographical barriers like mountain ranges such as the Rocky Mountains of North America, and the mountain range that goes down the western side of the African continent that has made much of the African continent that acts like a barrier keeping the clouds from moving into the arid areas which are growing in size at least in Africa, I hope this is a workable idea that could be used but the people that have the capability to get it done.

My suggestions:

Build water desalinization plants at various points along the coast line that utilize a siphon for the intake of salt water and outflow of fresh water with turbines like those for damns but designed to be used with a siphon instead of gravity to supplement the needed power to desalinate the water, and if the climate permits utilize solar and/or wind power to help supplement the needed power. The water desalinization plants should not be restricted to one side of the continent but rather the coast line in general.
Where there is a mountain range that block the rain clouds from moving past a certain point on the west coast of the African continent and a mountain range limiting the amount of rain to certain parts of the Mid Western part of the United States, use tunnel boring machines at the closest points in those mountain ranges to the water desalinization plants to permit water pipelines to go directly from the water desalinization plants to the other side of the mountain ranges.
With regards to the placement of the placement of each desalinization plant and pipeline tunnel look at all of the geographical and weather pattern data to determine where to place both of them to be the most beneficial. After the primary placement of each is determined, go to the locality with what you would like to do and tout the benefits of the building of, the running of and the maintaining of the facilities would provide to that locality such as an influx of jobs, money and possibly more available fresh water for that locality.
Bring on board the municipalities that would be effected by the process beyond where the plants are built and tunnels dug, and bring on board companies that would benefit from putting their resources to work for each project, that would be willing to help the people who live in the effected areas with dealing with a change in their way of life due to the whole process start to finish. This would include areas where it would be able to rain that had not seen rain in many generations.
In areas in the system where there is water loss, design the system so that the water can be used as a primary coolant in areas where the pressure build up can aid in producing the needed energy for desalinization and where the water will be in vapor form it should be directed up through what is traditionally called smoke stacks but have them fitted with turbines, even if they have to be designed to work similarly to tea kettle whistles.
If needed to move the water past a specific mountain range, set up the pipeline first to move the water past the mountain range whether over or through the mountains, then put the desalinization plant on the drier side of the mountain range so that any water loss in the system especially from cooling the parts of the system that can be cooled by water, goes into the environment that the water was intended for while generating energy to aid in the desalinization process.

Water desalinization and water pipeline

I did this up a couple months ago and sent it out to a few places, that included President Bush, The U.N. and even a section of the company Virgin which runs the Virgin Atlantic Airlines because they were looking for ideas for a couple things. The only response came from Virgin and it stated that it was an interesting proposal worth looking into but it wasn't the direction they were looking for. well here is what I sent them:

Water desalinization and water pipeline

When it comes to bringing clean drinkable water to people who need it, in an attempt to get around the geographical barriers like mountain ranges such as the Rocky Mountains of North America, and the mountain range that goes down the western side of the African continent that has made much of the African continent desert I hope this is a workable idea that could be used but the people that have the capability to get it done.

My suggestions:

Build water desalinization plants at various points along the coast line that utilize a siphon for the intake of salt water and outflow of fresh water with turbines like those for damns but designed to be used with a siphon instead of gravity to supplement the needed power to desalinate the water, and if the climate permits utilize solar and/or wind power to help supplement the needed power. The water desalinization plants should not be restricted to one side of the continent but rather the coast line in general.

Where there is a mountain range that block the rain clouds from moving past a certain point on the west coast of the African continent and a mountain range limiting the amount of rain to certain parts of the Mid Western part of the United States, use tunnel boring machines at the closest points in those mountain ranges to the water desalinization plants to permit water pipelines to go directly from the water desalinization plants to the other side of the mountain ranges.

With regards to the placement of the placement of each desalinization plant and pipeline tunnel look at all of the geographical and weather pattern data to determine where to place both of them to be the most beneficial. After the primary placement of each is determined, go to the locality with what you would like to do and tout the benefits of the building of, the running of and the maintaining of the facilities would provide to that locality such as an influx of jobs, money and possibly more available fresh water for that locality.

Bring on board the municipalities that would be effected by the process beyond where the plants are built and tunnels dug, and bring on board companies that would benefit from putting their resources to work for each project, that would be willing to help the people who live in the effected areas with dealing with a change in their way of life due to the whole process start to finish. This would include areas where it would be able to rain that had not seen rain in many generations.