Reply To: T-shirt designers unite and take over

[Brian H]

Tasmodevil44 wrote:

The water cycle of the planet is not a plumbing system

The natural system proceeding human intervention is indeed a natural plumbing system. The water cycle is a plumbing system no matter how you cut it. It’s just that rapid change of one plumbing system replaced by another man-made one is too rapid for nature to adapt and change……because nature works on slow incremental change……not the rapid alterations of things brought on by humans.

There most certainly could be some environmental drawbacks and consequences. That’s why such a thing would probably have to be studied in more detail……to figure out the best way to do it if at all. It seems like human overpopulation and mass consumption has done reached an absolute limiting point to where any and all solutions to problems tend to create more problems in place of the old ones.

However, a time may come when we have no choice but to implement the lesser of evils even if we still have evils. A time may come when the water shortage, Ogallala aquifier depletion, catastrophic food shortages due to declining agricultural production, and floods that cost billions in damage force us to take the least destructive option even if we still have destructive consequences.

Of course, the very BEST option of all would be if we could just REDUCE wasteful consumption of all kinds. Too much water is just simply being wasted. Even the modern flush toilet consumes too much water. Most toilets can still operate just fine on much less. We could also switch to more drought resistant crops. And even after food is grown, too much of the food America produces (almost half of it) is simply wasted. Dumpsters are full of rotting garbage stores and restaurants toss out. And do spoiled-rotten Americans really need all the swimming pools? Is this really realistic to consume more than the planet can handle? And do we really need to wash our cars and keep them absolutely spotless so often?

Other solutions may involve still allowing the water to flood and travel the way of the old pre-existing natural plumbing system part of the time……instead of having full-time diversion. Another solution (though more costly) would involve trucking in more soil or sediments from far away to artificially build-up what nature once did.

I’m still an open-minded optimist for trying to use creativity at finding solutions……rather than always being closed-minded and pessimistic. I’m always looking for answers while most people only see the obstacles and problems. And I’ll be the first to admit that ideas don’t always “pan-out”. But we’re defeated already if all we have is a closed-minded attitude of defeatism all the time.

Plumbing systems do not depend on evaporation and controlled loss of water to the surrounding ground throughout, and do not distribute upstream resources to a broad belt of downstream locations, and do not host millions of species of flora and fauna that impact each other and the rest of the environment in complex and crucial ways.

FF will provide power to re-purify and desalinate and condense and do amazing things with water. Redirecting rivers is a REALLY bad idea.

Most of the dams in America, e.g., are slated for demolition because they are obsolete and environmentally malign. Good riddance.