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The impending water crisis and water rights.


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Used to be sharper on this subject.  So many important issues with the water crisis and water rights.  The Great Lakes Commons, Commodification, Free Trade, access to safe public drinking water in Detroit and on Reserves/Reservations are just a few.  This is a fact sheet on Fracking that I took from here

 

Fracking And Climate Change

Industry officials and some governments are promoting natural gas as a “clean, green” fuel, but studies show that fracked natural gas can produce as much greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as coal.

What is fracking?

Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as “fracking,” is a technique to extract natural gas from harder to access unconventional sources trapped in rock formations such as shale gas, coal bed methane and tight gas. 

This unconventional natural gas requires more energy and water to extract than conventional gas from easier to access reservoirs and more porous rock formations. This is only one reason for fracking’s heavy carbon footprint.

Fracking and water

During the fracking process, millions of litres of water, thousands of litres of chemicals and thousands of pounds of sand are injected underground at very high pressure in order to create fractures in the rock allowing gas to ow up wells. Fracking operations deplete water sources, and have been known to contaminate groundwater with methane and undisclosed chemicals. Questions have also been raised about the safety of fracking wastewater disposal.

Fracking and emissions

Proponents of natural gas have said that natural gas is a climate-friendly fossil fuel because it produces less GHG emissions when burned compared to other fossil fuels. According to the Natural Gas Supply Association, natural gas produces half the CO2 emissions of coal.1 But that doesn’t make fracking clean! The lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions – that is the combined emissions associated with extraction, combustion, and methane and CO2 releases – means that fracked gas can be as dirty as coal.2

Fracking releases large amounts of natural gas – which consists of both CO2 and methane – directly into the atmosphere. In fact, fracking wells leak 40 to 60 per cent more methane than conventional natural gas wells.3 This happens when water is forced down into a fracking well in order to fracture the rock formations. Methane ows up the well and is released into the atmosphere before it can be captured.4 The leaked methane is called “fugitive methane” and has been detected using infrared videos. It is identi ed as different from naturally occurring methane.5

Methane in particular is a very powerful greenhouse gas. It can trap 20 to 25 times more heat in the atmosphere than CO2. Two Cornell scientists who have been studying fracking in the U.S. estimate that in the next 20 years methane will make up 44 per cent of the U.S.’s GHG emissions. Along with contributing to global warming pollution, methane leaks kill plants and trees, contribute to ozone formation, and causes natural gas explosions, which have resulted in an average of 17 deaths and 68 injuries per year in the United States alone.6 

The future of fracking

Fracking is not a clean or green form of energy. Fracking and the rest of the fossil fuel industry is preventing Canada from reducing its GHG emissions and doing its fair share to mitigate the global climate crisis. Shale gas devel- opment can ultimately bring climate consequences comparable to coal over a century, and worse than coal over two decades.7 Rather than continuing to frack for natural gas, we should be looking for creative solutions to transi- tion off of fossil fuels.

Communities are protecting water and the climate 

Many communities are taking action against fracking in order to protect their water and mitigate climate change impacts. A dozen members from the Kainai Blood Tribe in Alberta blocked fracking trucks from accessing their lands.8 The Unist’ot’en in northern B.C. have built a log cabin in a fracking pipeline’s “right-of-way” and municipalities such as Burnaby, B.C. and Niagara-On-the-Lake, Ontario have called on their provinces to put a moratorium on fracking projects. 

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Awesome podcast on plastic pollution in our Oceans and efforts to clean it up.  Unfortunately theres no clear path forward to cleanse the water of microplastic.  Nor do we fully understand the impact it has on our health, yet. 

"Our oceans are choking from plastic water bottles washing up on the beach to tiny microplastic fibres beneath the sea. It's not clear what the long-term effects will be. The Current explores the efforts to haul tons of plastic off Vancouver's west coast"

Listen here

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14 hours ago, downzy said:

As long as water continues to flow from the taps, the masses won't care.  

It's only when something like this happens will people give a shit.  But, as per usual, it will be too late. 

I fear this.  We should all fear this and feel responsible for doing whatever can be down to change this. A war over fresh water will be impact everyone globally.  There are new technologies that can pull fresh drinking water out of thin air.  They use solar panel tech.  Simply unboxing, plug it in and run water line to the drain.  $2500.

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1 hour ago, HOOSIER GUNZ said:

I fear this.  We should all fear this and feel responsible for doing whatever can be down to change this. A war over fresh water will be impact everyone globally.  There are new technologies that can pull fresh drinking water out of thin air.  They use solar panel tech.  Simply unboxing, plug it in and run water line to the drain.  $2500.

Not sure which tech you're referring too? I'd be interested in a link if you have one :) Have you heard of the Warka Tower? It sounds similiar (pulling water out of thin air) but this one doesn't use solar panels as far as I understand it. http://www.warkawater.org/warka-tower/

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On 10. 02. 2018. at 1:45 PM, Oldest Goat said:

I know that New Zealand's only water crisis is that all you cunts are probably gonna take ours. Already are actually. FML.

Same here....those foreigners drink our water and we had to stop washing streets with drinkinga water... Disaster...

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Theres a public spring water well down the highway from me.  Its delicious and mineral rich.  We should all be demanding this in a water wealthy country like Canada.  Between pollution/contamination and NAFTA it makes it difficult.  But achievable.  

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8 hours ago, soon said:

Theres a public spring water well down the highway from me.  Its delicious and mineral rich.  We should all be demanding this in a water wealthy country like Canada.  Between pollution/contamination and NAFTA it makes it difficult.  But achievable.  

Where do you live? I noticed you mentioned the great lakes earlier. I live in Michigan btw. I have a cabin across the street from Lake huron in the UP. I live in between flint, Saginaw, and Lansing. But seeing as i have property near a great lake, these issues are important to me.

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6 minutes ago, Iron MikeyJ said:

Where do you live? I noticed you mentioned the great lakes earlier. I live in Michigan btw. I have a cabin across the street from Lake huron in the UP. I live in between flint, Saginaw, and Lansing. But seeing as i have property near a great lake, these issues are important to me.

I currently live in Eastern Ontario - Ottawa being the nearest notable city.  The spring is in Quebec.  I grew up close to both Lake Erie and Huron (also close enough to cross border into Michigan every now and then).  I lived along Huron for a while.  Its beautiful.  The way our two Nations utilize the lakes as resources is really important to me too.  We need to coordinate our sustainability efforts.  And in many ways we do, but both Nations have been drawing too much water out of Lake Erie for instance.

 

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1 minute ago, soon said:

I currently live in Eastern Ontario - Ottawa being the nearest notable city.  The spring is in Quebec.  I grew up close to both Lake Erie and Huron (also close enough to cross border into Michigan every now and then).  I lived along Huron for a while.  Its beautiful.  The way our two Nations utilize the lakes as resources is really important to me too.  We need to coordinate our sustainability efforts.  And in many ways we do, but both Nations have been drawing too much water out of Lake Erie for instance.

 

Well, tbh I don't really care about Erie. That's Ohio's problem 😃

I love my Huron, Michigan, and Superior though.

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13 minutes ago, Iron MikeyJ said:

Well, tbh I don't really care about Erie. That's Ohio's problem 😃

I love my Huron, Michigan, and Superior though.

I never thought to rank them :lol:

But I guess Superior would make the bottom of my list; I always forget it exists.

When I lived on the water I can remember the days when the water wasnt safe to swim because the town had built its sewage overflow too close to shore.  If memory serves it happened a lot. 

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27 minutes ago, soon said:

I never thought to rank them :lol:

But I guess Superior would make the bottom of my list; I always forget it exists.

When I lived on the water I can remember the days when the water wasnt safe to swim because the town had built its sewage overflow too close to shore.  If memory serves it happened a lot. 

I'm not sure that would be my actual rank. I used to like Superior and Michigan more than Huron. Now I claim Huron as mine, so I guess it wins, lol.

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On February 16, 2018 at 12:14 PM, downliner said:

Not sure which tech you're referring too? I'd be interested in a link if you have one :) Have you heard of the Warka Tower? It sounds similiar (pulling water out of thin air) but this one doesn't use solar panels as far as I understand it. http://www.warkawater.org/warka-tower/

Zero mass water  

https://www.zeromasswater.com

i saw it on utube.

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On 2/16/2018 at 5:41 PM, classicrawker said:

Israel has been making fresh from sea water for some time now

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/

 

This.

Desalination already costs 2/3rd's less than what it did in the 90's and its costs will continue to decrease.  300 million people worldwide already receive their water from desalination plants at around the same cost as an average household in the U.S. pays for its water.   

So quite frankly, I don't see there ever being a water crisis unless the country where it happens lets it happen.

 

 

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I distill liquids.  I know that one can desalinate with a still.  I know that whatever is present in the water is concentrated in the distilled liquid.  I know that micro plastic would remain present in final liquid too.

I dont know how the home still desalination method relate to high tech though.

In high tech desalination do they have some way of preventing the pollutants in the ocean from being concentrated in the drinking water?  Many contaminants such as prescription medication and industrial waste remain in local drinking water after its been through the water treatment plant.  Humans havent figured how to remove all the contaminants yet.  Does high tech desalination also concentrate water the way traditional desalination does?  So those contaminants that cannot be removed would be in a higher concentration after desalination? 

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