Tons of microplastic rain onto western US

Re:Tons of microplastic rain onto western US by mey on Friday June 26, 2020 @10:20PM (#23659003)

Oil has horrible consequences, but your rational for it being evil by being out of "reach" isn't very enlightening. By your logic we should not tap aquifers for drinking water, but mass desalination is fine. Instead, oil is bad because. It's not renewable, it's refinement/combustion is readily linked to cancer and other deadly/health issues, extraction/transport routinely kills ecosystems/creates toxic waste sites.

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Re:Tons of microplastic rain onto western US by na85 on Friday June 26, 2020 @10:25PM (#23659033)

Mass desalination via solar energy seems like it would be a huge win for the environment. Plus you could sell the salt.

I wonder if it's feasible.

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Re:Tons of microplastic rain onto western US by ggm on Friday June 26, 2020 @10:31PM (#23659062)

Desal plants cause localised brine concentration and screw ecology. If you built them at Salinas (salt pans) maybe that would be ok, and we'd get more flamingoes once the brine shrimp population rose. So you need strong solar and large flat expanses. North Africa? There was a serious proposal to sell solar power to Europe from north Africa. Maybe this is the triple play?

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Re:Tons of microplastic rain onto western US by Gibbon1 on Friday June 26, 2020 @10:58PM (#23659160)

I've looked at Desalination in Southern California. One thing they're trying is to mix the saline water with waste water discharge. One assumes that's better. Other thing I found when poking about is the energy expenditure for some of LA's water sources is close to that of desalination.

I think I'm firmly down on the side of I'm against desalination if it just means more water for almonds. For desalination if it means replacing expensive imported water sources and leaving more water for what's left of the states natural environment.

I feel like things are complicated with a inescapable level of fucked.

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Re:Tons of microplastic rain onto western US by pas on Saturday June 27, 2020 @02:04PM (#23663424)

Carbon tax (or a similar, more general environmental impact tax) would sort thing out in no time.

It wouldn't matter if someone uses water to raise almonds in the middle of the desert, but it should have its env. impact priced in.

Similarly, it's absolutely ridiculous that large states can't plan ahead for ~20-50 years and instead of building efficient power plants we're stuck with windmills and solar and batteries as the "green" option.

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Re:Tons of microplastic rain onto western US by carapace on Saturday June 27, 2020 @12:41PM (#23662836)

> we should not tap aquifers for drinking water

We shouldn't tap aquifers.

https://ca.water.usgs.gov/projects/central-valley/images/sub...

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