

The Water-War Myth - tokenadult
http://www.slate.com/id/2215263/

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Tangurena
This article is baloney. We've already seen water wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

 _Because of saltwater intrusion from the sea into the aquifer, and
recirculation and evaporation losses of pumped groundwater, the quality of the
water is deteriorating faster than fresh rainwater can desalinate it. This
means that Gaza residents must acquire water from beyond their borders, which
are closed at present; build a large desalination plant; or eliminate
agriculture within the next two decades, said the two researchers, Assistant
Professor Charles Harvey and Dr. Annette Huber-Lee of the Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering._

When the water from the aquifers in Gaza became too salty and contaminated,
Israel withdrew from Gaza.

The "security barrier" follows no above-ground border or political boundary.
It looks completely random. However, if you plot the underground "mountain
aquifer" then the security barrier matches the boundaries of the aquifer.

<http://anthropik.com/2006/08/israels-water-wars/>

We in the US bullied the Canadians into signing a water-rights treaty that
enforces US water-rights laws. Our water-rights laws state effectively that
once you turn a pipe on, you can never turn it off. In exchange, CA banned
export of water to the US.

On a similar note, I live in Colorado. In both CO and UT, it is illegal to
collect the rainwater that falls on your property, because state laws and
court rulings hold that that rainwater belongs to someone else. The fancy
technical word is "senior water rights."

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TweedHeads
"it is illegal to collect the rainwater that falls on your property"

Stupid lawyers, stupid laws.

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asciilifeform
Any "water shortage" is really an energy shortage, considering that oceans
exist and so does desalination. Purifying arbitrarily polluted water is
feasible given nuclear power. (Nuke subs do not carry supplies of drinking
water, for example.)

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jibiki
Interesting. Power in France costs ~$.03/kWh. So to boil a kilogram (i.e., a
liter) of water (ignoring the heat of fusion) takes 100 J = .03 kWh which
costs about $.001. Looks good to me. (I mean, those little water bottles sell
for like $5/liter.)

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steveplace
This article has been bookmarked in my delicious account, so when the national
guard gets called into North Georgia, I'll have a good reference.

Dealing in absolutes with topics like this sure does make me cringe.

~~~
tokenadult
_North Georgia_

Georgia the state of the United States or Georgia the former republic of the
Soviet Union and now independent country?

~~~
steveplace
Heh. State of Georgia, near S. Carolina.

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nazgulnarsil
could it be that everyone fears withholding of such a basic resource (in
trade) because they know they will instantly face anger and disbelief from the
entire international community? oil is psychologically different from water.

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dinkumthinkum
What a snooze-fest and illogical article. Because countries have solved such
disputes in the past therefore the idea that these disputes could turn into
shooting wars is a myth? Really? That's the logic they want to use. The author
even states that such conflicts have led to serious tensions.This just seems
like a slow news day for someone.

