eli5: Why is it so difficult to desalinate sea water to solve water issues?
In: 1972
It’s slightly more expensive. It shows you the actual scale of the water crisis. It’s not a non issue but it’s not the type of crisis that typically comes to mind when you hear that word. Agriculture is the most intensive use of water by multiple magnitudes. If the water supply runs down to the point that it’s not economical to perform agriculture they would just quit growing stuff there and grow it elsewhere and truck it in. There’s no need beyond economic benefits to grow almonds and avocados in what nearly amounts to a desert. There is other arable land in the US even. Trucking them across the Rocky Mountains may be expensive though.
Of course there’s a lot more to all of this, this is a very general overview. And it totally ignores all the environmental impacts of every step mentioned above which is not trivial by any means.
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