What are some solutions for water table depletion and how comparably sustainable are they?
How much water is extracted from air by PV panels that output H2O, and what are the impacts?
Do drilling and fracking consume lots of water and create holes through aquifers? Do holes in aquifers cause aquifers to drain out to lower chambers of the earth?
Historically, people have moved to where the water is.
Is there a subsurface ocean on Earth or Mars?
Is there enough of a thermal gradient between very deep wells and surface water to generate energy?
How many humans operating humanoid robots operating construction equipment does to take to build irrigation canals?
Perhaps helpful new solar distillation tech for #Goal6 #CleanWater:
- "Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water" (2023) : "Extreme salt-resisting multistage solar distilation with thermohaline convection" (2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39507692
Perhaps there are already sustainable salt-tolerant plants without GM; algae, kelp, sargassum
There is plenty of salt water on Earth. Does life on earth depend upon and/or derive from ocean thermohaline cycles?
> What are some solutions for water table depletion and how comparably sustainable are they?
Water harvesting has been successfully applied to thousands of villages in India and parts of northern Africa.
The Paani Foundation is especially amazing, as they annually lift hundreds of villages from dry wells and tanker dependence to tens of feet of water in wells and ponds in as little as one rain season using nothing but planning and cheap labour (the villagers).
I see videos of successful bund dig operations; digging half-craters to catch water apparently keeps the water from flashing off.
Tilling turns topsoil to dirt due to solar radiation.
No-till farming methods like residue mulching prevent soil depletion and retain water in topsoil; in order to create healthy soil as an output.
Hugelkultur is basically residue mulching and rainwater catchment.
Removing all of the trees reduces the level of water in the air and soil.
What sorts of agricultural machines can service bunds, raised beds, and hugelkultur mounds instead of rows?
> Tilling turns topsoil to dirt due to solar radiation
and oxidation.