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Britain Could Run Short of Water by 2050, Official Says (nytimes.com)
To the casual observer, Britain -- an island nation that's no stranger to rain -- could not get much wetter. From a report: But, as it turns out, that's a fallacy. And if preventive steps are not taken, in less than three decades, Britain might run out of water, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, a public body responsible for conservation in England, said on Tuesday. "On the present projections, many parts of our country will face significant water deficits by 2050, particularly in the southeast, where much of the U.K. population lives," the agency chief, James Bevan, said at a conference on water use.
In about 20 to 25 years, demand could close in on supply in what Mr. Bevan called "the jaws of death -- the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs." The reasons, he said, were climate change and population growth. And he called for a change of attitude toward water conservation to help tackle the problem. "We need water wastage to be as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby or throwing your plastic bags into the sea," Mr. Bevan said. Many in Britain, citing the often rainy weather and expressing frustration with the infamously high levels of leakage from underground pipes, tend to belittle warnings about water shortages.
In about 20 to 25 years, demand could close in on supply in what Mr. Bevan called "the jaws of death -- the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs." The reasons, he said, were climate change and population growth. And he called for a change of attitude toward water conservation to help tackle the problem. "We need water wastage to be as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby or throwing your plastic bags into the sea," Mr. Bevan said. Many in Britain, citing the often rainy weather and expressing frustration with the infamously high levels of leakage from underground pipes, tend to belittle warnings about water shortages.
A perfect application for solar energy for a place surrounded by ocean... not seeing any real issue here that isn't readily solvable with known tech. And it's not like they have to transition to getting all their water that way, just some percent on the order of a tenth or so
And they're surrounded by water.
Water shortage? Please!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"We need water wastage to be as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby or throwing your plastic bags into the sea,"
At least I'm socially acceptable.
I only blow smoke in plastic bags and throw babies into the sea!
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
The polar ice caps could completely disappear by 2004, say extremely credible scientists.
Since when is it socially unacceptable to blow smoke in the face of a baby?
Do you even know what that baby said?
"We need water wastage to be as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby or throwing your plastic bags into the sea," Mr. Bevan said.
Sure, if nothing else can be done. But how about starting the renewal of water related infrastructure, improve water management in cities, rethink land development aiming to increase the amount of water in the water cycle and deploying new technologies in water intensive industries and waste water management?
Seems to me both Scotland and Wales will be fine.
Maybe once the rest of the UK becomes Lesser Britain, you can invest you post-Brexit riches in water desalination plants, like they do in Santa Barbara?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The heading should be "South East Britain Will Run Short of Water Most Years".
Endless building, removal of local drainage, and the fact that it doesn't rain all that much down there is starting to tell. Round here in the North West we have more water than we can use - now if there was an Environmental Agency with the vision to implement a national water grid things might be better. Unfortunately the Agency is toothless and more concerned with leaving waterways to get clogged up and causing widespread flooding.
Phil.
Most reservoirs in the west (US included) were built in the 30's-50's. Population growth has expanded greatly since then. Central texas growth has been huge the past decade and the fundamental problem is there is no "good" places to build more reservoirs. It just seems we are pushing the boundaries of earth in so many ways and no one wants to say we need to halt population growth. Nature does this in all sorts of ways, most are not pretty. So we could either do it in a civil way or we could have a big war and wipe half of us out. I'm thinking it will be war.
> population growth
The UK is not experiencing "population growth", the correct word is "immigration".
better admit more refugees into the country
Brexit will take care of this. With every British person soon living in a cave with no electricity or automation, essentially going back to the 1500s, water demand will essentially collapse.
See, there is something good to be said about Brexit after all.
Michael Burry (one of the people that foresaw problems with subprime mortgages and made money from it) is investing in water futures....
https://www.retire.ly/burry-go...
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Youâ(TM)re a big fookin island. Figure it out.
It appears that we can no longer rely on public utilities for our needs. Every home will need its own solar panels (can't rely on the power grid), but the energy from these can also be used to extract water from the air, as is possible even in desert areas.
Go solve it for them then, and get rich and a knighthood!
Fiji has so much water they put it in bottles and fly it around the world. Problem solved!
Or maybe we can put SE Britain in touch with Nebraska and have them work out a deal.
Queen Could Be King If She Had Balls, Official Says
Thanks Brexit!
Stupid jingoist fucks.
scientists: by 2050 Britain may run out of water...
british: *shrug*
scientists: Tea...is made with water...
british:: GOD SAVE THE QUEEN WE MUST ACT.
scotland:: kicks in the door AEY IS NO EVEN A QUESHUN DIDNYE KNOW BEER COME FROM WA'UH LADS
Good people go to bed earlier.
Nft
Britain has old pipes. Most water loss is through those pipes leaking. Replace the pipes and the outcome will be water security and a few years of massive road blockages as they dig up every road.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/b...
Thankfully, Britain will be able to easily import more water from their continental friends. Oh, wait...
...who predicted the end of Snow in Britain?
Holy fuck. Enough with these stupid, alarmist and unsupported "predictions"
Translation: we don't have the money or political will to build new infrastructure or water production capacity because we need that money for social programs. So, we will be rationing water when current capacity is demanded out.
One of the things I noticed is flushing a toilet. Jesus! Every time someone flushes in GB they send 5-10 gallons of water down to the sewers. Every single Air BnB, restaurant and bar I visited from London to Edinburgh. Changing all of the toilets to USA standard 1.5 gal versions should give them a few years.
Hey, at least they have water and whiskey or scotch.
No wonder they're leaving you after Brexit.
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Idiot activist says something idiotic...like polar ice caps could completely disappear by 2004.
The AGW activist community repeats again and again.
It makes its way into official reports
News papers publish breathless articles.
People chain themselves to shit in protest.
Scientists say nothing
When the idiot prediction fails, activists mutter, "..said no scientist."
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Let's not forget that the science was settled back in the 90s that Britain would have a permanent drought starting in 2008 due to the collapse of the North Atlantic Drift and the subsequent lack of warm water in the North Atlantic to provide the moisture needed to make rain.
Arguments against this are not allowed, as the science is settled. Permanent drought in Britain starting in 2008
People don't seem to realize how little clean water there is.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
30 years to get that going.
Certainly doable.
Note: Competence required.
Let's have fun with the population growth calculator for Britain.
http://ilkkah.com/population-calculator/#
Currently ,the population of GB is 60.4 millions, birth rate = 1.80. However, growing cost make urban people make less baby. Currently GB is depend on migration population to maintain the birth rates.
Here is the population projection for GB towards year 2050 if no new migrant with various birth rate.
1.80, 56.6 millions
1.60, 53 millions
1.40, 49.6 millions
1.20, 46.3 millions
1.8 and ZERO immigration, in year 2050, Britain population will be 57 millions, 3 millions less than today 60.4 millions.
Don't worry, the European Union will help out ... oh, wait
Table-ized A.I.
Britain has plenty of rain, but you can't get that much of it through British plumbing. Worldwide, the range of coastal cities that will eventually need to start using desalination may be a lot larger than we once thought.
Were all about slapping dicks across the faces of orphans, an activity they call unacceptable in public but enjoy performing in private, but who will believe the orphan over the powerful and prestigious member of parliament?
There is your internet deep dive. Complete with an MI5 coverup conspiracy. And it overlaps with the timeline for dragging Pitcairn through the mud for its own abuse scandal to overshadow the much larger sickness inside britains own highest echelons.
With their tea time and their Ricky Gervais
"not seeing any real issue here that isn't readily solvable with known tech"
Sure, they could desalinate ocean water with known tech. That has been possible for over a century. The bigger issue is can they do it and not have water cost much much more than it does today.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
The previous poster said "they", not "we", suggesting that he or she is not British... I'm pretty sure that you need to be a citizen of the UK to receive knighthood.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If it's due to global warming, don't worry about running out of water because you'll be underwater by then, remember? So which is it?
He'll solve the problem by investing in a lifeblood breeding program.
need to be a subject of the crown
ftfy
Running out of water is one of the lower priorities for the South East with regard climate change. Let's see how they handle the Thames in that time before we panic. I live on top of a hill due to keeping flooding in mind as it is, I'm just lucky to have a natural spring supply my property with no neighbours
Fair correction. Thanks.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Your post belies your complete lack of knowledge about desalination, yet that did not stop you from pontificating about the economics. I guess we just discovered what account Elon Musk uses on Slashdot.
Britain is surrounded by water, true, but it doesn't get sunshine...
There is plenty of water, it is the number of people who are getting out of hand. Water should be cheap, and using it frivolously should be welcome. Increasing the population until our water supply is stressed is extremely foolish.
If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down?!
I have all kinds of water saving ideas. There's more if you need them, just ask.
That's what countries without such a generous rain supply have done.
Sea water desalinization technology in 30 years will probably be good enough to not worry about it. Graphene filters will probably be the norm.
...when the water utility companies are private, profit-making entities, enabled by ideologically- and financially-motivated politicians.
Investment in infrastructure - fixing leaks and properly managing reservoirs - does not enhance shareholder value or executive bonuses, and so doesn't happen.
It's not even possible to shame these companies into acting in the national interest, as their ultimate ownership is off-shore, so they don't care.
Even the governmental regulator operates in favour of the companies instead of the customers.
The situation is similar to the other utilities in the UK - gas, electricity and rail.
Unfortunately, without meaningful political change, there's no solution.
This sig left unintentionally blank.
The UK is surrounded by water, it would seem that reverse osmosis may be a possible solution but wasn't the UK just a few years ago suffering from massive flooding? Oh wait it just happened in parts of the UK
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
at least here in America. We've got a ton of wealthy plutocrats chompin' at the bit to sell us back the water they bought all the rights to.
Meanwhile California's got 6 desalinization plants doing fuck all and nobody's building more, even thought the entire west coast is about to run out of water. It's gonna be fun in a few years when you can buy a mansion in San Francisco for $100k because you spend $1 million/year bringing water in.
Sure, they'll fix it, 20 years after. You can't just spin up desalinization plants on the fly. It's not a web app. But like I said, somebody's gonna make a killing during those 20 years.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
When they say "run out of water", what they actually mean is that there will not be enough water for all the people there - while still having exactly the same amount of water it always has. That's what happens when you take a country with a naturally declining population, force immigration and force population growth by specifically importing low socioeconomic level people for their superior "fertility rates". Then you grow the population again and quickly bump into the limits in the ecology that were forcing the population decline in the first place. Well done.
"...The reasons, he said, were climate change and population growth...."
Really? Climate change means there's less water now?
Because JUST LAST YEAR I saw everyone complaining that Climate Change had caused TOO MUCH water and heavy rainfall/flooding generally, consistently, and broadly across the UK.
"...new Met Office report, based on figures stretching back 100 years to 1910- shows that rainfall has actually gone up by 8 percent. ...The annual State of the UK Climate Report also revealed UK summers have been notably wetter over the last decade from 2008 to 2017, with 20 per cent more rainfall compared to 1961-1990...."
https://www.express.co.uk/news...
Oh, also, since they're focusing on the South and East of England, also last year: ...also predicted heavier and more frequent rain across southern England.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...
So which is it? Climate change means the UK is running out of water, OR climate change means the UK is flooding with water. You really can't assert both.
-Styopa
https://newatlas.com/crops-engineered-need-less-water/53712/
Scientists have revealed that a simple genetic tweak to overexpress a single protein in crops could result in the plants needing up to 25 percent less water to produce a regular yield. It's hoped the breakthrough research will lead to a new generation of water-efficient agriculture that helps communities grow more food in areas struggling with drought and climate change.
Ok, it's not like this problem has not been researched before. Would help with California's drought problems also.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
may
might
could
can
possibly
perhaps
conceivably
Really, when every single climate change study or the-sky-is-falling prediction contains nothing but ambiguous indefinite verbs, how can anyone take these future predictions seriously?
A perfect application for solar energy for a place surrounded by ocean...
Making more potable water is one approach. The other approach is to reduce the population by getting everyone to emigrate. Given the way Brexit is going, it's clear the latter method was chosen.
There is no real reason for them to move there and the island can obviously not support them.
This doesn't have to do with private ownership. And "shame" isn't required.
These are regulated utilities. The government enforces compliance and price setting. Pricing is where the problem is. If prices weren't set artificially low, the increased price would spur conservation and allow for increased capital expenditure on the infrastructure.
This isn't a UK-only problem, it happens all over. The price is determined by water delivery only, without account for loss due to leaks or exhaustion of the source. Regulators should allow for stepped pricing, based on usage and number of people in the household.
2.6 km that's the volume of fresh water in Loch Lomond
in SCOTLAND.
The report points to a localised difficulty in ENGLAND
not BRITAIN.
facts trump ignorance.
and that's cubic kilometers
"I'm pretty sure that you need to be a citizen of the UK to receive knighthood."
No. Wikipedia: if you are a citizen of a nation which as head of state has the Queen of the United Kingdom then if you have a knighthood you can use the title of "Sir" (men) or "Dame" (women): hence Sir Sean Connery and Sir Andrew Wiles. If you are not a citizen of such a nation then you can still be given a knighthood, but it is honorary and you cannot use the title of "Sir" or "Dame", but you can use post-nominal letters: for example the musician Daniel Barenboim KBE is a Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
No one on earth is running out of water. They are running out of cheap water.
That's a self solving problem. Water costs go up, waste goes down.
. . . before someone figures out that Loch Ness contains more water than than all the lakes in England and Wales combined and tries to pipe it away. Of course, it's rather murky stuff from all the peat, hopefully it would never be worth it.
"Britain is surrounded by water, true, but it doesn't get sunshine"
- From A Song of the Weather by the British comedy songwriters and performers Flanders & Swann - the weather of the title is British weather:
In July the sun is hot?
Is it shining? No it's not.
Build a few LFTR nuclear plants to produce enough excess energy to then power a few desalination plants.
Problem solved. It's not like Britian isn't surrounded by ocean.
Emphasis mine.
People who never went to university can get honorary doctorates too... but it's not the same thing as a real one, and isn't treated the same either.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
de-salt the ocean water, problem solved. It's not cheap but they will NOT run out of water
A perfect application for solar energy for a place surrounded by ocean... not seeing any real issue here that isn't readily solvable with known tech. And it's not like they have to transition to getting all their water that way, just some percent on the order of a tenth or so
Water desalinization is an energy intensive process. You either have to be in a desert or somewhere power is almost free to make it economical. And if its not economical, with water (not necessarily for other things but for water) that means more environmental damage. Water is heavy and thus expensive to transport unless you have a nice downhill run and a pipeline/aquifer system. Also you need A LOT of water so to do anything of consequence you need huge scale. Of course with nuclear this is possible, but probably not with solar as its not nearly energy dense enough.
On another note, when CA had a water crisis I looked into water usage. In CA water usage was about 90% for industry and 10% residential. Not sure what it is in the UK, but the point being all the conservation by normal folks didn't do a bit of good. It was all about big businesses fighting for control of water sources as they were doing things to convert water into money (mostly growing expensive nuts like Almonds and fracking natural gas). So I would take these warnings with a grain of salt. If you want to manage society-wide water usage, you need to limit industrial usage. And because that's almost all usage, that should fix the problems with long term management. And that has to be more politically palatable than wondering around and reporting your neighbors for watering their lawns.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
You're quite right. The EU was indeed presented in a dishonest manner - since the 1950s - to get people to not realize they were headed into a corporatist superstate until it was too late. Except it wasn't, resulting in the disruptive process that you see unfolding.
Although in fairness, this can run in to problems and be seen as interfering with other countries: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...étien
In CA water usage was about 90% for industry and 10% residential.
California is largely agricultural, mostly using irrigation. How much of that 90% went to watering crops?
Good, inexpensive web hosting
OMIGOD, /. is so useless. Letâ(TM)s see if I can post a manually urlencoded version of that link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
After all, who else would mention Elon's gwennie other than Elon, himself? You had better be careful about making any forward-looking statements regarding Tesla. I wouldn't want you to be on the SEC's bad side.
NO Its not running out of water. Its an island and water is everywhere. SO how many desalinzation plants does the country have?
Its not a water shortage, its a water utilization issue.
No, you can be knighted as a foreigner. However you can not use the title "Sir", e.g. Bill Gates is a "Knight of the British Empire".
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Such "knighting" of people who are not subjects of the Crown is strictly an honorary recognition.
You can get an honorary doctorate from a university in some circustances too... but it does not have all of the same implications as the real deal nor is it treated the same.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
it is energy intensive but solar power level even in UK can do it. There is no problem just engineering issue
private companies milk their monopolies today demand the tax payer socialise the cost to allow them to implement new technologies tomorrow ( and they get guaranteed profit of course)
parasites
What "treatment" do you think a knighthood normally gets?
Hint: being called "Sir" is by far the biggest perk involved, no matter where you live.
So it really isn't feasible to make savings if the water companies don't give a shit. So what you need to do to start is pay the companies for the water they deliver and the cost of lost water is on them. That is when they tot up the cost of water per ton then they put that value on the delivered amount by meter. If they lose water, they don't get to charge for it.
Because it was supposed to be BETTER under private ownership, yet it is fucking up. The prices aren't set low, they are set high to cover the cost of broken pipes being unfixed. They have to be higher than it actually costs otherwise you're claiming that the price of privatisation was higher, not lower, than it was when government run. And claiming that the private owners are ignorant idiots unable to do maths.
Thatcher wanted to put the UK in a corporatist state, reaganomics. The EU never was. Just a superpower. Which is what has you shitting yourself: the USA isn't a lone superpower!!!
It gets waves, and tides, and wind. I don't see why solar should be seen as the only renewable in town.
Who got it utterly wrong about what he said? Sounds like it. Or you just WANTED what some other fucking moron said when THEY got it wrong. He didn't predict the end of snow. Your challenge is to find his statement. ALL OF IT. And present it here.
Children don't know what snow is, it happens so infrequently. Moreover, as he predicted, we now have chaos when it DOES snow because it so infrequently happens. What is the problem here? Do you hate someone being right?
Oh, and why did you need an Australian dishrag for the UK prediction from a UK scientist? It wasn't misrepresented and faked in the UK press.
In CA water usage was about 90% for industry and 10% residential. California is largely agricultural, mostly using irrigation. How much of that 90% went to watering crops?
It changes from year to year often based upon the amount of rain. For a drought year, the numbers I posted are accurate and Ag would be probably 2/3ish of the total water usage. For a wet year, Ag usage drops some but not as much as you would think. I think my point was more about industrial usage often being so high in comparison with residential usage. I wouldn't be surprised if the UK is surprisingly similar but just with industrial usages taking the place of Ag. But then again, you can google that for yourself if you are so inclined. I'm not your data elf. Perhaps the UK is very different as it does have 5x the population on not much more land than CA. Its pretty scary when your residential usage is taking a large amount of water even in wet years.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
By 2050, the cost of desalinated water could be quite reasonable. However, we need to start soon, and incentivize appropriate technologies. Reverse Osmosis plants will always be high maintenance, and use electricity which is expensive and wasteful. Multi-Effect Distillation uses half the electricity of RO, plus some thermal energy, which can be supplied by heat rejected from power plants, that would otherwise go to waste.
The key is to combine the processes, which will decrease the cost of both electricity and co-products like desalinated water. Since thermal plants are typically 30-60% efficient in generating electricity, there are large opportunities for making use of that heat for industrial processes. High temperature nuclear reactors are especially attractive, and offer more options for co-generation, including synthetic fuels and ammonia. This also allows reactors to run continuously at 100% power, while adapting to demand by varying generation of co-products.
The economics favor coupling co-generation to reliable sources of energy. Using excess renewable capacity is substantially more challenging, and of questionable benefit. For such plants to be cost effective, they can't be sitting idle most of the time, waiting for sporadic bursts of energy.
Every knight is just a "honorary recognition" ... there is no difference between an UK citizen becoming a knight or a non citizen.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Then why are the growing areas in Canada and the US these "places that are mostly vertical". Like the West?
Methinks you need to reread your history books, friendo.
Regardless, we were talking about a lack of water in the areas other than those with sizable hills. The basic solutions come down to: desalination, water conservation (e.g. not watering during hours when the evaporation is higher, using drip irrigation, and not growing water intensive crops you can't sustain), and less animal husbandry (mostly cattle of any type, sheep and goats use a lot less water).
You'd know that if you took some basic sustainability courses.
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I know this site can be slow sometimes, but it's the first time I've seen a post from 1948.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Plenty of cities in England get over 1600 hours of sunlight a year... that's enough
So it's "bunch of CUKCs" now. Same thing.
Hint: using "Sir" is exactly the perk NOT conferred to honorary knighthood
Plenty of cities in England get over 1600 hours of sunlight a year... that's enough
I lived in England for 20 years. You can't kid me. It's true that sometimes the clouds opened up and we got a few rays of sunshine, but that was mostly only at night.
DAMN BREXT!!!
"Don't exit EU!
How dare you?
You will soon run out of water!
Do you understand?!
You will also run out of air!
You must stay in EU!
Or your island will sink into the ocean!"
Typical commies. Hang them all.
And still doesn't explain why you had to go to a Aussie rag for UK info...
Nothing in that link about there being no more snow, either, so you're a lying little faggot again, aren't you? SO FAR the only one who has posted about there being no snow is YOU, you retarded fuckwit.
What that linkDOES say is proof he was right: there was snow chaos. He predicted that. Yet you refuse and instead play idiot for the nutjob anti-enviro crowd to virtue signal to them that you are a stalwart enemy of those hated enviros...
Erm. Sean Connery is (or at least was) a citizen of the UK.
You do realise Scotland is part of the UK?
and a few years of massive road blockages
So no change really then.
there are tables of sunshine for major cities, it's been collected and archived for over a century. In the old days was via lens charing arc with sunlight on paper each day.
So believe it or not, for this particular problem of only making up a water deficit there is enough sunlight to do the job via solar power, even in jolly old English cities. Some of your cities even have over 1800 hours a year of sunshine...
He fucked of to Shpain ages ago becaush the taxesh were lower.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
But it will stimulate the economy :)
But it will stimulate the economy :)
In an inappropriate brexity sort of way.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Slashdot moderation may have become the worst aspect of Slashdot. The trolls are much more motivated to abuse the system than normal people are to defend it. In addition, the broken economic models of Slashdot render it impossible to support the kind of improvements that would be required to address the problem, essentially by reducing the value of troll identities below others.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.