Will water and sand be the next oil?

[California]

I blame it on Almonds.

Really. Here in California's Central Valley there are Almond orchards going in everywhere. Almonds are one of the most water intensive crops since they are watered here by flood irrigation.

Why Almonds in an arid region where it doesn't rain from Easter to at least Halloween?

Because planting almonds and flooding them preserves the grandfathered 'all the water you can take' water rights where they are planted. The almonds are planted by big corporations as a play on those water rights increasing in value over time, increasing faster than anything else the corporation can think to invest in.

Re sand - well not sand, but quarrying for crushed rock that will be used for cement: 30 years ago I worked on a study to determine if the few large paving contractors who own quarries had a natural monopoly on raw materials, sufficient to squeeze smaller contractors who had to buy materials from them in order to bid a job against them. We didn't find evidence that this was the case so nothing came of it. But I did learn that because California is now so built up, there are few locations where new large scale quarrying can begin, and those traditional quarry owners do have a valuable asset that will increase in value over time - so investing in stocks of the quarry-owning corporations can be a profitable speculative investment.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

You have elucidated the point.

It's not that population difficulties have disappeared, they have just fallen off the OMG sensationalism forefront.

And I'm supposed to jump at the rumour that there is a world wide shortage of sharp coarse sand.?

There are important life decisions, and sand ain't one of them.

It’s not a rumor, it’s happening now, it’s a serious problem. It’s not doom and gloom that the sand is scarce, it’s informative.

Sand is scarce - YouTube

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Let's talk about sand: Denis Delestrac at TEDxBarcelona - YouTube

Here is a shorter video, lots of the same info.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

They (wherever the stats came from) must be comparing the upper Mississippi river to the ohio, since the ohio is the major contributor by volume to the lower Mississippi. I would question the data....

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

They (wherever the stats came from) must be comparing the upper Mississippi river to the ohio, since the ohio is the major contributor by volume to the lower Mississippi. I would question the data....

Many rivers contribute to the Mississippi. Since all of them are less polluted than the Ohio (because Ohio is the #1 most polluted), then by definition the Mississippi would be less polluted than the Ohio. At least that's what Mr. Logic says.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

As far as water, in 2006 the Bush family bought 300,000 acres of land in Paraguay. It's basically an arid, undeveloped wasteland, but it lies over the Guaraní Aquifer, one of the largest aquifers in the world. It is estimated to contain enough water to provide the entire world population with water for 200 years. Interesting purchase.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Many rivers contribute to the Mississippi. Since all of them are less polluted than the Ohio (because Ohio is the #1 most polluted), then by definition the Mississippi would be less polluted than the Ohio. At least that's what Mr. Logic says.

He said by factor of two, and since the ohio is the primary contributor to the lower miss, so not too many more major rivers to dilute it that much.
Depends on where they measure it...

And look at all the rivers that flow into the ohio, VA, tenn, NC and alabama contribute to it.

I just read this week of one town in ohio that dumps all their raw sewage straight into the ohio river... You would think in this day and age that wouldn't be happening.

 

[MossRoad]

They (wherever the stats came from) must be comparing the upper Mississippi river to the ohio, since the ohio is the major contributor by volume to the lower Mississippi. I would question the data....

Interesting. I would have thought it was the Missouri, as that is 2.5 times longer than the Ohio, and drains more than twice the area, yet it's average discharge is only about 1/8 that of the Ohio. I learned something today. Thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

He said by factor of two, and since the ohio is the primary contributor to the lower miss, so not too many more major rivers to dilute it that much.
Depends on where they measure it...

And look at all the rivers that flow into the ohio, VA, tenn, NC and alabama contribute to it.

I just read this week of one town in ohio that dumps all their raw sewage straight into the ohio river... You would think in this day and age that wouldn't be happening.

States that contribute to the Ohio river are:
Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois
VA, TN, NC or AL, and it looks like part of NY and GA, too if you go by the watershed map...

Ohio River - Wikipedia

 

[MossRoad]

What do you guys think about this?

I have done a little bit of research on the subject but it seems we are headed towards a world where sand and water is a precious resource.

The sand I talk about of course sand for building, Dubai is one of the largest importers of course sand but it looks like good corse sand won稚 last forever.

Water, something like 75% of China痴 water ways are so polluted they can not be cleaned up, something like 2 million people in China don稚 have clean drinking water. Many other countries have the same issue of polluted water ways. I wonder if water in the near future will be a commodity for parts of the world and will have to be imported. I know the United States consumes a massive amount of bottled water already, when we have plenty of drinking water available in our kitchens.

BrokeFarmerJohn,
I moved your thread from the News/Feedback forum to the related topics forum, as the News/Feedback forum is more for News and Feedback about the TBN site, not news of the world.

I left a redirect in the News/Feedback forum in case anyone is looking for the post in that forum. That redirect will last for about 30 days before it goes away. That'll give people plenty of time to find it in the Related Topics forum.

Please continue the discussion. Thanks.
MR