Water Technology Act (reintroduced)

[Gabu]

At the request of Sen. Sam Spade, the following legislation is reintroduced:

Water Technology Act

1. $10 billion shall be appropriated over the next ten years to fund the perfection of desalination technology.

I hereby open debate on this bill.

[Reaganfan]

At the request of Sen. Sam Spade, the following legislation is reintroduced:

Water Technology Act

1. $10 billion shall be appropriated over the next ten years to fund the perfection of desalination technology.

I hereby open debate on this bill.

Too much money. Cut it down. 5-8 billion IMO

[Jake]

At the request of Sen. Sam Spade, the following legislation is reintroduced:

Water Technology Act

1. $10 billion shall be appropriated over the next ten years to fund the perfection of desalination technology.

I hereby open debate on this bill.

Too much money. Cut it down. 5-8 billion IMO

Why?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

At the request of Sen. Sam Spade, the following legislation is reintroduced:

Water Technology Act

1. $10 billion shall be appropriated over the next ten years to fund the perfection of desalination technology.

I hereby open debate on this bill.

Too much money. Cut it down. 5-8 billion IMO

Why?

Because it's money. Money frightens Mike. Unless he has it.

[John Dibble]

This has to be asked - what are the benefits of this technology to Atlasia and it's people?

[Reaganfan]

This has to be asked - what are the benefits of this technology to Atlasia and it's people?

Agree. I mean..we need to cut down on wasteful spending/too much spending.

[Sam Spade]

This has to be asked - what are the benefits of this technology to Atlasia and it's people?

Desalinization allows us to utilize the greatest source of water on the earth, the oceans. 

If this process, through funding, can be perfected and cheapened, no longer will the areas of the US and the earth in general be in any danger of diminishing water supplies and stores. 

I'm thinking of the Pacific region mainly in this, though the Atlantic and Southeast regions would be main beneficiaries.

[John Dibble]

This has to be asked - what are the benefits of this technology to Atlasia and it's people?

Desalinization allows us to utilize the greatest source of water on the earth, the oceans. 

If this process, through funding, can be perfected and cheapened, no longer will the areas of the US and the earth in general be in any danger of diminishing water supplies and stores. 

I'm thinking of the Pacific region mainly in this, though the Atlantic and Southeast regions would be main beneficiaries.

Ok, still, there still is the question of 'how much will this benefit us?', but that's up for debate I suppose. I wouldn't put this near my top priorities - while potentially useful, it's not really a necessary program, so I'd prefer to cut a number of other unnecessary spending items before we introduce new ones.


That said, interesting thing about the salt and the oceans - introduce too much freshwater into the ocean, and you might just get an ice age. Water density increases with higher salt content and lower temperatures - as you probably know, denser matter will sink, so the bottom of the oceans are slightly more dense than the surface water. Introducing fresh water in large amounts changes the overall ocean density, and that would affect ocean circulation. Ocean circulation is suspected to have three modes - the current interglacial circulation, mild ice-age, and cold ice-age. A change can occur in as little as 10 years, given the condition for the change is introduced - if the polar ice-caps melted, expect it to get very cold(take that global warming ). This has been your science lesson for the day.

Anyways, seperating water and salt is not difficult at all - freeze it or evaporate it. The only problem is doing that in large quantities I suppose.

[The Duke]

The value of the bill is that we have finite amounts fresh water, especially ground water which is what we use for agriculture.  Reducing the use of ground water and increasing the use of desalinated water is the water policy equivalent of using hydrogen to replace petroleum.

Naso,

The $10 billion number wasn't pulled out of a hat.  That is the most common estimate for how much it costs to perfect desalination technology.

[Nym90]

I strongly support this legislation.

[Siege40]

I even more strongly support this!

Siege

[Colin]

After looking over this and considering the money that must be spent and the need of desalinization in Atlasia, I have decided to support this bill.

[Nym90]

I even more strongly support this!

Siege

No, I support it more than you do.

[Platypus]

I hope I don't sound too arrogant here, but I know a bit about water problems, and desalinisation has to be pretty much a final alternative.

It's really, really, really bad for the environment. Both for the reasons John Dibble stated, and because the amount of energy consumed in the process is massive. The emmissions the plant itself, and the power plants produce is affecting global warming and making the world an even drier place. Desalinisation is a quick-fix measure that destroys the ocean ecosystem, and in the long term it hurts us all.

We need to focus on educating the public on responsible water usage, and on piping water into drier regions from wet regions, as was done in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia in the Gold Rush there, or for the kibbutz in Israel. It's not cheap, but it is a long-term solution that has minimal environmental effects. Also, we should be educating farmers on better water usage, utilising the knowledge our Israeli and Australian friends have, and on better crop choices for arid regions.

I will not support this bill until it is needed, and it is not at this stage.

Also we need to reduce water wastage in cities, especially in the Southwestern, more arid areas.

[The Duke]

I hope I don't sound too arrogant here, but I know a bit about water problems, and desalinisation has to be pretty much a final alternative.

It's really, really, really bad for the environment. Both for the reasons John Dibble stated, and because the amount of energy consumed in the process is massive. The emmissions the plant itself, and the power plants produce is affecting global warming and making the world an even drier place. Desalinisation is a quick-fix measure that destroys the ocean ecosystem, and in the long term it hurts us all.

We need to focus on educating the public on responsible water usage, and on piping water into drier regions from wet regions, as was done in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia in the Gold Rush there, or for the kibbutz in Israel. It's not cheap, but it is a long-term solution that has minimal environmental effects. Also, we should be educating farmers on better water usage, utilising the knowledge our Israeli and Australian friends have, and on better crop choices for arid regions.

I will not support this bill until it is needed, and it is not at this stage.

Also we need to reduce water wastage in cities, especially in the Southwestern, more arid areas.

Neither conservation or efficiency address the fact that freshwater is finite.

I'm assuming that in the future well shift away from high-pollution fossil fuels and towards hydrogen and nuclear, so I wasn't worried about emissions.

This bill also doesn't implement ANY desalination, it only funds research into how to do it better.  Desalination would only come into action when its is the most ecnomical alternative to get fresh water.

[12th Doctor]

I fully back this measure.  With the massive strain on our global fresh water resources, it is better for humanity and the environment that we fund research to extract the needed water from the ocean.

[Platypus]

We should spend the money for researching desalinisationon researching better uses for freshwater. Freshwater is only finite if we prevent the creation of new freshwater through bad environmental policies, or use up all current water tables. With proper management, and research into better systems of water usage and management, we can not only slow the process,  but allow it to be naturally reversed, as was seen with the reclaimation of water tables in South Australia that is currently ongoing.

Pull the grant back to $2 billion and I'll support it; Desalinisation can help but we shouldn't have it as a ten-billion dollar focus.

We have discovered ways to reduce water usage by halves of halves of halves in the last century or so, and I feel strongly that we can, with the right research, get to a point where we reduce water wastage to a point where it is equal to or below the capacity for renewal of the water's sources.

[12th Doctor]

We should spend the money for researching desalinisationon researching better uses for freshwater. Freshwater is only finite if we prevent the creation of new freshwater through bad environmental policies, or use up all current water tables. With proper management, and research into better systems of water usage and management, we can not only slow the process,  but allow it to be naturally reversed, as was seen with the reclaimation of water tables in South Australia that is currently ongoing.

Pull the grant back to $2 billion and I'll support it; Desalinisation can help but we shouldn't have it as a ten-billion dollar focus.

We have discovered ways to reduce water usage by halves of halves of halves in the last century or so, and I feel strongly that we can, with the right research, get to a point where we reduce water wastage to a point where it is equal to or below the capacity for renewal of the water's sources.

But by switching our focus to ocean water, we can acctually cut back on our usage of fresh water.  That is the point.

[The Duke]

We should spend the money for researching desalinisationon researching better uses for freshwater. Freshwater is only finite if we prevent the creation of new freshwater through bad environmental policies, or use up all current water tables. With proper management, and research into better systems of water usage and management, we can not only slow the process,  but allow it to be naturally reversed, as was seen with the reclaimation of water tables in South Australia that is currently ongoing.

Pull the grant back to $2 billion and I'll support it; Desalinisation can help but we shouldn't have it as a ten-billion dollar focus.

We have discovered ways to reduce water usage by halves of halves of halves in the last century or so, and I feel strongly that we can, with the right research, get to a point where we reduce water wastage to a point where it is equal to or below the capacity for renewal of the water's sources.

The $10 billion figure, as I told Naso, is not meant to represent a value judgement of how important desalination is, its meant to get the technology figured out.  $10 billion does the job, $2 billion doesn't.

The reclaimation of water table proposal sounds like when the lumber companies tell us the rainforest won't be eradicate because they replant trees.  The fact is that we'll never be able to reclaim water as fast as we use it, with the Earth's population headed towards 10 billion people by mid-century.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Something that is needed is increased efficiency in the South West, especially Southern California.

[True Democrat]

I would like to add that this bill has the President's full support.  I would like to see a Senator introduce an amendment to appropriate money for the purpose of reducing water use by educating the public and making water use more efficient.

[Sam Spade]

Are there any more comments or amendments Senators wish to bring up here?  Otherwise, I will call for this to be brought to a vote.

[Gabu]

Are there any more comments or amendments Senators wish to bring up here?  Otherwise, I will call for this to be brought to a vote.

As debate continued up until the day of the occurrance of the migration, I'll give senators another, say, six hours to raise debate on this bill.

[WMS]

I would like to add that this bill has the President's full support.  I would like to see a Senator introduce an amendment to appropriate money for the purpose of reducing water use by educating the public and making water use more efficient.

An amendment to encourage greater water efficiency is a good idea, however I don't have such an amendment ready myself - not enough time to research it, translate it from layperson to legalese, etc. If someone else can come up with one, it would be beneficial.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I see no reason why the rest of Atlasia should fund a bill that essentially subsidies people who live in desert areas.  There are far better things for Atlasia to spend money on if it must spend it.