How it is used is more important than the amount of water
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How Much Water Do We Need? Why Water and Bioenergy Consumption is Undermining the Clean Energy Landscape in the United States and Beyond
In the United States, total water use is decreasing even though the population and the economy are expanding. There is evidence that an efficiency revolution is under way and water withdrawals are less than they were 50 years ago. The economic productivity of water use has increased in the United States over this time, measuring as units of gross domestic product per unit of water used. Similar trends can be found in many other countries.
There is an old joke, made famous by the writer David Foster Wallace, in which one fish says to another, “How’s the water?” The second fish asked, what the hell is water?
No matter how abundant the supply, of course, water intended for drinking also needs to be clean and free of contaminants. The chemicals that are known as “forever” are chains of carbon and fluorines held together by some of the strongest chemical bonds in nature and impervious to most attempts to break them down. Engineers are working to purify the water that contains PFAS.
The danger posed by water is of course increased by climate change. Minimizing its effects will require a big push towards renewable power sources that are intermittent and dependent on technologies to store and transport energy. hydrogen can be formed by water and is a good candidate for renewable power. An economy dependent on hydrogen energy will inevitably consume large quantities of water. As renewable sources become more part of the energy picture, reducing hydrogen’s water footprint is an important focus.
The FII Institute’s Luminosity Monitor Outlook (French) Vol. I: Funds, Contributions and Webcast
We are pleased to acknowledge the financial support of the FII Institute in producing this Outlook and the associated webcast. Nature retains sole responsibility for all editorial content.
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