Regarding water desalination, a large well-known company made a commercial which shows a boat load of rugged fishermen pulling blocks of bottled water from the sea, as if they were fish, and celebrating their new pure, fresh source of water. Such marketing makes ocean desalination appear simple and easy. It is not. In reality, it involves huge plants, heavy machinery, lots of energy and extremely high financial, social and environmental costs. They promise that reverse osmosis technology can turn the ocean into a reliable source of drinking water by removing the salt from seawater. While they offer their product for two to four times the cost of other water sources, they fail to advertise the toxic chemicals, marine life damage, carbon emissions and other social and environmental ills that come along with it.
They found:
- Ocean desalination costs more than any other option
- Ocean desalination uses more energy than any other option–which means bigger contributions to global warming
- Desalination technology can kill marine life
- Desalination creates water pollution
- Desalination can fail to remove harmful chemicals from your drinking water
- Desalination projects invite corporate abuse of your public water systems
- Desalination is not necessary – we have other alternatives. Conservation programs are cheaper and without the risks of desalination. They are not as profitable for private companies but they better serve the public.
No comments:
Post a Comment