Is Australia Facing Overpopulation and Dwindling Resources?

[SW VandeCarr]

Is it necessary to return the salt to the ocean? Why not bury it or even pile it up somewhere? Then the ocean salinity could even decrease.

The salinity won't decrease or increase because you're removing both water and salt. If neither returns to the ocean, then there is no change. It is true that extracted water will eventually return to the ocean via the hydrological cycle so in theory salt should be returned to the ocean over a longer period based on local monitoring.

However, in trade wind desert regions, much of the evaporation is not returned locally as rainfall, but exported to equatorial regions via trade wind zone convection cells. Examples are the Sahara and the deserts of Australia.

 

[mheslep]

The salinity won't decrease or increase because you're removing both water and salt.

The water of course is never permanently removed and will find its way back. The salts can be permanently removed, at least for an eon or two.

 

[vanesch]

In any case, I would say that forbidding desalination on the grounds that the sea might get too salty sounds to me as "overly precocious" and I weight my words - especially if it is done with solar power. A big coal plant to power a desalination plant, that's another matter. Even a nuclear reactor purely for purposes of desalination, I don't know if that's a good idea. But with solar power, I really don't see the problem.
I mean, compared to the good that that extracted fresh water can potentially do, compared to the "price" it costs, this is peanuts. One simply has maybe to think about how to disperse the brine better, or how to do something else with it.

 

[dilletante]

Perhaps returning the salt to the ocean may simply maintain the salinity since the ice shelves in the antarctic are expected to melt and add fresh water.

 

[Mk]

Even a nuclear reactor purely for purposes of desalination, I don't know if that's a good idea.

With the extra energy from nuclear powered desalination you could mine uranium from the sea too! The opportunity cost of this idea might be pretty high.

Is is a better life if biodiversity has been decreased?
Is it a better life if ecosystems are rendered unstable?
Is it a better life for future generations if we focus solely on the well being of our generation?

Just because there is a change in the environment, as long as that change is permanent, organisms will evolve into the change. New niches will be filled, and ecosystems tend to equilibrium. When you say, "Is it a better life for future generations if we focus solely on the well being of our generation?" that doesn't make much sense in this context. The entire thread is about how to make things better in the long-term, not just to worry about the short term and the end up with thousands of ghost towns.

 

[Blenton]

What is this? Are any of you australian?

I haven't heard anything about this at all, while you guys are sitting back stroking your beards. We already have desalination plants running.

 

[mheslep]

What is this? Are any of you australian?

I haven't heard anything about this at all, while you guys are sitting back stroking your beards. We already have desalination plants running.

Desalination plants run all over the world. The question is whether Australia can build enough of them to address the situation https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1555232&postcount=1", and if one believes that is a valid concern.

 

[Blenton]

Theres plenty of rain here now, the 'drought' is pretty much over.

The only problem we face is idiot politicians who think that building new dams would be a waste of money.