this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
366 points (100.0% liked)

World News

45553 readers
2938 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 65 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Nestle: Just as planned

edit: On the bright side, Solar Stills will probably work a lot faster in the future.

[–] Thorry84@feddit.nl 49 points 4 months ago

I know you are joking, but for people that don't know: Solar Stills are total scams. They might work in a pinch as a survival tool, but for long term it's a non starter.

They have many issues, for example in places that don't have a lot of water and thus would be the most needed, they simply don't work. If there isn't a lot of water in the air, there isn't any to extract. Even in perfect conditions these things produce very little water, in most conditions you'd be lucky to get a couple of drops. Second issue is the water isn't clean, there is so much stuff floating in the air, you can't drink the water that comes out without filtering / boiling first. If that step is required you might as well go with ground or surface water sources. And if there isn't any ground or surface water sources, there won't be any water in the air most likely. Third issue is you are creating a hot and humid environment, which is an excellent breeding ground for all sorts of nasties. Think legionnaires disease and all sort of other bacteria and fungi. Within days it becomes a serious health hazard. Last issue is the materials used are almost by definition cheap and exposed to hard uv a lot of the time. This makes them degrade quickly and fall apart. Leaving plastic waste and chemicals leaking into the water it produces, until it just falls apart.

There have been so many crowd funding campaigns for clean water from the air over the past decades. Maybe some of them are simply naive and well meaning, but almost all are plain old scams. Feeding off the desire of people to help other people, only to fill their own pockets.

And furthermore, the problem with access to clean water is capitalism. There is plenty of water available, we have the means to extract it from the ground, surface and sea. We can process it, clean it, recycle it. Use trucks or pipes to transport it to places that don't have it. The only issue is, that costs money and the people living where the water is needed don't have a lot of money. So bringing water to these places simply doesn't generate a profit and thus doesn't get done. It isn't some kind of huge technical issue, there are many rich places in the desert that have plenty of water. Think oil states in the Middle East, or places in the US like Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico etc. Capitalism is the issue, not technology.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 16 points 4 months ago

America would rather invade Canada for water than tell private corporations they need to be regulated more.

[–] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

The Guardian also has an excellent article today on companies like Nestlé and Danone emptying out aquifers.

‘It’s not drought - it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water | Life and style | The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/nov/23/spanish-villages-people-forced-to-buy-back-own-drinking-water-drought-flood

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 54 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)
[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well, yes, but many regions that are going to have water supply issues aren't near the animal ag farms. Closing a dairy farm in New Hampshire isn't going to help things in central Africa. The bigger culprit is Climate Change bringing dry air flows to areas that previously had more humidity and precipitation.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Closing a dairy farm does actually help. It means less CO2 in the air, less climate change, and thus less dry air in central Africa.

For the water itself you are correct, but animal farms are very much a reason of climate change.

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

unsurprisingly, this "research" is also infected by poore-nemecek 2018

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (17 children)

To clarify what this user is referring to, Poore & Nemecek 2018 is a recent, widely cited meta-analysis covering over 1530 studies assessing the environmental impacts of food. It's published in one of the world's top academic journals – Science – and authored by Dr. Joseph Poore, the director of the University of Oxford’s food sustainability program, and Dr. Tomas Nemecek, an expert on agroecology and life cycle assessments from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

They somehow constantly appear like a spectre whenever this study gets brought up to try to spread FUD about it through vague and unsubstantiated nonsense. They do this because it's extremely compelling, effectively unambiguous evidence that many animal products such as dairy are abysmal for the climate ("because it's devastating to my case!"). I highly encourage anyone interested to read it for themselves. The article is paywalled, but Dr. Poore hosts it for free through their personal website, so you don't have to take either of our words for it.

Edit: the paper they quote (but conspicuously don't link to) below to try to refute this methodology is itself a meta-analysis of 369 LCA studies in the same vein as Poore & Nemecek. I can't; my sides are in orbit. Edit 2: For anyone wanting to read it in full, Lancaster University hosts Clune, Crossin & Verghese 2015 legally and for free as well, so again, you don't have to take either of our words for it.

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

it is not compelling, because the LCA references explicitly say that they cannot be combined with other LCA studies. poore-nemecek ignores this guidance and draws hyperbolic conclusions.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

This is the FUD I was referring to. I've asked you before to point to even a single paper responding to this extremely high-profile meta-analysis with something even resembling this vague concern; you haven't been able to turn one up. This should be trivial, because an LCA is an ISO standard, and thus failure to comply with it would be unambiguous for the hundreds if not thousands of scientists familiar with LCAs who have surely read and even cited this paper. I've even pointed out that the animal agriculture industry would be champing at the bit to refute a paper like this and has millions of dollars and teams of scientists to throw at the problem. But you can't, because one doesn't exist.

Your entire argument boils down to "Um, actually, meta-analyses are bad science", which is completely hilarious. Hell, assuming Poore & Nemecek, the peer reviewers, and the entire scientific community ignored this alleged basic oversight, I've pointed out to you multiple times that you yourself could author a paper rebutting this and get it published if what you're saying is even remotely credible. But it isn't. Because you have no idea what you're talking about regarding this paper except to the extent that you're lying.

Edit: I've asked you this before: please, learn how to edit your comments so you don't have to respond to this one with three separate comments.

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago

calling me a liar and appealing to authority doesn't change the truth of what I'm saying.

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I've asked you before to point to even a single paper responding to this extremely high-profile meta-analysis with something even resembling this vague concern;

the references themselves say this explicitly.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So what I'm hearing here is that despite this being an ISO standard, thereby rendering this trivially obvious even to someone with zero background in this field:

  • Poore & Nemecek saw and see no issue with it.
  • The peer reviewers for one of the world's top academic journals see no issue with it.
  • None of the 100+ authors of the 40 papers cited see any issue with it.
  • Having read this, none of the hundreds upon hundreds of environmental scientists for whom this is their life's work and who are orders of magnitude more informed on this than you or I see no issue with it.
  • The animal agriculture industry – which again, absolutely has the means and the overwhelming financial motive to refute this – sees no issue with it.

I'm sorry for "appealing to authority" when all you have to offer is the same flimsy, nonsensical vagary over and over again. If you'll recall, I even asked you last time to point to one of the references calling what Poore & Nemecek did here unjustified, and you refused, likely because you've never actually read a single one of the 40 referenced papers in your life.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Dont worry, there will be a considerable drop in demand due to artificial circumstances. So I wouldn't worry if you survive what is to come.

[–] andallthat@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

Plus, you know that a human body is like 70% water? If you're one of those billionaire vampires you are going to be just fine.

[–] aleq@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also not an issue if you're in the rich part of the world, or just one that has a lot of water. Fortunately I don't think water is gonna be what makes Russia invade, don't know what their supply looks like but I can't imagine it's not enough.

[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Russia has the largest freshwater lake by volume, Lake Baikal, so they aren't likely to invade anyone because of their drinking water needs. Especially because Ukraine has been instrumental in reducing their need of fresh water.

[–] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago (3 children)

It's a big lake but a bigger country. I don't think Russia will be the first to have big water issues. Rather, I would look to Mexico City, Panama, Arizona, Nevada, California.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Luvs2Spuj@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago

But I need it to cool my AI powered rule 34 service.

[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world 18 points 4 months ago

I guess, "do not become addicted to water"

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

It's kind of a funny thing to say, because as the tagline itself mentions demand isn't (totally) fixed. It also doesn't give the source of that exact statement, annoyingly.

What's actually going to happen is that people some places are going to have scarcity and have to cut back or import more at a cost. Either gradually, the way it seems to be shaping up where I live, or suddenly, like whenever California's aquifers finally bite it.

[–] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I mean I wonder how much water would be saved in water scarce places if people just stop having lawns for no reason.

People can put actual effort into their homes exterior and invest in native grasses and plants that way. Save a lot of water and end our troubles with toxic runoff

[–] lemmyseikai@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Or we can grow water intensive plants in states that have water instead of making almonds in California.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 4 months ago

I don't use almond milk mostly for that reason. (Oat is also just better)

[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

We can stop watering golf courses in the middle of the fucking desert

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Good thing we'll only ramp that up in the name of capitalism

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well, the Danes are about to get super rich. Guess they were right to keep hold of Greenland.

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Much like Canada though, I don't think they have resources to defend their water

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Trumps claim that canada will solve the US water crisis worries me.

[–] PanArab@lemm.ee 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Good thing I mostly drink coffee, milk and juices

;)

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

And so the water wars have begun.

Mass migration, armies at the border, and superpowers killing whether they can't profit from.

[–] curiousaur@reddthat.com 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

More likely obligate vegan diets. The economic forces will drive the price of water heavy foods like meat and dairy up so high the masses will stop consuming them.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

It's farming that's causing the demand, not municipal water supplies.

[–] robojeb@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why don't they use Brawndo it's got what plants crave.

[–] pousserapiere@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

It's got ... Roll hands ... Electrolytes

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

I meant mass migration bcs of famine (no local, ever more expensive foreign food bcs they dont have local alterative), but I guess eventually water for drinking too.

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 6 points 4 months ago

If water consumption doesnt increase from the average of the last 2030 years, we will run out of water in the year 5075

There is nothing to worry about /s

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Detroit will make a come back! The city has plenty of water. Salt Lake City is finished and the Mormons can keep the soon to be dry dump.

load more comments