Will the World's Oceans Be Our Next Drinking Tap?

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted January 15, 2008.

---snip---

Stephen Hawking is no dummy. That much has been established.

Yet in 2006, when the acclaimed scientist told an audience of mostly university students and professors in China that he was "very worried about global warming" and that Earth "might end up like Venus, at 250 degrees centigrade and raining sulfuric acid,'' the dystopian prediction nevertheless dropped off the cultural radar after a few short weeks. Which, of course, is a sad commentary on the state of our minds, distracted as they are by horserace punditry possessed with the 2008 election, athletes on HGH, or the latest meltdown of pop tarts like Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse. After all, some might argue, the thought of our verdant Earth metamorphosing into the environmental nightmare that is Venus, whose oceans evaporated millions of years ago, is beyond sci-fi, a transformation so stunning and apocalyptic that it cannot be comprehended, much less be true.

But Hawking is not alone, especially among activists and scientists who have been keeping a sharp eye on our planet's precarious water situation. And that includes Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water as well as the founder of the Blue Planet Project and the national chairperson of the advocacy group Council of Canadians.

"I fear that the global water crisis will destroy all life on earth if we do not deal with it soon," she confessed. . . .

http://alternet.org/environment/73512/?page=1

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Earth and Venus compared

This to-scale image suggests how the Earth and Venus might appear without their atmospheres.

* Venus' diameter is 86% that of the Earth's
* It has 82% the mass
* If you weigh 180 pounds on the Earth, you would weigh 163 pounds on Venus
* Venus is about three-quarters the Earth's distance from the Sun

While Venus is roughly the same size and density as the Earth, it is otherwise a very different world. Earth's surface is a varied one, with liquid water covering three quarters of its surface. Those areas not under water have been highly modified by plate tectonics, weather, and life itself. Venus on the other hand is far too hot to host liquid water. Volcanoes, massive lava flows and the occasional impact crater characterize its surface.

Latest observations suggest that Venus may periodically resurface itself completely--and catastrophically--through massive, planet-wide volcanic eruptions. The last such resurfacing "event" appears to have occurred about 500 million years ago.

Source: http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/venus_002.htm

[Lint Head]

1. It's obvious that is the scenario.

I have always thought that long before I knew Hawking existed. I have read all of his books since among others that are extremely convincing as to the fate of the earth. Desalination of sea water is just another money making opportuniy for corporations. :dem:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. My ignorance of the environmental damage and great expense...

...of desalination made this a bit of an eye opener for me. Seems humans will desperately grasp at anything and everything to avoid the one thing that might actually have a chance to work: conservation.