water water everywhere but not a drop to drink(Future-Shock)

syklops

Just finished watching futureshock with Philip Boucher-Hayes. Thought it was quite good though I had a couple of qualms with the production. One was his minor mention of de-salinisation. In the 1 hour episode where he discussed the water problems we have in this country, he spoke for under a minute about one of the only solutions, which is de-salinisation. He asked only one of the experts lined up, and this one expert, who was a professor from a university, said that the 2 reasons against de-salinisation were (a) it wasn't cheap, and (b) was not carbon friendly.

Call me cynical and tell me I don't know what I am talking about but, this is not what I call a balanced argument. Its not cheap. Neither is bottled water. Its bad for the environment, or should I say its bad for climate change. From what I saw tonight, we have lots of environmental problems in Ireland. Most of them have little to do with climate change, and call me cynical, but I think nowadays you can not get funding for small environmental isuues, but if you can lean in favour of climate change, the money is all yours.

Again, call me cynical, but.....

Danno

Well said mate. It was disgusting to see what has happened, and it is mostly developer driven.

For everyone out there with septic tanks, take a long hard look at what happens when they're neglected.

syklops

Wow! That was so not the response I was waiting for. I think I am going to stop reading after hours, and stick to threads that discuss things and not just LOL and flame each other.

I have to say I was very annoyed at the idea to pump some of the shannon to dublin. How can that be carbon neutral for a start? Not being anti-dublin, but it generally gets the best of everything as it is. I live in the nations capital, but my parents live in the same town as the little girl whose mother was interviewed, and to be honest, if either got sick from crypto-whatever, I would be very annoyed. They have a well, but the pump is not working in it, and the lowest quote so far, is about 20k. Due to some clause somewhere only one of my parents is due for a pension. Considering I spend roughly more on drink for a week than my parents get for to live on, I dont think they will get it fixed soon. Nowadays, they just buy bottled water for from aldi for half nothing and then get peace of mind.

Oh god this is turning in an Anti-irish government rant. Sorry everyone. Do not comment on what I said. Lets go back to the show. Did you like it? Any qualms?

Not The Real Scarecrow

Didn't see the show and to be honest wouldn't look at something like that anyway.RTE are basically owned and backed by the government.They are just a propaganda machine for whatever government that are in power that ensure every one pays a stupid amount of money for a TV license for channels that no one looks at.

All the talk of water shortages on the news lately is obviously an attempt by politicians and those in the pocket of the government to try and create a culture of fear surrounding the whole water issue.Once they have established the lie that we will suffer a water shortage they will bring in domestic water charges under the guise that it is a necessary evil and the country will roll along with it like good little robots.We will complain at first and after a while just accept it and do nothing about it , same as it always was , same as it always will be, in a country full of idiots that do what their told and leave the running of the country in the hands of a group of people that more than likely never even sat the leaving cert.
Kill the government, kill your God then kill yourself.

syklops

Meatwad wrote: »

Didn't see the show and to be honest wouldn't look at something like that anyway.RTE are basically owned and backed by the government.They are just a propaganda machine for whatever government that are in power that ensure every one pays a stupid amount of money for a TV license for channels that no one looks at.

All the talk of water shortages on the news lately is obviously an attempt by politicians and those in the pocket of the government to try and create a culture of fear surrounding the whole water issue.Once they have established the lie that we will suffer a water shortage they will bring in domestic water charges under the guise that it is a necessary evil and the country will roll along with it like good little robots.We will complain at first and after a while just accept it and do nothing about it , same as it always was , same as it always will be, in a country full of idiots that do what their told and leave the running of the country in the hands of a group of people that more than likely never even sat the leaving cert.
Kill the government, kill your God then kill yourself.

I would be inclined to agree. In part of the program they went to the US (Oh No!), and well, one expert was shocked we don't pay for water. The question was asked by the presenter, which obviously lead to her answer. Which would, to me any way, be a way to ease us into the up coming water charges.

I rarely watch RTE. Occasionally I get an urge to find out what is happening locally. I am usually disappointed. When russia invaded georgia, the headline was the US electoral campaign, and then something about a disturbance in a russian state....

Utopia Parkway

I decided to give this show on water shortages a miss given that we've just had about three months of constant rain.

mikemac

Pay for water? Farmers and rate payers have been paying for water for years, paying for water isn't new.

It's only a matter of time before it becomes a tax for people in homes.
And despite the initial outrage it'll be accepted but of course many people will get waivers and every other sucker will pick up the tab for them and themselves.
As said, they'll spin it as a green tax and like they are doing you a favour.

syklops

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

I decided to give this show on water shortages a miss given that we've just had about three months of constant rain.

I watched it coz my sister's lecturers were being interviewed. There was a bit, where they found fish in a river which were changing sex, which they put down to the chemicals in the water. Fair enough.

The presenter asked "Are you worried?". The professor said "Yes, because there are substances in the water which seem mutagenic". The presenter said "You mean canceragenic", and she said "Yes.".

Now while I admit, that things that are mutagenic are not generally good for you, I did wonder when mutagenic automatically became cancerous. And if it does, why was this study not about an increase in cancer in fish??

My sister sent me an explanation that cancer is a mutation of cells, and therefore mutagenic, which I accept, but these fish were not dying, they were changing.... Im not a dentist but, surely changing is better than dying?

I dunno. I beginning to distrust almost all forms of media. Pretty much everything seems to be tainted in someone opinion other than mine. If thats true, how do I know what is correct?

Apart from top gear. Its almost always right.

jeremyquinn

Scare the life out of people for 55 minutes, and then the solution.

Water charges.

A propaganda exercise on the part of government. Create an imaginary crisis and then offer the solution. Obviously they had to offer something other than shortages, so the latest scare is disease.

Farce.

lostexpectation

cos there nothing wrong with changing sex, and bottled water and desalination are equvalent.

Spinnaker

I defer to experts from outside this little island who put forward practical solutions that are being adopted elsewhere.

http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Seg/PB2ch11_ss5.htm

Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006), available for free downloading and purchase at www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB2/index.htm.

I can't resist one comment anyway: Water charges were held back in the past cos they are an election-loser for the incumbants. Everyone pays indirectly in any case for what is clearly an environmentally poor infrastructure. In the meatime we continue to waste and pollute water cos we feel that water and it's treatment are free. User by user charges will drive responsible use is my guess ......