No doubt, but the other solutions are pretty ugly also. You end up taking away someone else's water in most cases, and they aren't going to be happy or tolerate it well. It's the point of the article, in fact.
It may well be that the water cost makes agriculture infeasible in certain regions. That is an economic decision and should serve to control things at some level. Urban desalination is another issue - you're not going to bulldoze a city because it's hard to get water to it. Usually.
CanтАЩt disagree with anything you said. By the way, Vlacav Smil has written some informative and factual books on energy, especially so-called alternative energy, to which heтАЩs sympathetic. Check that out, if you havenтАЩt already.
It so happens that the places that need desalination are usually places with great solar potential.
It takes a LOT of energy, especially with the large volumes, as would be required for irrigation.
Why we need nuclear power.
No doubt, but the other solutions are pretty ugly also. You end up taking away someone else's water in most cases, and they aren't going to be happy or tolerate it well. It's the point of the article, in fact.
It may well be that the water cost makes agriculture infeasible in certain regions. That is an economic decision and should serve to control things at some level. Urban desalination is another issue - you're not going to bulldoze a city because it's hard to get water to it. Usually.
CanтАЩt disagree with anything you said. By the way, Vlacav Smil has written some informative and factual books on energy, especially so-called alternative energy, to which heтАЩs sympathetic. Check that out, if you havenтАЩt already.
Energy should be cheap.