Rain.

[hunter]

44. The only thing dumber than mining fossil water for cities or agriculture...

... is mining fossil fuels to desalinate seawater.

Solar and wind desalinated water is ferociously expensive and then you have to use even more energy to pump it uphill from the ocean. The only reason big water projects in California work is that the fresh water is essentially free and stored as snow and groundwater at higher altitudes.

So much water in California is used in environmentally destructive ways, beyond growing food and interior household use, that it's just sad. Golf courses are almost trivial compared to damage done by suburban development and the irrigation of poisonous soils for crops that would best be grown elsewhere.

Desalinization might be feasible for long term use with nuclear or fusion power, but that leads to another unpleasant future too, where all the coastal areas of the world are urbanized. Runoff from urban areas, not to mention the damage done by the desalinization plants themselves, are very harmful to coastal wildlife and wetlands.

If we were to look at our future realistically, we would be retreating from the coasts and restoring wetlands, especially as the oceans rise and storms get worse.

Ha, ha, like that's going to happen... Nobody is going to move until their stuff is smashed up and polluting the ocean and they don't have the money to replace it. Moving a house, apartment building, hotel, power plant, boardwalk, or highway before the ocean eats it would be unthinkable, especially if it's the playground of wealthy people!

Many alternative energy and desalinization schemes, and much anti-nuclear activity, makes the natural gas industry very happy. I refuse to participate in that. Natural gas is a devil nearly as bad as coal.

Meanwhile I'm hoping for rain here in California. The hills shouldn't be brown like this in January. There shouldn't be wildfires this time of year. It's just plain scary.