| China publishes energy white paper | |
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| Dec 25, 2007 21:27 |   |
 | China's State Council Information Office released on Wednesday a white paper on "China's Energy Conditions and Policies". The document, composed of eight chapters analyzed China's enery conditions and formulated its energy policies. The paper says that China is the second-largest energy producer and consumer. However, the rapid expansion of energy consumption has created a vast scope for the global energy market. Global energy crisis will pose a serious problem not only for China but the world in the next 100 years. In 20th century, the international community has saw many conflicts triggered by the snatch of oil. In the 21st century, could water shortage trigger warfares? |
| Jan 3, 2008 08:54 | #1 |
| >>Global energy crisis will pose a serious problem not only for China but the world in the next 100 years. In 20th century, the international community has saw many conflicts triggered by the snatch of oil. In the 21st century, could water shortage trigger warfares? Fresh water in China is a very big problem; and best fresh water I mean water supply to towns like Beijing. But, there are working on it. In fact, China is currently building and working on the biggest civil engineering project worldwide: they are building an enormous canal in order to bring water from the South up to Beijing. Without that, the capital city could run out of water reserve to supply the ever increasing water demand within 5 years or so. But, before wondering about wars and conflicts triggered by water shortages, I would worry more about the climatic changes we are now seeing and especially the ones to come. In fact, I am very pescimistic about this and I really worry about the fact that in a 100 years, there might not be much left to fight for. I would like to believe that there is still hope that we will all wake up and stop polluting our world and that we will find solutions to solve the problem..in time. But deep inside me, I fear that the damage is already done and that once the oceans levels and water temperature start to rise and completely disturb the weather accross the planet, peace will be hard to get....water supply or not... I'm sorry to bring such a bleek perspective on the future, but I just wanted to share to way I see things and I just hope that this could at least bring some people to change their way of thinking about life and about how important we all are to each other ....and that we have to start working together; not be afraid of wars.... |
| Jan 3, 2008 09:36 | #2 |
| SHIJIAZHUANG, China: Hundreds of feet below ground, this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running out of water. The water table is sinking fast. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater. Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year. Population is rising. One new upscale housing development is advertising waterfront property on lakes filled with pumped groundwater. Another half-built complex, the Arc de Royal, is rising above one of the lowest points in the city's water table. "People who are buying apartments aren't thinking about whether there will be water in the future," said Zhang Zhongmin, who has tried for the past 20 years to raise public awareness about the city's dire water situation. For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China's galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China - even as demand keeps rising everywhere. China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply. |
| Jan 3, 2008 09:36 | #3 |
| One example is grain. The Communist Party, leery of depending on imports to feed the country, has long insisted on grain self-sufficiency. But growing so much grain consumes huge amounts of underground water in the North China Plain, which produces half the country's wheat. Some scientists say farming in the rapidly urbanizing region should be restricted to protect endangered aquifers. Yet doing so could threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and cause a spike in international grain prices. In the past, the Communist Party has reflexively turned to engineering projects to address water problems, and now it is reaching back to one of Mao's unrealized schemes: the $62 billion South-to-North Water Transfer Project to funnel 45 billion cubic meters, or 12 trillion gallons, northward every year along three routes from the Yangtze River basin, where water is more abundant. The project, if fully built, would be completed in 2050. The eastern and central lines are already under construction; the western line, the most controversial because of environmental concerns, remains in the planning stages. The North China Plain undoubtedly needs any water it can get. An economic powerhouse with more than 200 million residents, the region has limited rainfall and depends on groundwater for 60 percent of its water supply. Other countries have aquifers that are being drained to dangerously low levels, like Yemen, India, Mexico and the United States. But scientists say the aquifers below the North China Plain may be drained within 30 years. "There's no uncertainty," said Richard Evans, a hydrologist who has worked in China for two decades and has served as a consultant to the World Bank and China's Ministry of Water Resources. "The rate of decline is very clear, very well documented. They will run out of groundwater if the current rate continues." |
| Jan 3, 2008 20:11 | #4 |
| Earth has more water than land. We can all drown in it, so why the shortage? Water is the most important. What good is economic prosperity if we don’t have water to drink? There is so much we can do if only we are not so divided by pride and ego. We have all the technology in the world to make life better, to bring just about anything to anywhere. Everyone is just competing for I don’t know what. Almost every country thinks they are better than the other. The ‘powers-that-be’ are vying to rule a destroyed earth. *sigh* "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." ~ Martin Luther King Jr. |
| Jan 5, 2008 20:50 | #5 |
| MLK was a bright man. She'sgottobe: oceans have salt water which is not very useful for ever expending cities. Salt water cannot be used to feed our need in fresh water; you'd have to de-salt it and that (although not 'impossinle') is HIGHLY pricy. We might have to that just that at some point, but for now, there's no way that cities (or you and I) can afford it. So it's really not simple as that. Water supply is a much lager problem than almost anyone thinks. JCNILE123: it's funny that you took the example of SJZ, because it's the town I'm living in right now. [Maybe you knew it from one of my previous post...anyway...]. Yes, Northern China seems to be under a great deal of pressure already as far as water goes and I won't even venture on environmental problems like air, water and soil pollution. Desertification is at the door step and that economic growth will soon bite! Here's also some interesting food for thought I found in a couple clicks: "To date, probably the most reliable and widely-accepted water estimate to produce a pound of beef is the figure of 2,500 gallons/pound. Newsweek once put it another way: "the water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a destroyer." "Our taste for meat is costly in terms of water, Pimentel noted. Producing a pound of animal protein requires, on average, about 100 times more water than producing a pound of vegetable protein. But some animals are thriftier, he noted: Whereas growing the grain to feed cattle requires 12,000 gallons of water for every pound of beef, chicken can be produced for "only" 420 gallons of water per pound of meat." ...and we're not even talking about about how big of a problem the cows disgestion system is... search the forum and read about the kangoroos poop story somewhere... If you think cars are a problem for global warming, you might be surprised to know how much the four-legged friends are contributing to the problem. ...not a very happy subject to discuss and learn more I tell you!! |
| Jan 6, 2008 00:06 | #6 |
| Exactly! Desalination or desalinization. I’m just saying that it is something that China can consider. China’s monetary reserve is in an all-time high and it has demonstrated time and time again that it can do huge projects that are supposed to be impossible. Human race is capable of great things. Desalinization technology, like any other technology is improving and the costs are falling. The need for water is not an iffy subject. It is not an option not to have water. Besides, desalination is 100000x a better option than going to war because of water! >_< |
| Jan 6, 2008 00:30 | #7 |
| The large energy reserves of many Middle Eastern countries, along with their relative water scarcity, have led to extensive construction of desalination in this region. Saudi Arabia's desalination plants account for about 24% of total world capacity. The world's largest desalination plant is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant (Phase 2) in the United Arab Emirates. It is a dual-purpose facility that uses multi-stage flash distillation and is capable of producing 300 million cubic meters of water per year. The largest desalination plant in the United States is the one at Tampa Bay, Florida, which began desalinizing 25 million gallons of water per day in December 2007. In a December 26, 2007 opinion column in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nolan Hertel, a professor of nuclear and radiological engineering at Georgia Tech, wrote, "... nuclear reactors can be used... to produce large amounts of potable water. The process is already in use in a number of places around the world, from India to Japan and Russia. Eight nuclear reactors coupled to desalination plants are operating in Japan alone... nuclear desalination plants could be a source of large amounts of potable water transported by pipelines hundreds of miles inland..." Nuclear-powered desalination might be economical on a large scale, and there is a pilot plant in the former USSR. "Indeed, one needs to lift the water by 2000 m, or transport it over more than 1600 km to get transport costs equal to the desalination costs. Thus, desalinated water is only expensive in places far from the sea, like New Delhi, or in high places, like Mexico City. Desalinated water is also expensive in places that are both somewhat far from the sea and somewhat high, such as Riyadh and Harare. In other places, the dominant cost is desalination, not transport. This leads to relatively low costs in places like Beijing, Bangkok, Zaragoza, Phoenix, and, of course, coastal cities like Tripoli." For cities on the coast, desalination is being increasingly viewed as an untapped and unlimited water storage. Israel is now desalinizing water at a cost of 53 cents per cubic meter. Singapore is desalinizing water for 49 cents per cubic meter. The city of Perth has been successfully operating a reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant since 2006, and the West Australian government has announced that a second plant will be built to service the city's needs. A desalination plant is to be built in Australia's largest city, Sydney, and Wonthaggi, Victoria in the near future. In Perth, Australia, in 2007, a wind powered desalination plant was opened. The water is sucked in from the ocean at only 0.1 meter per second, which is slow enough to let fish escape. The plant provides nearly 40 million gallons of clean water per day. |
| Jan 6, 2008 08:48 | #8 |
| Interesting info Sheezgot2b! I'm sure that money is not an issue in the United Arab Emirates; those boyx got the cash I tell you! I know that it sounds much worst than it actually is, but I found this to be scary at first read: "... nuclear reactors can be used... to produce large amounts of potable water..." Mmm delicious water, but why does it glow in the dark???? ^_^ |
| Jan 6, 2008 23:09 | #9 |
| Glow in the dark water? Brilliant! The kids would go gaga over it. LOL! Move over, Kool Aid! |
| Jan 6, 2008 23:24 | #10 |
| He, he, Al, you are a genius. |
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