Desalination: Are you for or against it?

For. Drinking saltwater can kill you.

It has the potential to save thousands of lives.

Totally for it. If I want more salt then I will eat more Ramen Noodles.

I believe the environmental destruction is worth the trade off. Is is important that the damage is kept to an absolute minimum.

A typical aircraft carrier in the U.S. military uses nuclear power to desalinate 400,000 US gallons (1,500,000 l; 330,000 imp gal) of water per day. source

As long as the fishes, whales and dolphins aren’t affected.

I am worried about the long-term effects. I am not sure that we should dump the salt back into the sea.

On the whole, though, I am for it.

I don’t see anything wrong with desalination. Even if you do dump the salt back into the ocean, how is that any different to the environment than natural evaporation?

It may become a necessary evil Why evil? Because it will cause an unnatural imbalance with nature. Why necessary? Because we use too much for unnatural projects; think Disneyland and green lawns where there is naturally a desert.

My answer would have a lot to do a particular project, what’s the water going to be used for and what powers the desalination…
If you’re making drinking water for people who don’t have it, hip hip !!
If you’re powering it with the sun then hip hip !!
If you’re building a nuclear reactor to run the desalination plant to water the plants around a resort then that’s pretty dopey.

I am for it. Fresh water is becoming more & more scarce every day, & since global warming is adding melting glacier water to the ocean – we should be able to desalinate ocean water without negatively impacting the ocean & marine life. As a matter of fact, the fact of glacier melt water (glacier water is fresh water) is a potential threat to the ocean (by shutting down the natural ‘conveyor belt’ by too much fresh water) & if we desalinate in several locations & return the salt back into the ocean, we could (potentially) help safe-guard our oceans & the marine life that is dependent on our oceans, while providing drinking water to a great many people.

@Sunny2 Disneyland? Try the city of Phoenix, the tropical wonderland in the middle of a saguaro forest.

I agree with @Sunny2

May be a necessary evil, but, every time we tamper with the natural balance something goes wrong. I think dumping all that salt back into the sea without it being diluted as it naturally would be certainly might have a negative effect, I dunno. WTF…we’re already halfway to hell in a hand basket. lol

It’s purely an economic question. Is it cost effective, yes or no?

@Charles No, it is not purely an economic issue. That’s one one of the problems of our current civilization. We could destroy the planet thinking that way. Perhaps we already are.

No “perhaps” IMO, it’s a given, woe be us greedy parasitic humans when the planet finally rebels.

@Coloma I disagree. We are part of this planet and it’s up to us to manage what we can correctly.

@auhsojsa Agreed, but, we are not “managing” anything, we are decimating and pillaging.
If we really want to “manage” the fate of our planet we’ll stop reproducing and learn to live with less. Hey, you’re talking to an old hippie woman here. ;-)