Desalination
Crisis or solution?
Desalination: What is it?
Desalination is the process of removing dissolved salts from water, this produces fresh water from seawater or brackish water. Making it safe for humans to ingest.
What's used, and some interesting facts.
For desalination they use lots of thermal energy, nano tubes, generators.
Desalination was invented in the 1950's!
Roughly 80% of water in Israelie cities comes from desalination plants.
As of 2013, Dubai was sourcing roughly 98% of its portable water supply from desalination.
Effects on water, and the environment.
Water: the other salt they take out goes back into bodies of water, giving them very high salinty levels.
Environmet: the structures used pull in sea creatures such as fish or shellfish destroying there population. It leaves large amounts of silt behind, disturbing ecosystems.
Effects on humans.
It's a very expensive process. It leaves large amounts of salt behind. Does not fully remove a naturally occurring chemical in seawater called "boron" which could be harmful to humans.
Long term effects of Desalination.
Some bad long term effects of desalination are that it creates a lot of waste. It also produces many greenhouses gases and emissions. But on the positive side, it creates safe drinkable water.
Info sources
Your very own science textbook.
Wikipedia
Seametrics.com