Comments by "Andre Falksmen" (@andrefalksmen1264) on "10 MASSIVE Cities That Should NOT Exist" video.

Aqueducts are far cheaper and more efficient than desalination. I don't know what people's fascination with the idea of desalination is, but it's extremely expensive and energy-intensive. With exception of the usual protocol boundaries and security, it makes more sense the build 2500 + km aqueducts than to build a desalination plant.
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@KuroshiKun let's take a look at the numbers, industrial-scale reverse osmosis requires between 3.5 and 5 kilowatt-hours of electricity per cubic meter of water! To pump one cubic meter of water to a height of 1 m, requires .002kwh of electricity, do you see the price difference is three orders of magnitude! That is all aside from the fact that Aqueduct water, after being pumped uphill can generate electricity on its way back down hill, and desalinated water will also still need to be pumped. From time immemorial, from the ancient Sumerians on, human beings bring the resources to them, that is the basis of civilization. California's the aqueduct program is not impressive by historical standards, the longest Aqueduct built by the Romans was 426 km. The length of the Chinese south-north diversion aqueduct is over 1,200 kilometers. Until there's some massive leap in power generation technology, reverse osmosis is a pipe dream. You want to know where the western United States could get the water needs, look up a proposed idea of the 1960s called the North American Water and Power Alliance.
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@ivanberggreen9787 okay, when we dig further we find out that the plant in Melbourne cost 1.8 million dollars a day even in idle mode, that is when no water is being produced, and when in full production requires 90 megawatts of power. That power is not coming from Renewables, the operator claims that it is offset by Renewables, big difference. To put in perspective, 90 megawatts of power is almost twice the electrical capacity of the country of Samoa.
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@KuroshiKun no I'm American, it's just easier to do the calculations in metric units for anything that has to do with science. Actually, I don't even know the calculations in imperial units. So, like so much in life and the issue with civilization, it is a people problem not a natural resource problem. Politically, America's screwed oh, yes it is for the clean people to tap water from the Mississippi River, I wouldn't even say that is the best source to tap, but all sources face the same issue. You cannot maintain California's population, let alone agriculture, or what's left of Industry, on desalinated water. I don't know what scientific journals you're reading, but desalinization it's not getting cheaper, the technology is not changing, and there is not the power source sufficient to make it cheaper. Once again, we're talkin about three orders of magnitude, 30 x! Even building nuclear power plants will be a political fight in California, and much like today in aqueduct, a nuclear power plant is expensive on the front end, cheaper on the backend. Regardless, the era when America could do both things and Achieve great results has long since passed.
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@KuroshiKun I didn't say I don't know American customary units, I don't know how to do the calculations in imperial units. As in, would you do a cubic foot of water or cubic yard of water, would it be lifting one cubic foot of water one foot in height, I've never even seen those calculations used. Again, you're talking about something akin to 30 times the cost, repeat 30 times! If you can't build an aqueduct, you're not going to build a desalination plant at 30 times the cost!
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@KuroshiKun yeah yeah, good luck.
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@Meya-Star yeah, and that somehow is going to magically make it a feasible option? That's like saying because of global warming antimatter reaction Chambers are just a matter of time as an alternative power source, an obviously stupid statement. Without substantial leaps in technology and significant investments, we will not have antimatter reaction chambers nor economical desalinization.
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Makes you wonder if with climate change Saudi Arabia will become green?
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