24
Jan

Where does most of our water go? Not where you may think!

Okay.. Still trying to process this in my not so awake brain, but I am awake enough to have verified the basic data.

If you pay even a little bit of time reading environmental news, you will realize that there is a general shortage of fresh water.  I already knew that for the water we consume, a large portion is used by agriculture (like 80 ish percent), but here is what I did not know until yesterday. If we look at the water we USE, thermoelectric power generation takes up nearly 1/2 !!!  Now a small portion of this is from ocean water, but the vast majority is fresh water!!!

The data (from the USGC) is in the link below.

https://water.usgs.gov/watuse/wuto.html

This is just one more log on the fire as to why natural gas power generation is NOT a good stepping stone between where we are now and completely renewable electric generation (fracking and methane are other good reasons).