posted January 09, 2008 03:38 PM              

So far we know that:

Cement is awesome. Especially American cement made by American workers. It is moldable, durable and is structurally very stable.

Making cement permanently DESTROYS the fresh water that is used.

Cement is only made with fresh water because salt water doesn't react chemically the same way and would provide a substance unsuitable for use in construction.

3.5 trillion gallons of fresh water are lost to cement production worldwide EVERY year. That figure is rising.

The freshwater reserves available to all living things on the planet constitutes less than half of 1% (0.4%) of all water on the planet. That figure is shrinking.

The entire human race needs a pool of between 17 Quadrillion and 50 Quadrillion gallons available to it each year for survival. That doesn't include industrial uses. It also doesn't include the water required to keep the OTHER living things on the planet alive. This amount is only getting larger as population increases.

Desalination (removing salt from salt water) isn't very cost effective and won't be a viable solution until we've driven the price of fresh water up by destroying it. (SOLUTION!? ) Desalination creates the same toxic byproducts which were responsible for the naming of the Dead Sea(brine.)

Still working on more data.

posted January 15, 2008 02:43 PM              

The summing up of agricultural figures is proving to be a pretty arduous project. There are so many crops and each has its own water consumption rate. Yikes! Data overload!

Still waiting to see how this pans out.