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Had never made the calculation about water, but it makes sense thanks. Thing is, we usually consume ground water that has been filtered after being rained, that explains the need to import, otherwise we need a lot of artificial filtration, which would also probably remove a lot of water circulation within the ecosystem. Doable but not necessarily with a lower impact.

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LilNaib@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Doable but not necessarily with a lower impact.

According to Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond (volume 1, 3rd edition) by Brad Lancaster, page 249, an example household doing water harvesting and reuse, saves between 80kWh and 97kWh per month and between 174 pounds (78.8kg) and 211 pounds (95.5kg) of CO2 emissions. That’s a huge win for rainwater harvesting and greywater.

Rooftop solar and wind also save a ton of water since traditional generation methods of burning fossil fuels need lots of water.

And according to the same book, page 240, here are some kWh/gallon ranges of various water sources:

on-site rainwater: 0.0000 to 0.0007 kWh/gal

on-site greywater: 0.0000 to 0.0002 kWh/gal

groundwater: 0.0006 to 0.0020 kWh/gal

avg utility water: 0.0011 to 0.0041 kWh/gal

brackish groundwater: 0.0032 to 0.0379 kWh/gal
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- keepthepace@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I am curious about how he gets to that numbers. Is he only counting transport? You need filtration, you need treatment, you may need pumping if you want any kind of pressure. And when all these are taken into account, I have a hard time believing that the economies of scale do not compensate for the transport.
  
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  - LilNaib@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    You can ask him, or read his book. He’s spent decades working on water.
    
    Have you installed and used rainwater harvesting and greywater systems? It sounds like you haven’t. They’re remarkably simple.
    
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    keepthepace@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I haven’t but lived in a community where people do. They need additional filtration (activated charcoal) which of course they used their car to buy or got delivered. They did not have good pressure with it either. Hence me asking what is really compared. Water distribution networks are also remarkably simple, so I am a bit curious about how he gets with the idea that people reproducing a thousand times what we have in a less efficient way is going to be more efficient overall.
    
    Sorry, I don’t want to sound confrontational, I am just trying to get data on that.
    
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