Smart IBM enters water management

Liquid gold

Water, water everywhere....Wrong.

"But in fact, experts say, water resources are coming under unprecedented pressure from growing populations and increased contamination -- potentially putting businesses from farming to semiconductor manufacturing at the risk of having to pay more for what is now a virtually free commodity."

Thus, IBM is getting in the smart water management (more).

Water just as important as energy

Holy scary water

I've known for some time that water was quickly becoming the new oil, the new gold, the new most important commodity. Still, I didn't realize just how crazy the situation was until I read SCIAM's Energy versus water: Solving both crises together.

For instance, San Diego needs water resources, but the amount of energy to power a desalinization plant isn't available and it would be terribly expensive. Or, how about the fact that Hoover Dam might soon not be deep enough to power massive amounts of Las Vegas. Or, how close drought was to shutting down numerous nuclear power plants in the SouthEast this summer.

Yet, have you heard either John McCain or Barack Obama talk much about water?

We might talk about the dangers of foreign oil dependency, but how often do we mention the water crisis? It isn't even on the radar of the average American. Or, maybe we talk about global warming and rising sea levels. Instead, maybe we should be discussing how increased temperatures might leave much of the South without drinking water and without power.

Yet, here we sit. Our energy and water resources and infrastructures dwindling and collapsing as America heads into a nasty recession, and all we're hoping for is cheaper gas.

Save Water: The waterless car wash

Wash it without water

"A typical car wash uses between 20 to 45 gallons of water per car. A home wash can use between 80 and 140 gallons" states the Green Earth Waterless Car Cash website.

"There are approximately 240 million vehicles in the U.S. If even half of those cars used Green Earth Waterless Carwash, once a month for one year, we would save 28 billion gallons of water. This is the equivalent of 40,000 Olympic size pools or 560 million baths."

Check 'em out! Have you tried the Green Earth Waterless Car Wash? Tell us about it.

Water worries and a crazy thought

Are water wars just around the corner?

The world is running out of clean, fresh water. Much of America is in a severe drought, yet little is being done.

Of course, drought isn't stopping politicians from pumping money into corn-based ethanol and its thirst for water, even as corn-based ethanol pollutes groundwater, lakes, streams, rivers and even the Gulf of Mexico.

On the other hand, the world's oceans are predicted to significantly rise through global warming.

Time for a world-wide desalination project?

Obviously, the world isn't going to desalinate enough ocean water to prevent the massive flooding of many coastal areas, but maybe it could help. More important, the world needs the fresh water. Is it time to bite the bullet and make a massive, world-wide investment in desalination projects?

Is fresh water, or the potential lack thereof, a ticking time bomb even more dangerous than the worst global warming scenario?

Water wars and biofuels

Switchgrass fine, but time to kill corn?

I have not been a fan of corn-based ethanol, and the more I learn about corn, the more I believe that the ethanol movement is pure insanity.

Now, after watching the video Water wars heat up, I have no doubt that corn-based ethanol isn't just insane, it's terribly dangerous. Yet, it's a favored piece of legislature by most politicians. I don't mind subsidies for cellulosic ethanol, but it's time to stick a knife in corn subsidies - that pig is done. Enough pork already!