Alaska To Export Billions of Gallons of Water 290
theodp writes "Newsweek reports on a company called True Alaska Bottling that has purchased the rights to transfer 3 billion gallons of water a year from Sitka, Alaska's bountiful reserves. If all goes according to plan, 80 million gallons of Blue Lake water will soon be siphoned into the kind of tankers normally reserved for oil and shipped to a bulk bottling facility near Mumbai. From there it will be dispersed among several drought-plagued cities throughout the Middle East. Think of it as a proof of concept for turning life's most essential molecule into a global commodity." I'm sure the residents of Saratoga Springs and Perrier (not to mention the island nation of Fiji) can think of some prior art.
Re:Shipping it from the Nile would be cheaper (Score:4, Funny)
because everyone loves the taste of good clean Nile water
Re:News For Nerds (Score:3, Funny)
Tim-MAHY!
Look at the quotes (Score:3, Funny)
The submitter mentioned nothing about "prior art", that was all Timothy. I'll admit though, this story is pretty daft. "Water is being shipped to a bottling plant", wow, I think Captain Obvious is the one due some royalties.
Re:Huh, wut? WTF it's raining anyway.... (Score:5, Funny)
The big problem that TAB (and everybody else in this business has) is how to ship potable water in bulk.
I don't see the problem. Just dehydrate it so that it takes up less volume, thus drastically improving efficiency!
Re:trading with the oil rich but water poor nation (Score:3, Funny)
Not a problem. They said on Fox News that oil and water don't mix, so there wouldn't be any trouble with one contaminating the other.
What if the tanker crashes? (Score:4, Funny)
Rampant fresh-water polution in the ocean - an ecological disaster!
( :-P )
Re:or desalinate? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:News For Nerds (Score:5, Funny)
But as I pointed out in my other post, it's hard to move potable water. In fact, it might be easier to run a desalinization plant. To ship in bulk you need either an ice berg (which has been proposed) or a purpose built tanker. So far, at least, the economics of water just haven't risen to the point where putting a whole bunch of money in for a tanker makes sense. Maybe later, but not as of 10/10/10.
This may come to some surprise to you, but I just read an article where a company plans to ship water using oil tankers!
If all goes according to plan, 80 million gallons of Blue Lake water will soon be siphoned into the kind of tankers normally reserved for oil and shipped to a bulk bottling facility near Mumbai.
Nothing in there about icebergs or custom built tankers. If you want to check out the article, scroll up to the top of this page and follow one of the links.
Re:News For Nerds (Score:5, Funny)
I agree as well. I started reading Slashdot and loved the comments on the subjects. They are what really helped me to understand things. Now, it is just people trying to be funny or assholes. I contemplated putting down funny a few notches as everything is now rated funny, which means that I could miss things I want to see as well. I may do it anyway.
Re:News For Nerds (Score:3, Funny)
If they are good Nerds, then anything must be considered relevant to Slash Dot. After all, aren't the very things all humans depend on for survival not the same for Nerds? How can they insure the integrity of their data if they are deprived of water? It is not possible for long. Hence, the entire set of observations that pertain to water is germane to a properly functioning application and backup management cycle regime bounded by the the permutations of their run time parameters.
The real questions are not so much about prior are, but rather what are we going to do with the prior art and other more recent developments in the future and if we have enough water to sustain us.
Re:Huh, wut? WTF it's raining anyway.... (Score:4, Funny)
Indeed. You could take this gaseous dehydrated form and simply let it float through the air to its destination, and then find some way of re-hydrating it there. Maybe if you put small particles in the air, it would precipitate and perhaps even just fall out of the sky. Just an idea though, haven't worked out all the kinks.
As Sam Kinison Said... (Score:4, Funny)
This quote from the late great Sam Kinison seems appropriate:
“I’m like anyone else on this planet — I’m very moved by world hunger. I see the same commercials, with those little kids, starving, and very depressed. I watch those kids and I go, ‘F–k, I know the FILM crew could give this kid a sandwich!’ There’s a director five feet away going, ‘DON’T FEED HIM YET! GET THAT SANDWICH OUTTA HERE! IT DOESN’T WORK UNLESS HE LOOKS HUNGRY!!!’ But I’m not trying to make fun of world hunger. Matter of fact, I think I have the answer. You want to stop world hunger? Stop sending these people food. Don’t send these people another bite, folks. You want to send them something, you want to help? Send them U-Hauls. Send them U-Hauls, some luggage, send them a guy out there who says, ‘Hey, we been driving out here every day with your food, for, like, the last thirty or forty years, and we were driving out here today across the desert, and it occurred to us that there wouldn’t BE world hunger, if you people would LIVE WHERE THE FOOD IS! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT! YOU LIVE IN A F–KING DESERT! NOTHING GROWS OUT HERE! NOTHING’S GONNA GROW OUT HERE! YOU SEE THIS? HUH? THIS IS SAND. KNOW WHAT IT’S GONNA BE A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW? IT’S GONNA BE SAND! YOU LIVE IN A F–KING DESERT! GET YOUR STUFF, GET YOUR SHIT, WE’LL MAKE ONE TRIP, WE’LL TAKE YOU TO WHERE THE FOOD IS! WE HAVE DESERTS IN AMERICA — WE JUST DON’T LIVE IN THEM, A–HOLES!”