[SustainableTompkins] I hate to drought on your hybrid parade but...

[Joel and Sarah Gagnon]

I think you are right to wonder about the credibility. The water usage 
depends on the source of the electricity. If electricity is to be used for 
transportation in the future, as I believe it must be, then it becomes very 
important how we generate the electricity. Wind and photovoltaic generation 
do not use water. Solar concentration does, as Shawn pointed out, as does 
nuclear, and of course, hydroelectric. But some uses are non-consumptive. A 
cooling tower evaporates the water, so it is lost to the atmosphere (from 
whence it will return, don't forget, but perhaps not locally), but a 
cooling loop using stream or lake water does not. Neither does 
hydroelectric power.

Water has the potential to be limiting in locations where it is scarce. 
Carbon will be limiting everywhere. Let's not lose the big picture.

Joel

At 03:07 PM 3/10/08 -0400, you wrote:
>This list would be the place to seek opinions on the credibility of the
>following
>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080310094555.htm
>
>
>[this is indirectly from a press release of an upcoming issue of the  ACS
>journal "Environmental Science and Technology"...actual article contents are
>sketchy translation of an abstract.]
>--
>freedom is not more important than fairness and much easier to fake.
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