4 ways we can avoid a catastrophic drought | David Sedlak

As the world's climate patterns continue to shift unpredictably, places where drinking water was once abundant may soon find reservoirs dry and groundwater aquifers depleted. In this talk, civil and environmental engineer David Sedlak shares four practical solutions to the ongoing urban water crisis. His goal: to shift our water supply towards new, local sources of water and create a system that is capable of withstanding any of the challenges climate change may throw at us in the coming years.
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[@alexplorer]

He doesn't devote nearly enough time to gray water systems under the "Water Reuse" section. You can create very low-tech systems that simply return most of the water in your home to the ground to replenish aquifers. Specifically: ---All my laundry water goes to my lawn. Soap doesn't hurt it (I use liquid detergent; powdered detergent contains sodium, so don't use that). ---Additionally, I flush the toilets with recycled bath water. ---Excess bath water also goes out with the laundry water into the lawn. ---I've never calculated the water saved from toilet flushes, but it's 1.5 gal per flush, so conservatively I'd say 1.5 x 2/day x 365 = About 1100 gallons per year. ---I did keep track of laundry. My machine uses 26 gal/load * 349 loads = More than 9000 gallons last year. ---If everyone on my block did the same, we'd be talking about millions of gallons of water saved or reclaimed.

[@angelic8632002]

+Alexplorer Yes, and we could save even more if we put this into systematic use by making it easier for people to use cleaning products that are kinder to the environment and build up local systems for doing what you are doing on a personal level. Additionally, if we got serious about our waste products we could recycle a lot more than we do. And use sewage for fertilizing local farms. And use organic waste for producing bio gas that can run our more heavy vehicles when we go over to pure electric transport for our cars. Point is. There is a *lot* we can do. Sure it requires some change in habits. But considering the alternatives..

[@alexplorer]

Serah Wint All of that's true, but the best changes are to infrastructure because that doesn't require ordinary citizens to learn anything new; they can just empty their bathtubs and do their laundry like usual, provided there is a gray water system in place. Most plumbing codes (e.g., the 35 states that have adopted the IPC or NPC) encourage including gray water hook-ups, but various levels of government need to require that the next step be included: the actual gray water system to reclaim water. Otherwise 99.9% of the population will never actually connect the hook-up to anything, and all that water goes right down the drain.

[@angelic8632002]

+Alexplorer Agreed. I was partly hinting at that in my post.

[@srimansrini]

In this candid talk, David Sedlak gives some pragmatic ideas for how to replenish our water resources. The climate change is causing doom all around the world. This is the right time to discuss the subject like this. I hope the politicians, policy makers and people who are associated with the 'water resource management' will take note of this kind of ideas to stabilise the woefully disturbing 'climate change.'

[@aripapermaster8047]

12:23 Summary

[@okrajoe]

Fascinating talk.

[@longjohnsilver2179]

How about this for an idea, don't build mega cities in the dessert.

[@aripapermaster8047]

lolol

[@angelsanchez-vg2oc]

Appreciate video content! Excuse me for butting in, I would appreciate your thoughts. Have you considered - Taparton Energetic Limbs Takeover (erm, check it on google should be there)? It is a great one of a kind product for preparing yourself for a mega drought minus the hard work. Ive heard some great things about it and my GF at very last got great success with it.

[@tonylars4128]

Lovely Video clip! Apologies for butting in, I am interested in your opinion. Have you heard the talk about - Taparton Energetic Limbs Takeover (google it)? It is an awesome one of a kind guide for preparing yourself for a mega drought without the headache. Ive heard some decent things about it and my mate after many years got cool results with it.

[@theuglykwan]

Going forward yes. But it's a bit late now. People are also moving south when there is water in the north.

[@SmartTurf]

We have to think smarter, yes.

[@aripapermaster8047]

11:11 Seawater Desalination

[@RinoaL]

5:56 actually the water that comes off your roof is ussually pretty clean, i wouldnt mind drinking it. just make sure your gutters are clean and whatnot.

[@writerconsidered]

+Rinoa Super-Genius The biggest problem is street run-off which carries all the car fluids oil anti-freeze tranny fluid brake fluid ... you get the idea. that and the fact that asphalt is a heavy petroleum based product.

[@RinoaL]

writerconsidered oh i agree about that. its not all that weird to have a rain barrel and even drink from it. my great-grandfather had one and it was pretty good. i think people underestimate how clean rainwater is even once it hits your roof. i know a lot of people that think its disgusting or something.

[@ukno918]

Case by case basis, a case for concern would be areas with poor air quality which can lead to pollutants dissolving in rainwater.

[@kaielvin]

Why is he putting so much effort into avoiding to mention Singapore ? I have heard about the exact same talk from Singapore authorities, except that they talked in the past tense, because the whole system is already in place. This is a case worth mentioning if you're trying to convince a crowd about a solution.

[@brooksanderson2599]

Yep! My point exactly. What can be done in a country (USA) where 74 million people vote for a man who calls COVID-19 and climate change Chinese hoaxes?

[@slowpoke692]

Ever here of the 'dust boul" or here in Canada they called it the dirty 30's. It was a much greater state of 'climate change' then we are facing now. The US government had the largest tree planting program in history. The planted 250 million trees, in a few years the water come back. You want water, plant trees. They don't call them rain forest for no reason!

[@GumRamm]

They call them rain forest because it rains a lot and there are no rain forests in canada..

[@cotywittmeyer4604]

+GumRamm The west coast of Canada is covered in rain forests. Just not the tropical kind.

[@slowpoke692]

That's right. I' was suppose to start hauling logs to the saw mill on Monday. But it's too wet to haul right now

[@GumRamm]

Co Ma Well I sure didn't know that, sorry and thanks for letting me know.

[@brooksanderson2599]

Excellent! Now (2021) we are 5+ years on in what some scientists have called a "Megadrought" in Western USA. . I wonder how many and to what extent, in real nuumbers, have these measures have been implimented? old geologist

[@Cryptonymicus]

Amazing how many geniuses and experts who have all the answers posting comments here.

[@aripapermaster8047]

6:17 Burbank CA

[@aripapermaster8047]

10:30 Water Conservation

[@FredoLua]

The downside of lake mead is that the Colorado River doesn't make it to the Gulf. Displacement of the Yaqui area was massive. Also, the environmental damage in South Arizona through Sonora is a big deal!

[@mpking-ey7ys]

Singapore has put all of these ideas in good use since 10 years ago. Why is this guy talking like he has got some brilliant ideas?

[@pacoo3712]

Why can't we use the extreme pressures deep in the ocean to power the reverse osmosis system? Say you run a pipe down to the ocean debts that has a tank at the bottom with walls lined in a fine, semi-permeable membrane. At the surface you can have a large container or ship that holds the fresh water. As long as you keep pulling filtered water out, the deep water pressure will keep forcing water though the membrane It'll be like oil drilling but the the water pumps itself. The pressure depends on the level of fresh water at the surface of the pipe/container . So a ship can just pump the fresh water into it's hull or into a large bag floating in the ocean and ship it and the deep sea pressure will just force more water into the pipe to replace the water that was removed. Even more, you can run this pipe to the shore and have it pumped onto the land and collected in reservoirs. I don't see what could be wrong with this idea, anyone think otherwise? Please comment.

[@SeanLumly]

How to avoid a catastrophic drought? Easy: *Stop eating meat.* A large portion of this potable water is being fed to livestock directly and to the feed that the livestock will consume. Animal agriculture is also the causing desertification and deforestation which likely affects rainfall as vegetation and rainfall are tightly correlated. A low estimate states that a single pound of beef requires 600 gallons of water to produce! That's enough for 25 days of 10-minute showers (2.5gallon/min)! This has been estimated to be the 3-day consumption of an average meat-eater in the US.

[@aripapermaster8047]

Can I use this for my Environmental Project?

[@SeanLumly]

Sure, but I would suggest that all statements be verified against credible research.

[@aripapermaster8047]

Sean Lumly against?

[@SeanLumly]

Yes. I would recommend that you verify the claims made.

[@Sharmika_27]

It's good idea to protect droughts

[@dattebenforcer]

Wow, a TED talk, nay, a TEDx talk that's actually about a real topic? And whose presentation isn't mired with personal story or anecdote? What is happening here?

[@74Gee]

I would like to see one catastrophic drought so we can start to give the resource the respect it deserves.

[@matskjr5425]

13.37 long, now thats the interesting part

[@ELTarTree]

Plenty of water for fracking though. Funny that eh?

[@lyndawilliams8434]

How bout stop deforestation, mono cultures, fracking, and start trying to keep the water ON the land, with keyline berms etc. The answers are there, you just cant get past big business. Use permaculture. Ahh but that would upset monsanto and the fertiliser people..

[@TheAnnoyingGunner]

+lynda williams My usual comment, you can go in the very opposite direction as well. Instead of opening up you can close down, hydroculture instead of permaculture. Still a pretty bad deal for Monsanto and the phosphate rock industry ;)

[@hookares8551]

+lynda williams Why is fracking bad? Where do you think the energy to desalinate the sea water is going to come from?

[@hookares8551]

+lynda williams Why is fracking bad? Where do you think the energy to desalinate the sea water is going to come from?

[@lyndawilliams8434]

HooKares? Rofl thats such a dumb statement that its not worth responding to, you Sir are either a troll or an idiot!

[@roadbuster113]

Way 5: Catch Groudon

[@Stabacs]

hmm, I don't know about the details but I think that the first two ideas are used in germany for 50 years or so?

[@delphini7175]

I feel like all the people in the comments are just annoyed kids making memes to deflect their annoyance at having to do homework

[@krisdickinson3155]

I think the time has come to talk about the elephant in the room - water used for animal agriculture!

[@shaqpac51]

Hello people, I'm looking for a specific ted talk video in which the speaker does a biography about Muhammad Ali. I know its on this channel but i cant find the speaker or the video. Thanks for the help.

[@keeper0523]

Next on Ted Talks: How to Stop The Government or Military from creating psyop's and fake news to make law changes. Next on Ted Ta;lks: How to approach people that are clueless about information they need to know, without calling them asleep or sheeple. Next on Ted Talks: How to handle approaching a drug addict and how to show them they need to get help and how to get them that help. Next on Ted Talks: How to make Ted Talks more important to the current real life problems people are currently facing.

[@Belgrythaz]

Damn I got thirsty after watching this

[@rosaliethomson4655]

Florida also raises a lot of cattle.

[@Creepy-Girl]

The meat industry needs 2-10 times more water than plants. Also the meat and diary industry uses about 46% of the total land mass. Just saying.

[@TheAnnoyingGunner]

+SuperPig Yes, we heard it, we all heard it. It's hard to have a read in the TED comment sections without stumbling over the same vegan comments over and over again, you guys are boring.

[@Creepy-Girl]

+TheAnnoyingGunner Well since the majority of the world doesn't get it, then we just have to keep making these comments to spread the truth ;).

[@TheAnnoyingGunner]

SuperPig I'm awaiting the first vegan terrorist group.

[@Creepy-Girl]

TheAnnoyingGunner I take it that you have no idea about what's going on in the world and the damage the human race have done to the planet. If you think Vegans are a bad thing, then meat eaters must be the devil. Since the Meat- and Diary industry is the world biggest environmental problem. Here are some facts to think of: - There is 1/3 of all fished left in the ocean. - There are about 56 Billion animals in the meat and diary industry. - Meat and Diary industry accounts for over 50% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. - We have entered the highest mass extinction of spieces since dinosaurs age (65 million years ago).

[@TheAnnoyingGunner]

SuperPig Boooring. Already heard this a million times, vegans are proposing only the extreme solution for this problem. Vegans are extremists.

[@TheDrunkardHu]

The four faucets of the hydrocolypse.

[@authority3888]

if you see my comment that means i am analyzing this and not definitely watching some guy playing valorant

[@mhtinla]

I don't like method two. I don't like drinking treated pee.

[@mhtinla]

+mhtinla But I don't waste my pee. I pee on my lawn.

[@kokofan50]

All the water you've drunk in your life has been pissed out by something or someone at some point.

[@mhtinla]

+kokofan50 Except water from ice-age glacier. I drank that in Alaska ;-)

[@kokofan50]

Some dinosaur pissed that out back 200 million years ago.

[@mhtinla]

+kokofan50 Nooooo! I guess I have to make my own water by burning hydrogen, like in the movie Martian.

[@mrbrain0317]

مافيه ترجمه با العربي

[@farah0008]

They have it now

[@rafelingd]

leet!!

[@mpking-ey7ys]

Stop washing your cars and watering your lawns.

[@jasona7029]

we can recycle our own darn pee like NASA did. We can boil seawater and create condensation.

[@rawstarmusic]

+Jason Auw You would have to heat the boiler with solar panels unless you wanna use fossils, thereby making the climate change even worse by cooking to get water since there's a drought from climate change caused by fossil burning...

[@brianschatz4882]

Shouldnt have killed off all tge beavers keeping the land hydrated.

[@wdcsucks1]

and how about stop chemtrailing and messing around with HAARP?!!!

[@kokofan50]

How about we stop believing in conspiracy theories.

[@wdcsucks1]

how about we start admiting these conspiracies are really going on!

[@kokofan50]

It's kind of hard to admit that something is happening when it's not.

[@wdcsucks1]

only until you research it and you see it is happening.

[@matthewwood30]

+kokofan50 idk about chemtrails or the HAARP but what I do know is you are only deciding to not give "conspiracies" a chance because you are worried other people would think you're a nutjob. If you didn't know anything at all about shoes and you never saw anyone wearing shoes, and your parents told you your feet would fall off if you put shoes on, you would conform to them and be scared to put shoes on.

[@Yarshy.]

Yeah you might as well have named this 'a talk about Murica'

[@roidroid]

nah the advice was applicable to anywhere on the planet

[@ideallyjekyl5200]

This channel is dying....

[@TheAnnoyingGunner]

+Ideally Jekyl Not enough feminism content for you?

[@ideallyjekyl5200]

TheAnnoyingGunner no pls no more

[@nolanpaul1371]

the answer is veganism

[@gupta.vansh2000]

the best part of this Ted talk was the as before it. sorry Ted. sorry.

[@mrvedejo]

His 4 sources of water , is a complete ripoff of Singapore's 4 national tap! Do google about Singapore and you can see the stark similarity! Cleaning of water through his 2 advance step and desalination has been done for the past 15 years in Singapore.

[@hookares8551]

Here's a thought LA. Move out of the desert.