But, but, but....Hunter Biden!.... First they came for Donald Trump...and I did nothing, as I was rolling around on the floor unable to stop laughing!
RDBD: The "low hanging" fruit is always easier and cheaper to pick (ie the ROI is typically far more immediate than "grand challenge" proposals) . But you need far more than just the low hanging fruit. Dual flush toilets have been around for at least 40 years so anyone who cares about the environment would have gone for that option. I have lived in seven properties since 1990 and all had dual flush Re-using water and stopping leaks are good but do not rule out the need for more action. What do you think is a realistic aim of leak reduction given that many are in open countryside and often go undetected for a long while until they "show" How many countries have fewer percentage leaks than the UK and what percentage have they achieved? If you read the economics of social projects you will find that ordinary ROI and payback methods are not adequate measures. What is the return on health? Even 50 years ago when I studied economics the economics of public projects had a large volume of material On your argument nuclear power, wind, wave and solar would all have failed to be produced - not to mention electric vehicles. As they become more common the cost reduces and efficiency increases. The annual UK spend is over £1,000 billion. £15 billion would produce enough desalination plants to cover the entire UK household useage. Why on earth would you not want to create fresh water when the need for it is set to increase by billions of litres per day. I do not understand why someone who is obviously in favour of helping the planet would not see the advantages of desalination at a time when melting (non-salt) icebergs are diluting salination in the sea and rising sea levels are a threat.
They keep running out of quills and vellum, blotting paper is impossible to find as well, 1 abacus between 3 since the cuts
So you go to the next level in the tree. Not at easy/cheap as the fruit in the levels below, but still far easier/cheaper than that at the very top. So for the following : - residential water collection + - improved agricultural methods (that reduce water usage and improve reuse) - water transport network OAM (to fix/reduce leaks) - coastal desalination plants + new water transport networks what are the cost levels, the implementation complexity, the ROI (when will I first see the benefits, what % of daily water use will be added to / no longer be lost from the resource stockpile) ?? I contend that in t e tree analogy, he further you go down the above list, the greater the costs / implementation complexity and the longer the ROI period. Which means there is a lot that can be done, more simply/cheaper, and with a faster ROI than is the case for coastal desalination.
OK - well I am going to leave it there as I think we are just going round in circles. We have made our arguments. I believe your measures are completely insufficient for the size of the problem facing us. Unfortunately that has been the problem on most climate issues for years if not decades. You cannot measure global warming crisis in terms of returns on investment. Nobody wants to take the radical steps until they become past their due date. Tinker around the fringes and hope that the low hanging fruit will solve the problem. I do not believe that will work but respect your belief that it will.