global warming

[migoplumber]

heard today on radio4 science program, about a plan to combat rising sea levels by pumping the excess water into the african valleys, thus trying to solve also the problem of lack of water in the area - they didnt say exactly what sort of plants would grow in this briny dessert!

ive had a hard day and my brain is stressed:-
anybody care to work this out for me.

earth is covered by approx 140 million square miles of oceans, if you were to skim 1mm of this and plonk it in africa, how many litres would that be??

might be better off talking in cubic miles or kilometres come to think of it.

many thanks for the young brains out there.

shaun

 

[dontknowitall]

Surely the water would drain back into the sea again (resulting in it rising to it's original level) or am I missing something here?

I've had a go at the maths and failed!

 

[Bernie2]

Funnily enough the UK government is amending Building Regs G to take into account water shortages in the UK.

But last week I read that some dams in the UK are spilling over their tops with that much water.

The thing is we live on an island surrounded by water, yet do we have desalination plants or even want them?

Why don't the water companies simply build more reservoirs instead of paying out so much dividend? I thought you where allowed to make a profit because of the risk you took investing, if it never worked out you lost your cash, if it worked you could be quids, it seems now though some want to make a profit without the risk of investing.

I think the whole system is up the pole.

 

[migoplumber]

to be honest, i didnt listen to the full program, i think the main idea was to have the water sucked up in plant life, but it will obviously eventually make it back into the bigger cycle.

my main interest, is trying to picture the size of pumps involved. and how many, flow rates and stuff.

might do calcs myself later after a bottle of wine and im a bit more calmed down.

shaun

 

[stevetheplumber]

problem with england is anywhere theres loads of water theres no workso no buggert lives there what we need is a pipe line from nw to se

 

[dontknowitall]

Steve - I hope this comes across as a tongue in cheek remark cos that's what it's meant to be!!

Speaking as one of those who lives in the rain forest and swampy wastelands of the West Midlands where there are more sheep than people, I live in fear of having my water taxed by those sunbathers in the south east.

From my perspective, the southerners will have lovely weather and subsidised fresh water, while weathered skinned bumpkins like me put up with less hours of sun than the south east (these last two years especially) and too much rain to enjoy sunbathing.

The pipeline would solve the south east's problem (in theory) but would do nothing to lower it's water demand while it would also tax the whole country where those living north of Watford Gap already have plenty of water.

Perhaps if we plonked Canary Wharf in Sheffield (and maybe the bankers being located to the North Sea .....

dontknowitall!! Stop it !!

 

[stevetheplumber]

my answer to all the south easts problems would be to move the border with scotland down to say just north of luton and let petrer mandelson run the vote for devolution

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

earth is covered by approx 140 million square miles of oceans, if you were to skim 1mm of this and plonk it in africa, how many litres would that be??

Excuse me if im wrong as i worked it out on a post it note

but i reckon its 362,600,000,000,000 litres

quite a lot me thinks ill try and get someone to double check it

I've popped the question on here as things like this really interest me but still dont think we have a definitive answer

If the earth is covered in 140 million square miles of water? - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answershttp://uk.answers.yahoo.com/questio...SB794uIgBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20090908015839AAB6VBC

Ok

I think it is 362598335440000 litres

can anyone confirm?

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm! Tongue in cheek!

Keep the South East dry!

Let the North and those with water sell it to them at the same price as oil!

Imagine Northern, Sheiks!

We could turn Blackpool into Dubai! And instead of donkeys on the sands we could have camels.

But never mind like the sheiks oil companies, the water companies mostly don't belong to us.

 

[migoplumber]

had two teeth ripped out today, so me brain is still quiffy, however
skimming 1mm of 1 metre squared gives 1litre of water (1000 litres in 1m3)
1 sq mile gives 2600m3
times by 140 000 000 of oceans
gives 364 000 000 000 m3

or 0.087 miles cubed of water

dosnt really sound like a lot at the end of the day, could pick that up with a big transporter or two??

thanks for input.

north/south divide should be placed at the dartford crossing!

shaun

 

[justlead1]

Hi On the back of your predictions . Setting up as a swimming coach in Africa may well be lucrative as i haven't seen any black people swimming in the Olympics.

 

[migoplumber]

maybe some diving classes as well, to serve the previously land based mammals!
shaun

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0zGrtOKtZc]YouTube - Eric the Eel[/ame]

 

[justlead1]

Fair play Tom, Eric done better than i. But in general terms there is still a market.