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| Home the water crisis consultancy scheduling articles: by subject by date CONTACT WATERRIGHT |
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The Marsden Report and Water TanksAnother example of short term thinking on water is the Marsden Report comments on water tanks. According to the Marsden Report, household water tanks are a very expensive way of collecting water and it is far cheaper to use reversed osmosis to purify sea water or sewage wastewater. Water TanksMarsden's argument has two basic fallacies. The estimated cost of the water in tanks is overestimated by a factor of five. The cost of a typical water tank spread over twenty years gives a lower water cost than our current drinking water. But the biggest fallacy it the estimated cost of reversed osmosis.In the short term with our low cost of electricity production revered osmosis may appear cheap. The report acknowledges that the electricity will increase our carbon emissions but then argues this can be compensated for by carbon trading. As an economist Marden should be familiar with what is called in economic text books the ‘fallacy of composition’. A mistaken believe in that what seems to be good for one individual (or entity) will still be good when others do the same thing. Fir example someone stand up at a crowded concert may get a better view, but if everyone stands up nobody gets a better view. A better name would be the Gordon Gecko effect - greed is not good. Some impoverished countries are gaining benefits from carbon trading, but there is simply not enough land to reforest to compensate for the future need for carbon offsets. This attitude that I will do what is best for me regardless of the affect on the rest of the world is the major reason why global warming is such a threat. The biggest threat to humanity is unbridled greed. Water tanks are not expensive - they are an indispensable cost of living in an arid climate. |
| 1 Feb |
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