[connorgutman]

We desperately need to focus on conservation efforts instead of attempting to engineer "solutions" that only end up encouraging further consumption. Hot take: Maybe the American SouthWest wasn't meant to support > 1/3 of America's agricultural output. Solar desalination of the Salton traps humanity in an energy contract when we could achieve meaningful conservation efforts instantaneously by banning the production of many water-intensive luxury crops. Why is Arizona farming alfalfa for Saudi horses? Why is California producing 2.8 billion pounds of almonds a year? Why is the United States one of the highest consumers of red meat in the world when sustainable plant-based alternatives exist and use a fraction of the water? This regional water crisis (as well as our global climate crisis) cannot be solved without making bold sacrifices to our daily lives. I know this is Hacker News, but not everything can be solved with new/additional technology.

[danaris]

> We desperately need to focus on conservation efforts instead of attempting to engineer "solutions" that only end up encouraging further consumption.

"We desperately need to find ways to massively change human nature, rather than using our vast combined expertise to engineer solutions that let human nature work for us rather than against us."

Any solution to a systemic problem that can be articulated as "If people would just..." is doomed to fail. People will not just. People will continue finding ways to convert resources into better lives—for better and for worse.

Posting on articles like this saying "No! We can't keep finding ways to make consumption not harm the ecosystem! We have to force people to live austere, monk-like lifestyles! Only that will truly save us all!"

Like, I'm as frustrated by the idiocy of growing almonds in California as the next guy, but if this solution will actually work the way it claims to, then we may not need to worry about that anymore. And furthermore, it would mean significant improvements for various other parts of the world currently reliant on transporting enormous quantities of fresh water long distances to coastal areas.

[kayson]

Arizona is starting to solve the alfalfa problem at least

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/climate/arizona-saudi-ara...

[voakbasda]

This is Hacker News. Even if everything ultimately cannot be solved by technology, we sure as hell are going to give it our best try. That’s literally our most abundant resource here.

[nozzlegear]

> We desperately need to focus on conservation efforts instead of attempting to engineer "solutions" that only end up encouraging further consumption.

With respect, why can't we do both?

[connorgutman]

I’m not against using technology but my concern is that we need to treat resource consumption as a form of addiction. Humanity frequently uses technology as an excuse to further consume instead of using it to pay off ecological debt.

[njovin]

This is so dead-on it hurts. The "taming" of the rivers in the American west by the Army Corp of Engineers has been romanticized and the underlying motives have been swept under the rug: we prioritized these massive public works projects to provide cheap water to big ag businesses at the cost of sustainability and residential access.

IMO we should absolute not be exporting anything farmed with subsidized water while the survivability of just living in the US southwest is uncertain due to current water levels and climate patterns. That seems like the lowest of low-hanging fruit.