97.5% of the Earth’s water supply is ocean saltwater

“Absent a decrease in demand” and increase in supply “annual global water requirements” will by 2030 be “40% above current sustainable water supplies.” (Source: Global Water Security, INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT ICA 2012-08, 2 February 2012) This figure is compounded by increased demand for purified water as fuel feed stock for Hydrogen to meet a NetZero transition in energy hubs such as the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, and South China Sea.

Wars will be fought. Governments leveraged. Economies, agriculture, real estate, commercial and industrial ventures will succeed depending upon their water source.

There are >21,000 desalination facilities established, and many more are to come.

Existing saltwater desalination is energy intensive and environmentally destructive. Intake draws saltwater from marine life rich coastal zones. Highly concentrated brine outflow creates coastal kill zones. Coastal desalination facilities are vulnerable to changing weather patterns and sea level rise, and compete for high value real estate, which adds to cost.

Marine life entrained by shallow water intake and specifically impacted by changes in the ocean chemistry resulting from brine discharge accumulation is phytoplankton. Phytoplankton concentrates along coastal zones and is the source of >50% of the oxygen for the planet. It releases more O2 into the atmosphere than all land plants combined. Through a process of photosynthesis, it also scrubs CO2 from the atmosphere, which is sequestered as the marine life that feeds upon the carbon-rich phytoplankton drops into the deep ocean. The rise from and return of plankton is to a depth of 900’, called Diel vertical migration (DVM), occurs every twenty-four hours. It is a planetary climate regulating process and natural carbon capture. It might be called “Lungs of the Earth.” 90% of documented marine life exists in depths shallower than 900’.

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