Only a Good Idea in GE's Imagination
This week, Mother Nature saw fit to evaporate a bunch of the ocean into clouds and then dump it in the form of snow over much of the United States. That snowfall will feed mountain streams or trickle into the bedrock and recharge aquifers when it melts this spring – part of the earth’s hydrologic cycle that, among other things, turns ocean water into drinking water for people. But, there are some corporations that would rather eliminate Mother Nature as a middle(wo)man, oh, and have the taxpayer subsidize them to do it.
One of our staff nearly fell of the treadmill at the gym when GE’s latest Eco-imagination greenwashing* ad promoting taking the salt out of ocean water appeared on the TV monitor over head. The ad featuring exuberant Norwegian fishermen (see fishing) left out a few crucial facts.
Even the most expensive advertising firm can’t change the fact that the industry isn’t nearly as elegant as Mother Nature and desalination plants pose environmental threats to coastal ecosystems, are energy hogs, and are extremely expensive. What’s more, there may be chemical byproducts of desalination left in drinking water that we aren’t even considering because the EPA’s drinking water regulations were designed for the kinds of contaminants found in rivers and groundwater.
*No, they haven’t gotten the PCBs out of the Hudson yet.
Print this page
Save & Share It
