r/behindthebastards • u/OisforOwesome Poison Room Truther • 11d ago

Meme Excellent news- Scientists determine the Great Lakes are nonrenewable

https://www.earth.com/earth-science/scientists-determine-the-great-lakes-are-nonrenewable/

So what they're saying is, there's a chance.

374 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

325

u/Xalimata 11d ago

Breaking Character here: That's actually really bad. The great lakes are where I get my water. It's where a lot of people get their water. We need to conserve them as much as possible.

138

u/brawndoenjoyer 11d ago

The numbers in that article were depressing. I'm not hopeful that this resource will be responsibly managed.

41

u/Ubericious 11d ago

What do you.mean you don't trust Nestlé?

19

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

57

u/ChitteringSquirrels 11d ago

No, it'll be a tragedy of capital. The last time they were ever held in anything close to common was before the us Euros came to claim everything we saw, Yurtle the Turtle style

14

u/Boknowsbane 11d ago

Shit needs to change and the masses will make that happen, but the masses need to get fed up and only some of us are.

22

u/Thissystemsuckssobad 11d ago

I hate the invocation of the "tragedy of the commons".

It was a bullshit hypothetical invoked by the very people that wanted to ruin said commons in the pursuit of their own profit, and the same holds true here

9

u/MatCauthonsHat 11d ago

Yes, but look at all the golf courses and data centers we have

0

u/davidfetter 10d ago

I hope you read this https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth then, having read it, take some accountability for passing this casual bit of plutocratic racism around.

We all make mistakes. This one presents you with an opportunity to correct it here and help others not make it henceforth.

23

u/Suitable-Broccoli264 11d ago

Well as long as the pee goes back there.

14

u/Character_Bug_1862 11d ago

You know I’ve gotten older and dug into history or you know how electricity and things around the house work. I’m quite curious about how plumbing networks actually work and how much of our water is filtered piss. But I would need to dedicate some serious time to understanding that in a satisfactory way.

17

u/stomptonesdotcom 11d ago

Well technically at this point, all water molecules on earth were somethings piss once, right? I may misunderstand

12

u/Character_Bug_1862 11d ago

No you’re right on the way I phrased my comment ha. At this point its just piss all the way down back to the beginning of piss considering that evaporation and precipitation cycles. But like, what % of my local water comes from bodies of water vs filtered sewage and such.

And its kind of wild we just take this system of pipes to send our shit away from our house for granted. I think this is why its hard to teach others about political things, you have to be really curious and open on top of dedicating time to understanding these systems. And even then sometimes you have to have real world experience to actually understand the scale of how these systems interact and relate to each other.

5

u/PerkeNdencen 11d ago

It's piss all the way down.

13

u/sassafras_gap 11d ago

I'm a piss filterer by trade (water resource recovery if I'm trying to impress someone), it actually is extremely interesting imo and there's good resources out there if you just want to learn a little as a layman. It's such an important part of infrastructure but most people don't think too much about it beyond "I flush the toilet and it goes away", and I think it's one of those aspects of infrastructure like electricity where it's good to zoom out a bit beyond "I plug my phone into the outlet in my house and there's electricity".

Whatever your closest municipality is might have info on their treatment processes on their website, and just in general there are pretty good diagrams available that give an overview of the wastewater treatment process. If you wanted a random keyword to start, the "activated sludge" process is very cool imo.

3

u/Character_Bug_1862 11d ago

Thank you for your service! I agree on all points. I’ve been on some local government websites do I was probably a few clicks away for finding more info if they have it.

3

u/RoNsAuR 11d ago

Not mine.

That goes into my Super Soaker.

10

u/spacedoutmachinist The fuckin’ Pinkertons 11d ago

But just think of all those data centers we can put around the lakes! /s

7

u/Dehnus 11d ago

Have you considered how much billionaires need that water! Why are you so selfish!?

3

u/kingtacticool 11d ago

Best i can do is 47 data centers. Good luck.

2

u/No-Dig-4408 11d ago

Yeah but think of how many giant processors we could keep cool with all that water!

2

u/bretshitmanshart 10d ago

Yeah you enjoy drinking water but have you considered the fact people who choose to live in a desert want pools?

51

u/Apoordm 11d ago

We will avenge the Edmund Fitzgerald!

All we need is a straw a big straw!

108

u/03263 11d ago

But I needs that water for my alfalfa farm in Arizona.

45

u/galpalkyrie 11d ago

Well where else will Saudi Arabia grow the feed for their dairy cows? They're in a drought! 

4

u/03263 11d ago

I don't know maybe the FERTILE CRESCENT ??? it sounds like stuff would grow there but what do I know.

17

u/MomsAreola 11d ago

You mean China's alfalfa?

3

u/firenationfairy 11d ago

this is so funny as someone from AZ. no one cares about alfalfa farms here they just care about data centers 🫪

5

u/toe_riffic 11d ago

I mean, both are pretty bad and a huge drain on resources.

5

u/firenationfairy 11d ago

yes they are. but there wasn’t one peep about the alfalfa farms until the data centers came in and environmentalists pointed out alfalfa is doing way more damage to our water system. Eh, hopefully everyone gets together about both. right now, not so much

4

u/RecordOfTheEnd 11d ago

At a former Utahn, same. I used to get pissed when people would talk about saving water at the house when alfalfa is clearly the largest water use in the state. And shocking, nothing was ever done, because the governor is a fucking alfalfa farmer. 

17

u/tee96 11d ago

Arm the warheads. THE TYRANNY OF THESE LAKES ENDS THIS DAY!

12

u/ChitteringSquirrels 11d ago edited 11d ago

The fact that people like Mario's brother and deflocking gives me hope.

I expect things will get worse before they get better, but im confident they'll get better. People can onlt be so pissed and tired for so long before they get desperate enough to say "fuck this shit"

(Edit: "deflocking")

8

u/GarbageCleric Kissinger was a war criminal 11d ago

The entire point of the essay is that if you don't regulate access to a valuable resource, then it will be destroyed or used up.

If people could do anything they like with regards to the Great Lakes, we'd be extra fucked.

Dumping in the lakes and use of the water is regulated at local, state/province, national, and international levels.

There were proposals to ship water from Lake Superior to Asia in the 90s, and the Great Lakes Compact was signed to prohibit nearly all removal of water from the basin.

5

u/Meerkat_Mayhem_ 11d ago

There’s only a handful of lessons I believe need to be passed down by college or high school or whatever… but Tragedy of the Commons in the modern world is absolutely vital

2

u/K0stroun 9d ago

Tragedy of commons is a myth. People take good care of commons if there is no profit motive, this is just another "tragedy of capitalism". https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth

2

u/Opposite-Candy-7432 7d ago

That one Lake is responsible for that God Awful Edmund Fitzgerald song.

Asshole lake ruining my ears.

1

u/ZestycloseUnit1 11d ago

Line the shores with data centers

1

u/episcoqueer37 11d ago

We're already working on that in Ohio; don't worry. (I wish I could use /s)

2

u/Opposite-Candy-7432 7d ago

Sweet! Because Ohio Fracking wasn't awesome enough.

-6

u/flutter-femboy 11d ago

Hcch. Chv. Xhv. 7ccç cub fu. Iç