#Headline Challenge #Saudi Arabia: Where does the fresh water come from?
Saudi Arabia is a country without perennial flowing rivers, streams and lakes, and is a "country without flow"
Saudi Arabia is located in the Arabian Peninsula, controlled by subtropical high pressure all year round, dominated by tropical desert climate, with scarce rainfall, known as the "desert kingdom".
The country is in short supply of fresh water resources, and now with the development of the economy and the increase of the population, the demand for water resources is increasing.
In order to solve the problem of water shortage, Saudi Arabia has adopted open-source and water-saving measures: extracting groundwater, desalination, buying water from abroad, artificially increasing rain, intercepting rainwater, saving water, etc., and even planning to drag the iceberg of Antarctica back to Saudi Arabia.
The Antarctic region accounts for 72% of the world's available freshwater, which has been available globally for 7,500 years. According to relevant data, the total number of icebergs floating in the Southern Ocean is about 218,000, and if 10% of these icebergs are hauled to arid areas, it is enough to irrigate 10 million hectares of farmland or supply water for 500 million people.
Antarctica latitude is high and altitude is high, cold all year round, precipitation mostly appears in solid form and is not easy to melt, accumulates all year round, forming thick glaciers; In addition, the evaporation is weak and the water loss is small, so the fresh water resources are abundant.
The feasibility of Saudi Arabia's plan to haul Antarctic icebergs is reflected in: the abundance of Antarctic icebergs; It can be transported by ocean currents and has low cost.
But there are also some problems: the massive transport of Antarctic icebergs to tropical desert regions would disrupt the global water cycle and water balance; will exacerbate sea level rise; will make penguins lose their homes; It upsets the global heat balance.
To implement it, there are still many details that need to be studied and improved in detail.
Happy reading! Break a leg!
#所见所得, it's all scientific #
