Here’s further proof, should it be needed, that the most cost-effective way to reduce the abysmal (and growing) gap in the distribution of income and wealth in the United States is to create a mechanism for the American working classes to produce hydrogen by electrolysis of seawater and sell it to China and other untapped similar markets. The outline of the plan is found here.
China has 22% of the world’s population but less than 10% of its arable land, and 1/5th of that is severely polluted.
China’s rainfall map (click to enlarge)
The western half (or more) of the country has little or no rainfall or surface bodies of water. Without water, cities cannot be built and agriculture is impossible. China will need to develop the arid west to feed its growing population, and the only way to do so is to bypass nature’s limitations and aquafacture water. If China (or any other country with similar needs) could switch from nuclear and fossil fuels to hydrogen to generate all its electricity, it could use the byproduct -an entirely new source of drought-proof pure water- to supplement the natural cycle and support growth.
On April 17, 2014 China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection issued a report, based on seven years’ worth of tests on 6.3 million Km2 (2.4 million Sq Mi) of land, that determined that 16% of the country’s soil is contaminated, with 1% heavily polluted. Major pollutants in the farmland include heavy metals such as cadmium and arsenic, and organic pollutants due to widespread pesticide use. Worse, southern China, where most of its rice is grown, is more polluted than the northern provinces. All told, 2.4% of the country’s arable land is too degraded for farming.
The importance of China’s sparsely populated west cannot be overstated. The land may be dry and fallow, but it is not polluted. If the American working classes could produce enough hydrogen to satisfy this untapped potential market, the resulting income stream might well rival the great river of wealth currently flowing to the shareholders and executives of multinational corporations. This alternative would not require internal redistribution of wealth by way of additional taxes.
The concept is not a secret, the cost-effective technology to produce hydrogen from electrolysis of seawater exists, and the desperation for water will only grow. Already heretofore great rivers no longer reach the sea, large bodies of water, such as the Aral Sea, have all but disappeared, and the full effect of global warming has yet to be felt. It’s no longer a question of if mankind will ever aquafacture water, but when. In the end, all it will take is some small country to start raking in the money, and everyone else will follow.