The Misunderstanding of Drought
7 hours ago Kip Hansen
Guest Essay by Kip Hansen
In the “make climate a part of every beat in the newsroom” mainstream media, we get stories like this in the NY Times tthis week: “To Save More Water, American Homes Need Smaller Pipes — Most of the plumbing pipes in the United States are oversize, wasting water in a time of increasing drought.” authored by Megy Karydes.
The piece is absolutely hilarious — the NY Times journalist somehow arrived at a very wrong interpretation of something that was explained to her:
“Oversize plumbing pipes move water inefficiently, wasting money and increasing the risk of waterborne diseases. And water efficiency is especially important as climate change makes droughts more frequent and severe.”
Ten points to the first few readers to spot the gross misunderstanding.
She goes on: “When the current method for sizing pipes to transport hot and cold water throughout the home was created in the 1940s, it was under the assumption that every fixture had to be able to support a line of people for the bathroom, like at a sports stadium at halftime, according to Christoph Lohr, a mechanical engineer specializing in plumbing systems and the vice president of technical services and research for the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, a trade organization.” …. “But even during a party at home, there won’t be a line for the kitchen sink, the shower, the bathtub, the laundry machine, the dishwasher and the toilets, with people using them over and over. In other words, most plumbing fixtures in the United States are designed to accommodate total flow rates far higher than they will realistically encounter.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/11/20/the-misunderstanding-of-drought/
