Of course it does.

The Great Lakes have 1/5th of the world's freshwater. Absolutely enormous volumes of that water run out the St. Lawrence into the sea, continually, all the time.

I don't have any reason to leave my taps open all the time, and my water is metered so I would pay for such profligacy in money I could put to some useful purpose.

But I can certainly do it without creating any meaningful environmental stress. This would just briefly divert it from its destiny in the Atlantic.

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bayindirh 7 months ago | parent [-]

Just because you live near a lucky point on earth, thinking that everyone has the same luxury is a bit absurd.

I traveled through Mongolia for a week. Every camp we stayed had a water tank, and water use was extremely constrained. Same for electricity and heat.

Your position is akin to getting power from the first distribution point near a nuclear power plant and saying that electricity is indeed infinite for everyone on the planet.

Just because you don't prepay (but pay as you go) for fresh water doesn't mean that everyone has that luxury. I have shared a couple of maps down there. Maybe you should give them a look about our planet's state.

	▲	seryoiupfurds 7 months ago \| parent \| next [-]
		They didn't say anything about thinking that everyone has the same luxury. How does diverting an infinitesimal fraction of the water flowing from the Great Lakes affect the water supply at a camp in Mongolia?
	▲	eru 7 months ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> Just because you don't prepay (but pay as you go) for fresh water doesn't mean that everyone has that luxury. If my local water supplier would offer the option to pre-pay, I might take it. I don't think it would change anything about how I use my water, if the price stayed the same. (I am pre-paying for my mobile broadband, and I don't notice me using it any different than people who post-pay.)