One of the most difficult-to-move bulk products is water. Opposite sides of individual water molecules have strong negative and positive electrical charges, which make the molecules cling to everything, even each other.* Pumped water must overcome this friction, and that can only be done by constantly expending energy. It is the single largest reason why some half of the Earth’s nonfrozen land surface is unsuitable for agriculture, and why meaningful cultivation of nearly half of the lands we do farm first required the pumping technologies of the Industrial Age. Deindustrialization doesn’t
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