Lack of freshwater for human consumption and agricultural use is a growing and very serious problem globally–including in rich countries like the United States. As an example, rivers in many countries are experiencing significantly reduced flows due to warmer temperatures, longer and more frequent droughts, less snow and less winter precipitation, and the need to serve more and more people. Quick bibliography: Recent research about…
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Quick bibliography: 5 reviews/recent articles on solar-powered water harvesting and purification. Classic review: Sampathkumar, K., Arjunan, T.V., Pritchandi, P., & Senthilkumar, P. (2010). Active solar distillation—A detailed review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 14 (6), 1503-1526 . [Cited by] “All over the world, access to potable water to the people are narrowing down day by day. Most of the human diseases are due to polluted…
See moreLand and water degradation, food and water supply shortages, drug-resistant infections from overuse of antibiotics, overuse of pesticides and disease, sea level rise affecting coastal areas, microplastics/single-use plastic pollution on land and in the oceans, rapidly melting ice at the Poles, heatwaves, droughts, extreme rainfall, powerful hurricanes, and more –> people and animals migrating, people and animals dying. It’s real, it’s happening now, and it’s…
See moreNews: Here is some potentially very positive news … It’s estimated that nearly 800 million people globally today lack access to safe drinking water–that’s not positive; it’s a huge, dangerous problem. Existing technologies “for purifying contaminated water and desalinating seawater” often are very expensive and use large amounts of energy–beyond the ability of many communities to put into place. Solar stills are an existing lower-tech…
See moreNews: The lower Mississippi River in the United States is still flooding; some towns have seen continual flooding in 2019 for as long as 100 to 200 days with no end in sight. This is not normal … but, it may be the new normal. Billions of dollars in damage, billions of dollars in lost income to farmers, thousands of lives uprooted and impacted. This…
See moreNews: “Large, intense thunderstorms cause flooding and fatalities.” The United States is especially impacted. Storms of this nature (mesoscale convective system-organized storms) “have increased in frequency and intensity in the USA over the past 35 years.” Research using a climate model which can “realistically simulate” this type of storm tracked changes through 2100. The result? Intense summer thunderstorms “will more than triple in North America.”…
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