Daily Science Dose

In the late 1950’s, two scientists working at UCLA came up with a process in which fresh water can be made from seawater. It’s a little thing called reverse osmosis. One of those UCLA guys, while working at Ben-Gurion in Israel, had an idea to use the same kind of process to create energy.

It’s quite simple. The way that osmosis works with fresh versus seawater, water will naturally move from a less-concentrated solution (fresh water) to a more-concentrated solution, i.e. the salty water, and once something moves, it creates kinetic energy, and energy is energy, people. You just have to figure out a way to optimize and harness it.

And that is what this Sidney Loeb fellow wanted to do. He patented it anyway in 1973, and named the process Pressure Retarded Osmosis (gee, I wonder if you could get away with naming it that today). But with osmosis, you need a membrane that is permeable to something like water and not to something else, say salt. The water moves from fresh to salty, creating a flow, if enough pressure is present. The amount of pressure is key, and if you doubt me, think of a shower with really low water pressure. Yeah, exactly.

With enough pressure, you can move turbines, and turbines run generators, and yep, you got power. A group in Norway is working on new and improved membranes that can actually produce the pressure (about 12 atmospheres) needed to create power, which was the sticky point since 1973. The Norwegians are looking at plans to build a prototype power plant in a fjord near Oslo, a great location in terms of ample supplies of both fresh and seawater.

The Dutch group working on similar plans for their own prototype and they have come up with the term Blue Energy. The Dutch plans also include a series of batteries, powered by the salt water. Blue Energy uses the movement of the ions present in salt water, the + Na and the - Cl. It makes me think of how a solar panel works, using ions to create an electron flow which creates electricity.

So far, it seems that a fifth of the power that the little pressure retarded osmosis systems produce are needed to pump the water, so obviously, things are going to have to become a lot more efficient before we start replacing all the coal plants with osmosis plants. So designing the shape of the membrane “tubes” will become important, to maximize surface area, but also be as compact as possible. And then there is maintenance and cleaning of said membranes…and a limited number of suitable locations…constructing in hard-to-reach places that will require new roads…

Besides that, it’s brilliant. Clean, non-obtrusive, safe for the environment and wildlife…The Europeans are obviously getting creative.

reverse osmosis, osmosis, UCLA, desalinization, fresh water, seawater, salt water, pressure retarded osmosis, PRO, membrane, electron flow, ions, electricity, power, kinetic energy, energy, green energy, Blue Energy, Oslo, Norway, Netherlands

We humans are in quite a noodle. We need energy. Both in our bodies in the form of food and in our creature comforts in the form of fuel. Crops need good soil in which to grow, and there is only so much good soil in the world. Our fuel choice du seicle are fossil fuels, and though they sure do create a lot of energy, they also create a lot of carbon dioxide and other environmentally-detrimental substances. So-called biofuels are those that are not based upon deposits of petrochemicals underground, but instead rather on renewable (read re-growable) plant or other organic matter. Seems like these fuels would make a better choice for humanity’s power lust, but…

Some biofuels are better than others.

Japtropha

Jatropha curcas, also known as the Barbados Nut and the Physic Nut is a perennial shrub that produces black seeds or “nuts” that contain a large amount of oil that can be used directly in some generators and can also be processed into a higher quality bio-diesel. The seed is about one-third oil, and one hectare of jatropha bushes can produce over one metric ton of oil in even poor soils.

And that is the real bonus of jatropha. Jatropha bushes can grow just about anywhere. The bushes only need about 10 inches of rain a year, and that is only when they are young. Additionally, the Jatrophas are long-lasting producers and can live for 40 years.

Jatropha up until recently was not cultivated as a domesticated crop, but that may be changing as the potential of jatropha is being researched and developed in such developing countries as Zambia, Mali, India, China and the Phillipines. Jatropha originates in the Central America, and was exported to colonies to grow as live hedges to keep livestock and crops safe. The bushes are poisonous to most animals, so it acts as a great fence, in addition to acting as a good wind break for more delicate crops. The bushes were also inter-planted among field crops, and it was found that the bushes grew very well as companion plants.

Oh, did I mention that Japtropha has no need for pesticides and deters pests from entering the field? Yeah, jatropha is naturally disease- and pest-resistant. And the matter that is left over after the seeds have been pressed for oil is naturally high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are the big three nutrients used to fertilize other crops.

Let’s review. Jatropha can grow in poor soils that won’t grow other crops and needs very little water. It can be interplanted among other crops as a secondary crop, and acts as a pest-deterrent. It needs no fertilizing, and it’s waste matter makes a great fertilizer rich in nutrients. Jatropha produces a biofuel that can be used to run generators in small villages as well as processed to produce biodiesel.

In addition to biofuels, the jatropha oil can also be made into soap, charcoal, and mosquito repellant.

jatropha, jatropha curcas, biofuels, biodiesel, fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, crops, agriculture, energy, fertilizer, pesticide, nutrients, soil

It finally happened. A reputable scientist from a top organization has put it out there, and it was a team of scientists from probably the top organization in the US for this kind of work.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a team of scientists that just published a new study basically saying that once carbon levels reach a certain peak, there will be some dire consequences. Ok, got that. But the problem is that once a peak is reached, say 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmospehere (we are currently at 385 ppm), there will be no going back. Alright, “no going back” is a bit extreme, but what I mean is that once a certain threshold is crossed, and we most likely have already passed one of those thresholds, certain permanent* changes will be inevitable whether or not we cut all carbon emissions once past certain thresholds.

*Please be aware that nothing on this planet is permanent. I use this word to explain certain long-long-term weather and climate patterns that will change and become seemingly “permanent.”

The study looks at certain thresholds for carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere: 450, 600, and even up to 1000 ppm. The research finds that once a threshold is reached and certain climatic changes are taking place, it would be more than one thousand years before any drastic cuts in carbon emissions would mitigate the situation.

“Our study convinced us that current choices regarding carbon dioxide emissions will have legacies that will irreversibly change the planet,” said [Susan]Solomon [NOAA senior scientist], who is based at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.

“It has long been known that some of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities stays in the atmosphere for thousands of years,” Solomon said. “But the new study advances the understanding of how this affects the climate system.”

The study examines the consequences of allowing CO2 to build up to several different peak levels beyond present-day concentrations of 385 parts per million and then completely halting the emissions after the peak.

The authors found that the scientific evidence is strong enough to quantify some irreversible climate impacts, including rainfall changes in certain key regions, and global sea level rise.

If CO2 is allowed to peak at 450-600 parts per million, the results would include persistent decreases in dry-season rainfall that are comparable to the 1930s North American Dust Bowl in zones including southern Europe, northern Africa, southwestern North America, southern Africa and western Australia.

The study notes that decreases in rainfall that last not just for a few decades but over centuries are expected to have a range of impacts that differ by region. Such regional impacts include decreasing human water supplies, increased fire frequency, ecosystem change and expanded deserts. — SPX via TerraDaily

Not all the peaks showed dire climatic changes, but they all showed substantial climate changes, and the length of those changes were made longer by the heat-transfer of the ocean, which is standard physics and cannot be stopped. In fact, a big problem that this study exposes is that warmer water takes up more space, simple by the physics of the water molecules. Heat them and they expand. Water will expand.

And if water is going to expand due to higher temperatures, then water levels will rise, whether or not glaciers and ice caps melt. The NOAA team found that base water rise, from just the expansion of the ocean water itself, will account for up to 3 feet in sea level rise.

So, in closing, this new study says, we are screwed.

carbon dioxide, study, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, water, sea levels, climate change, global warming, melt, climate , climate patterns

In a very creepy Children of Men kind of way, this recent development in the state of our world’s water resources could be the first step to lower fecundity in humans, which yes, in an extreme case like the world of 2027 in Children of Men, could lead to diminished birth rates.

Guess I’ll stop worrying about overpopulation…

A British joint-research project finds that increasing numbers of new chemicals such as those used in pharmaceuticals and fertilizers — the very things that make life worth living, am I right? — are showing up in our water supplies. These chemicals may have a rather harmful and decidedly less fruitful side effect on a man’s reproductive system.

And on a fish’s reproductive system. Studies in the past have shown that male fish are being “feminized” due to female hormones in the water supply. Certain hormones in the water are turning the fish into girl fish, kind of in some cases and literally in others. These estrogens are making it through the water treatment process after passing through women taking birth-control pills. To be fair, chemicals that act like estrogen also have the same effect on fish, and those chemicals are coming from industrial manufacturing.

Now, researchers are finding new chemicals they are calling “anti-androgens.” These are acting much like the estrogen and faux-estrogen. Androgens are male hormones like testosterone, and serve to support sperm production.

In fact, the researchers says they really don’t know where some of these chemicals are coming from.

“We have identified a new group of chemicals in our study on fish, but do not know where they are coming from. A principal aim of our work is now to identify the source of these pollutants and work with regulators and relevant industry to test the effects of a mixture of these chemicals and the already known environmental estrogens and help protect environmental health.” [quote from Lead author on the research paper, Dr Susan Jobling at Brunel University's Institute for the Environment]

Senior author Professor Charles Tyler of the University of Exeter said: “Our research shows that a much wider range of chemicals than we previously thought is leading to hormone disruption in fish. This means that the pollutants causing these problems are likely to be coming from a wide variety of sources.

“Our findings also strengthen the argument for the cocktail of chemicals in our water leading to hormone disruption in fish, and contributing to the rise in male reproductive problems. There are likely to be many reasons behind the rise in male fertility problems in humans, but these findings could reveal one, previously unknown, factor.”–SPX via TerraDaily

These anti-androgens are known to cause a condition called testicular dysgenesis syndrome. Even the name tells us what is going on — dys means “ill” and genesis means “birth“. The anti-androgens can cause developmental damage to the reproductive system in embryos and the syndrome is becoming more and more common unfortunately.

We are what we drink. The ultimate anti-androgens, Women.

Yet more bad news for our water supply.

fertility, reproductive health, men, mens health, water, water pollution, androgens, anti-androgens, fish, feminizing, fecundity, Children of Men, overpopulation, sperm, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, hormones, estrogen, testosterone, manufacturing, chemicals, water treatment, testicular dysgenesis syndrome, embryos, developmental damage

You may have heard something along the lines of pharmaceuticals showing up in our water supply, as so many of us are taking more than an aspirin and still calling our doctors for more. Well, the good news is that yes, pharmaceuticals are showing up in water and in great concentrations in what is removed from our water — sewage sludge. The bad news is that there is a lot more stuff in that sewage sludge than just antidepressants.

Biosolids and You

As the EPA says, “The terms sewage sludge and biosolids are used by EPA interchangeably, but others often use the term biosolids to describe sewage sludge that has had additional processing for land application.” So in this case, biosolids are solid and biological in origin, that is it comes from humans and animals. These biosolids are often converted to fertilizers as our poo and pee have lots of nitrogen and other beneficial nutrients. That’s why manure is used in organic farming, after all. Well, sometimes that manure is yours.

Or was yours, rather.

What the report says is that there is a whole lotta sh*t in our sewage sludge, and I’m not talking feces here. The EPA looked at samples from 74 water treatment plants in 35 states, and here’s what they were looking for in all that sludge.

four anions (nitrite/nitrate, fluoride, water-extractable phosphorus)

28 metals

four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

two semi-volatiles

11 flame retardants

72 pharmaceuticals

25 steroids and hormones

Many of the 145 chemicals tested for were present nationwide. Biosolids from all of the 74 large treatment plants surveyed contained the same 27 metals, but only zinc, molybdenum, and nickel exceeded standards for application to fields. Almost all of the 11 flame retardants on the list were present in every sample. Twelve of the 72 pharmaceuticals were similarly ubiquitous.

Two of the most common drugs were the antibiotics triclocarban and ciprofloxacin. Although the average concentrations were similar to those in previous small-scale studies, several samples harbored up to 440 parts per million of triclocarban, which is added to antimicrobial soap and other personal care products. That’s almost 10 times higher than ever reported in biosolids and “astonishingly high,” Halden says. One question is whether the antibiotics harm soil microbes, or aquatic life if enough leaches into streams, Halden says. “We really don’t have the answer.” –Science

Remember how some people warned everybody about using antibacterial soaps because they would breed super germs? Seems like that was the least of our worries. If sewage sludge continues to accumulate antibiotics, and if that sewage were processed through into fertilizer, the antibiotics could end up creating major issues in agricultural soils which depend on beneficial microbes and bacteria to break down nutrients for crops.

And that’s just the downside to antibiotics…we haven’t even gotten into the other stuff yet.

EPA, sewage sludge, sewage, fertilizer, crops, soil, water, water treatment, antibiotics, antidepressants, water supply, waste, human, agriculture, chemicals, organic farming

Setting: Kruger National Park Wildlife Reserve, South Africa along the Mozambique border

Three dead crocodiles were found within the park. The victims suffered a painful death. The fat within their bodies hardened into a rubber-like state. The victims were rendered powerless to move. The crocodiles could not move to eat or drink, and soon they died of either starvation, thirst or exposure.

That was last May. Now, over 170 crocodiles have perished in much the same way within Kruger National Park, a showcase national park that hosts a good number of top predators like lions and leopards in addition to other large mammals like elephants, hippos and rhinos.

The science has come back on what is killing these huge crocs, the Nile variety of crocodile. Pansteatitis or “Yellow Fat Disease” is not a pretty disease and it affects other animals as well as the crocodiles. Domestic cats have been found to suffer from the disease, and also birds and fresh water turtles may become afflicted with this mysterious disease.

The condition attacks fat stores, depleting anti-oxidants and inflaming the fat in a process that scientists believe is very painful.

“There was a big concern that other species could be affected,” Jan Myburgh, veterinarian specialising in toxicology, told AFP.

The chief worry was for lions — seen feeding on the dead crocodiles — and other cat species, based on the susceptibility of domestic cats, but no dead or sick felines have been found, he said.– TerraDaily

The real problem is that no one can figure out how or why this disease strikes. Most of the scientists working on the case (as well as similar cases over the years) are pointing to strained river resources in the area. The rivers within the Park include the Olifants, the Timbavati, and the Sabie.

The Kruger deaths occurred in a remote gorge which has faced increased siltation from a dam in neighbouring Mozambique, and is fed by one of South Africa’s hardest working rivers which supports various heavy industries.

Clues are now being sought by a multi-pronged programme looking at the entire river system to get a better understanding of the cause and effect links around the deaths.

So, this could be any number of reasons that these Nile crocodiles, which can grow up to 5 meters or 15 feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds, are dying off in such a disturbing way. Not enough fresh water, warmer water, polluted water, diseases spreading in from upriver, a decline in the general health of big carnivores or scavengers willing to eat their own kind.

Disturbing all the same.

crocodiles, South Africa, Kruger National Park, disease, yellow fat disease, pansteatitis, rubber, muscle, health, wildlife, predators, Africa, Mozambique, rivers, water resources

The United Nations has projected that by 2025, half of the world’s nations may not have enough clean, potable water to drink. By 2050, that number increases to 75 percent.

Even today, the UN estimates that one in six people around the world suffer from some extent of water shortage.

The UN bases its findings on two factors: Population growth coupled with changes in the Earth’s climate that is drying up the surface of the planet.

More people need more water. Unfortunately, in this Universe, there is a law about matter not being able to be created nor destroyed, at least not without some major help from some rather experimental practices that involve some rather large super colliders.

Russian news service, RIA Novosti, published a piece exploring the implications of the UN’s dire warning. It’s funny that the “opinion & analysis” piece calls on the United States and Europe to update water infrastructure in addition to pointing out that we should be shipping food to arid regions rather than growing crops in areas that would need inordinate amounts of water in order to grow those crops.

What is the way out? It is possible to deliver food products to desert or semi-desert areas to help local people do without water-intensive agriculture. Advanced European countries and the United States have large natural water resources but should focus on modernizing their water supply infrastructure. Lack of proper repairs is causing considerable and irretrievable water losses.

The United States and Canada, for instance, will have to spend a total of $36 trillion in the next 25 years on the modernization of their water supply systems, but life is worth it. –RIA Novosti

Granted, the Us and Europe will have to upgrade and repair wasteful, aging water infrastructure systems, but to only look to the US and Europe as the only ones who can save the world’s supply of fresh water is a bit like looking at President-elect Obama as the saviour. The US and Europe can use water more efficiently and less wastefully, but I think the problem is a little bit bigger than new water pipes.

We need to curb population growth. Not in the US and Europe, but in developing nations around the world. It is not the nicest thing to say, being an American and over-consuming my fair share of water (among other resources), but let’s call a spade a spade.

Of course, we also have to look at the issue of climate change. But let’s say that humans are not responsible — calm down, this is just an exercise — for the changes in the world’s climate at present which is drying up huge areas of the planet. Let’s say that it is a normal transition in the life of the planet. No matter what is causing it — nature or man — with less water (among other resources), we have to accept that our fragile world can only support so many of us.

water, UN, United Nations, United States, Europe, drinking water, water supply, resources, population, crops, climate change, shortages, planet, humans

My thanks to the FEED newsletter from the Union of Concerned Scientists for this one.

It seems that traditional breeding methods are out-performing genetic modifications in developing drought-resistant crops. And as water becomes more and more scarce, drought-resistant crops are a big deal.

The United States Department of Agriculture has recently published some news about drought-resistant soybeans. By going back to the home of the soybean, China, for variety species that are not known in the US, and using some more exotic Chinese varieties of the staple crop, breeders have been able to cross a drought-resistant variety with a more common variety to produce soybeans that are testing well here in the US.

Using conventional breeding methods, Carter and his team develop hundreds of new breeding lines each year, for a total of more than 5,000. Five of them have stood out for further development and are now in validation trials across the South. Based on the results of these tests, the team will soon release advanced breeding lines that carry the slow-wilting trait and also show good yield potential when rainfall is plentiful.

The slow-wilting lines yield 4 to 8 bushels more than conventional varieties under drought conditions—depending on the region and environment, says Carter. For example, under drought conditions, normal soybeans yield 30 bushels per acre, but slow-wilting types yield about 35 bushels per acre. –USDA

That’s zero for genetically-modified drought-resistance, and a gazillion for traditionally-bred drought-resistance.

Ok, I have no data to back up that “gazillion” claim, but traditional breeding has been around for a long time, and there is no telling how many times it has helped develop crops that can go without water for a bit or withstand long, hot summers or even thrive in harsh conditions. If it were not for traditional breeding, well, we may not have many sub-species and varieties that we have today.

Besides, traditional breeding is the way Nature does it, so why shouldn’t we?

On another note, a NGO (non-governmental organization) is working with farmers in Africa and developed a drought-resistant variety of cassava (a staple in that part of the world and others, also known as yuca). And this variety is producing 6 to 10 times the amount of cassava that the usual seed stock is producing.

USDA, drought-resistance, genetically-modified, traditional breeding, genetics, GMO, NGO, soybeans, cassava, yuca, Africa, crops, agriculture

Actually, no. In the case of the Tibetan glaciers, no radioactive isotopes in ice cores is a bad thing. The radioactive particles were a good way to date ice cores — in that radioactive particles are useful in rather accurate dating methods, and also that these particular

radioactive isotopes were from a definite point in time and if the isotopes are not there, it may just mean that ice has not been accumulating on many of the Himalayan glaciers for quite some time now.

Science Daily ran a story about a joint US-China research team that studies ice cores, and in particular four ice cores drilled in 2006 from the Naimona’nyi glacier about 19,000 feet up in the Tibetan plateau. Seems that in years past, core from different glaciers around the world, radioactive isotopes are always around in the area of the ice that accumulated in the 1950’s and 1960’s — The Nuclear Age.

From Science Daily:

The Beta radioactivity signals – from strontium90, cesium136, tritium (hydrogen3) and chlorine36 – are the remnants of radioactive fallout from the 1950s-60s atomic tests. They are “present in ice cores retrieved from both polar regions and from tropical glaciers around the globe and they suggest that those ice fields have retained snow (mass) that fell during the last 50 years,” he [Lonnie Thompson, distinguished university professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University and a researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center] said.

“In ice cores drilled in 2000 from Kilimanjaro’s northern ice field (5890 meters high), the radioactive fallout from the 1950s atomic test was found only 1.8 meters below the surface.

“By 2006 the surface of that ice field had lost more than 2.5 meters of solid ice (and hence recorded time) – including ice containing that signal. Had we drilled those cores in 2006 rather than 2000, the radioactive horizon would be absent – like it is now on Naimona’nyi in the Himalayas,” he said.

Yeah, this may not be a good sign. And is is only me or is anyone else worried about where all that cesium-136 and strontium-90 has ended up?

But as the researchers worry, as well as many a climatologist, if the Himalayan ice cap, known as the Third Pole, is not accumulating ice or retaining some top-side ice at least, 500 million people are royally screwed. The Himalayan ice fields are a huge source of fresh water, a reservoir that ensures the survival of the people of the Indian sub-continent in addition to China and Southeast Asia.

Water wars, people, it will happen, and sooner than we think.

natural resources, water, China, US, glaciers, ice, third pole, Asia, Tibetan Plateau, Himalayas, radioactivity, radioactive isotopes, strontium, cesium, nuclear testing, nuclear age, war

You may have heard something about India and China and the threat of their current industrialization and how that industrialized pollution in the way of increased emissions of greenhouse gases will affect the world’s climate. It is true that this is and will be a huge problem for all of us, but another issue with industrialization is the more localized pollution that comes with it.

Image by Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation

India and China are playing catch-up with the rest of the industrialized world. That is one of the Bush’s administrations sticky points when it comes to not signing on to the Kyoto Protocol for all these years. Why should the US and Europe bother to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions when China and India are just starting to pump millions of tons of carbon into the air (and water) via new yet inefficient coal-fired power plants? I know, the admin’s attitude is mind-boggling and childish, but I didn’t vote for him, so it’s not like I can apologize for him and his handlers here. Instead of the US perhaps leading the innovation and technological boom in green industries and then exporting that technology and equipment to India and China, both the US economy would be doing well and China and India could go “green.” But no matter, I don’t have the space here to ruminate on the topic today.

India and China are currently heavily reliant on coal (so is the US, if you care to know). The problem with coal is that it is very dirty in addition to releasing tons of carbon upon being burned. Coal creates “brown clouds,” that is localized pollution of tiny soot particles that collect and act like their own mini-greenhouse.

Last year, National Geographic News covered a new study on these brown clouds.

But the latest study suggests that aerosols can be responsible for regional warming. Specifically, the clouds of aerosols over India enhance atmospheric warming there by 50 percent.

“We found this brown cloud can cover the entire North Indian Ocean, an area the size of the continental United States,” said lead author Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climate scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

The haze of brown clouds over the region can be up to two miles (three kilometers) thick, Ramanathan said.

And the haze touches the lower parts of the glaciers in the Himalaya mountain range, said study co-author David Winker, principal investigator of the CALIPSO satellite at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

This suggests that the brown clouds may be contributing to glacial melting in the Himalaya.

Now there are differences in aerosols. Some are light colored and some dark. It is the dark aerosols that are the contributors to these brown clouds.

Brown clouds contain dark aerosols such as soot that are released into the atmosphere by burning organic matter.

These particles absorb solar energy and then release it to the surrounding air as heat.

Natural forces such as forest fires can create soot, but so can human actions such as burning fossil fuels.

…

But unlike greenhouse gases, light and dark aerosols are not distributed uniformly throughout the globe, said Peter Pilewskie, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder who was not involved in the study.

Averaging the effects of aerosols worldwide masks regional processes that “we need to truly understand when we put all the pieces of the planet together,” Pilewskie said.

Why does this all matter? The Himalayan ice cap is vital to the survival of China, India, and all their neighbors. And this ice cap, a network of thousands and thousands of glaciers, is melting, and fast.

The 15,000 Himalayan glaciers that create the “Water Tower of Asia” — the largest block of fresh water outside the Polar Ice Caps — have been melting forever. But they are suddenly melting so fast that they are drying up. It will take decades, but at the rate the earth is warming, they may simply disappear.

“Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world,” the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned last year. “If the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate.”

If you are bothered by the “oil wars” we see today, just wait for the “water wars” of the future.

India, China, global warming, climate change, pollution, brown clouds, aerosols, greenhouse gases, industrialization, coal, power, energy, air pollution, soot, National Geographic, National Science Foundation