Day: 12 June 2007

LifeStraw for Clean Water

lifestraw

Newsweek is running a story with an accompanying video about the the LifeStraw -a $3 gadget that cleans water. Regular readers here will remember that we covered the LifeStraw back in OCtober when LifeStraw was doing preliminary tests.

Most of the LifeStraw’s users will never drink anything fancier than plain water through the device. But its impact on their lives can’t be overstated. More than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, and 6,000 people die each day of waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera and dysentery. In regions like sub-Saharan Africa, half of most people’s water consumption takes place outside the home—either while they’re working, or walking to and from school. Vestergaard Frandsen S.A.—which also produces mosquito nets and plastic sheeting coated with insecticide to fend off malaria—hopes that the $3 LifeStraw will drastically lessen their chances of getting sick.

Reflecting on the Sun

http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11993
It’s good to know that already scientists have figured out backup plans for when climate change becomes so destructive that we have a way to turn down the thermostat. The solutions being put forward include blocking or diffusing the sun’s energy out into space – essentially making the Earth a giant mirror. The catch is that this geoengineering could change the way we see the world by altering the rays that hit the planet’s surface. The solutions maybe drastic, but at least we have a plan.

A solar shield that reflects some of the Sun’s radiation back into space would cool the climate within a decade and could be a quick-fix solution to climate change, researchers say.
…
His computer models simulated a gradually deployed shield that would compensate for the greenhouse effect of rising carbon dioxide concentrations. By the time CO2 levels are double those of pre-industrial times – predicted to be at the end of the 21st century – the shield would need to block 8% of the Sun’s radiation.