How many times have you gone to the fridge, seen all sorts of drinks stacked up, and said ‘there is nothing to drink here’? I do it about a dozen times a week, but in the decades to come this might be a reality for even we in the industrialized nations. In 2012, we broke 28,000 temperature records in the US alone (Illinois being in the top 10), and this is just the shadow of things to come (climatecentral.org). We need to own up to the devastation of the water cycle that we have caused and figure out a way to fix it. To amend the problem, we must first acknowledge what is causing the problem.
Less than 1% of the planet’s freshwater is accessible to humans without needing to mine into the water table or shovel of the mountaintops, and the pollution and misallocation of this tiny fraction of freshwater is causing 2.6 billion people to not have a clean water supply, which results in the deaths of 1.5 million people annually (unwater.org). With a projected population boom of 3 billion in the next 50 years, water will be more important than ever. Wars will break out to secure a water supply because nothing else matters if your country is dying of thirst. To avoid a dismal future for our planet and species, humanity must undo its damage to the water cycle.
It is no secret that our planet is covered in water, except it is loaded with salt; thus rendering it unusable, and humans have figured out how to do this over a thousand years ago. The process is called desalination, which heats up a collection of water into a gaseous form, the salt is separated via gravity, and the water re-condenses in a second container making it freshwater. Desalination requires enormous amounts of energy and infrastructure, thus making it very expensive. A few dozen of these desalination plants are spread throughout the world, but their combined forces cannot put much of a dent into the shortages. Instead of converting our seas and oceans into freshwater via desalination, we can find a much more scalable solution in nano-filtration.
The small world of nanotechnology might be able to solve the big world of problems of humanity. Nanotechnology refers to things constructed and used at the atomic scale, which is perfect for dealing with the tiny water molecules. There are currently a variety of nanotech products that can filter and disinfect water extremely efficiently by stripping the toxins from the water without a chemical footprint. The best option (as of now) is to use it as a filter directly installed on whatever water collection facility there is available such as wells, treatment plants, and reusable water bottles. There is almost no problem that we cannot engineer our way out of, except for the responsibility of free will.
Water is not the infinite resource that we like to believe it is with every turn of the tap, but it is a facade. Right now hundreds of millions are suffering across the planet and with our current rate of pollution and usage America cannot be far behind. The opportunities that we have in desalination and nano-filtration could possibly be humanity’s means of restoring balance to the world (for once). Until the last thirsty child has been nourished and the rivers flowing again, we must learn that suffering caused by water scarcity is the mark of a failed society.
Grant Vargas
Senior Viewpoints Editor