DailyDirt: Fresh Water On Demand

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Earth is literally covered in water, but 97% of that water is in salty oceans and not useful for drinking. In fact, only about 1% of the world's water is really usable by humans (because a lot of fresh water is frozen in glaciers or otherwise inconveniently located). Here are just a few links on the lengths people could go to in order to get drinkable water.

• The United Nations held a design competition to create ads that help raise awareness of water conservation efforts. The winners will be picked in June. [url]
• A team of software engineers created a simulation that concludes it's possible to tow an iceberg from the waters around Newfoundland to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. The expense of actually doing this, however, has not been shown to be worthwhile by anyone yet. [url]
• IBM's Almaden Research Center is developing new water filtration membranes for purification processes -- which could be useful for desalination and other water reclamation. The trick is getting water purified without using a lot of energy to do so.... [url]
• A guy from Chile was arrested for stealing a 5-ton piece of a glacier -- that he was going to sell on the black market for making designer ice cubes. Glacier ice just tastes way better than the ice that comes out of a plastic tray because it's been aged for millions of years. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: conservation, filtration, food, glacier, ice, iceberg, water
Companies: ibm, un

DailyDirt: Safe Drinking Water

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The world is covered in water, but not all of it is actually safe to drink. Usually, the problem is that it's too energy intensive (and thereby costly) to purify it. It's a long-standing problem, but there's been some progress. Here are just few quick links on potable water supplies.

• Banana peels have actually been proven to effectively filter out various harmful metals from water. They don't kill bacteria, though, and stuffing them into Brita bottles probably won't work, either. [url]
• Desalination should be a "last resort" for water purification, but it's been getting more widely used despite its costs. Desalination technology is improving, but it still uses a lot of energy. [url]
• Perhaps the real last resort, though, should be towing an iceberg to where you need fresh water. A 30 million ton iceberg could provide enough drinking water for about about 500,000 people -- for a year. [url]
• A bunch of companies are promoting water conservation with the slogan: "Wasting Water is Weird." Will quirky viral videos help people to conserve water? [url]
• To discover more related links on stuff we eat or drink, check out what's brewing on StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: banana peels, conservation, desalination, iceberg, potable, water
Companies: bosch, kohler, lowe's, p&g

Conservationists Blaming The Internet For Clubbing Baby Seals

from the well,-almost... dept

It seems you can blame the internet for just about anything these days. Some conservationists are now blaming the internet for increasing the threats to various endangered species. The argument is that because people can buy and sell such endangered species online, it's increasing the threats to those animals. Of course, it's easy to blame the internet, but why not focus on actually blaming those individuals responsible for the trades -- and rather than lashing out at a communications platform, why not look for ways to use the internet to help stop such illegal trades? If this is happening online, that also means a record is left and it's easier to track down those responsible.

Filed Under: blame, conservation, internet