Quote:
Originally Posted by InfiniteNow
I learned of the name Brian Fagan on the Daily Show last night, who's written a book called "The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations." It appears to be a very historical view of how past droughts have caused many civilizations in human history to war with one another and ultimately fail. It sounds as if it's a great read, and not littered with the usual inherent politicization that most GW books are. Check it out. 
The clip which alerted me to the book:
Brian Fagan | The Daily Show | Comedy Central |
I have his Archaeologists: Explorers of the Human Past, but
I want Great Warming. I love time travel.
I haven't read thru this whole thread, so apologies if this repeats....
Desalination is one area that technology may be able to pull one out of the hat. It doesn't seem as if it should be that hard of a problem... simple inorganic or bio-membrane technology.
...and this is a year old, but the first I heard was seeing
Dean Kamen on The Colbert Report, last night. [sorry, no links] ...but,
World Water Crises | Outside Online
The 300-pound, electric-powered, dishwasher-size prototype purifies both freshwater and saltwater, basically by vaporizing, compressing, and condensing the liquid. At Deka Research & Development....
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: The Ripple Effect and the Water Crisis
...also, new technology on the horizon....
Quote:
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Originally Posted by PNAS
Highly permeable polymeric membranes based on the incorporation of the functional water channel protein Aquaporin Z
Manish Kumar, Mariusz Grzelakowski, Julie Zilles, Mark Clark, and Wolfgang Meier
PNAS...approved October 30, 2007 (received for review September 15, 2007)
The permeability and solute transport characteristics of amphiphilic triblock-polymer vesicles containing the bacterial water-channel protein Aquaporin Z (AqpZ) were investigated. The vesicles were made of a block copolymer with symmetric poly-(2-methyloxazoline)-poly-(dimethylsiloxane)-poly-(2-methyloxazoline) (PMOXA15-PDMS110-PMOXA15) repeat units. Light-scattering measurements on pure polymer vesicles subject to an outwardly directed salt gradient in a stopped-flow apparatus indicated that the polymer vesicles were highly impermeable. However, a large enhancement in water productivity (permeability per unit driving force) of up to 800 times that of pure polymer was observed when AqpZ was incorporated. The activation energy (Ea) of water transport for the protein-polymer vesicles (3.4 kcal/mol) corresponded to that reported for water-channel-mediated water transport in lipid membranes. The solute reflection coefficients of glucose, glycerol, salt, and urea were also calculated, and indicated that these solutes are completely rejected. The productivity of AqpZ-incorporated polymer membranes was at least an order of magnitude larger than values for existing salt-rejecting polymeric membranes. The approach followed here may lead to more productive and sustainable water treatment membranes, whereas the variable levels of permeability obtained with different concentrations of AqpZ may provide....
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...hopefully
