(editor's note: Chemical additives to water and food supplies are quickly becoming "old fashioned" and no longer viable options for our planet. Using clues from Mother Earth herself, a Michigan scientist has developed a method to transform even muddy water into safe, clear drinking water. In Winnipeg, experts are meeting this week to discuss water, energy, and food strategies for our short and long-term future. And St. Lawrence University is adding a "Sustainability Semester" to their spring 2013 curriculum.
Rather than become disheartened by the negative news of mainstream media, I challenge you to look deeper -to find healing earth heroes in your own community. There are people all over this beautiful jewel we call Gaia working every day to correct the damage we have done. They are doing the physical clean up work, or putting the intellectual thought into solving these problems. Please join me in sending them all energies of love and support.
~All my Love, Boo)
A New, Simple Way to Purify Drinking Water in Developing Countries
It’s easy enough to purify clear water. The solar water disinfection method, or SODIS, calls for leaving a transparent plastic bottle of clear water out in the sun for six hours. That allows heat and ultraviolet radiation to wipe out most pathogens that cause diarrhea, a malady that kills 4,000 children a day in Africa.
It’s a different story if the water is murky, as it often is where people must fetch water from rivers, streams and boreholes. "...The microorganisms hide under the clay and avoid the UV” says Joshua Pearce, an associate professor of materials science and engineering.
Pearce discovered that one of the most abundant minerals on Earth does this job very well: sodium chloride, or simple table salt.
Salt is inexpensive and available almost everywhere. And it doesn’t take very much to make muddy water clear again. Salt works best when the suspended particles are a type of clay called bentonite.
International Experts Gather to Discuss Ways to Manage Rising Demand for Water, Energy and Food
In many regions water is a determining factor on energy and food security through multiple pathways including drought and flooding, irrigation, bioenergy, hydropower and thermal power production.
The conference will focus on innovations from large river basins around the world, including governance innovation, technology innovation, bioeconomy innovation and case studies that demonstrate the integration of water, energy and food security as drivers and outcomes of basin management.
St. Lawrence University Launching Sustainability Semester
Building upon the success of its highly acclaimed Adirondack Semester and its nationally known environmental studies programs, St. Lawrence University (Canton, NY) will launch a Sustainability Semester in the spring of 2013.
"In many ways, the Sustainability Semester is the natural next step for a campus that has such a history of caring for the environment and supporting the regional community," said President William L. Fox. "Our pioneering Environmental Studies program, over 40 years old, has a national reputation for educating students to be leaders in environmental professions and for helping St. Lawrence graduates be responsible citizens of their home and global communities."
