Blue Gold from Sea water

 Summer is finally here! Along with the sunshine come the heat and the thirst that only fresh water can quench. Water is essential to life. It is the most precious commodity. Our need for water is infinite but our fresh water supply is finite. Even with his famous maxim: "Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”, Mr. Antoine Lavoisier did learn from the philosopher Anaxagoras of Presocrats Clazomènes. He wrote to the 5th century BC that: "Nothing arises nor perishes, but already things are combined and then separate again.” The concept of conservation of energy is very old but we are still wasting our water.

From Earth to Space water is all we need. In Africa, severe droughts are venomously feeding civil wars, killing crops, and pushing people into exile for survival. Last month geologists stated that global warming was endangering the Lake Tanganyika. It is one of the planet’s most ancient and deepest lakes. It also happened to be one of the richest freshwater ecosystems in the world. And people all over south central Africa depend on fishing from Lake Tanganyika. So hunger and thirst will keep on preying throughout Africa.

However let’s not forget that "Nothing arises nor perishes, but already things are combined and then separate again.” That is why I am pledging every day to follow Mandela’s dynamic of forgiveness instead of dwelling on colonialism, imperialism, and their environmental degradation consequences. Yes, yes it was, it is but we are now and we must change. It is necessary to express emotions but actions of change will benefit North, South, East, West, Earth, them and us. And like Mandela said "Time is always right to do right".

Until that day, Engineers from UCLA proposed a new class of reverse-osmosis membranes for desalination. This membrane resists the clogging that happens when seawater, brackish water and waste water are purified. They are also working on bring that technology to the real world. One day, we will have Blue Gold from Sea water to quench our thirst, to water our crops and to keep on living. I am toasting to Blue Gold for all. A votre santé!!