Last month, water conservation reached the final frontier. Billionaire Guy Laliberte, the founder of the Cirque du Soliel, broadcast to the world from the International Space Station via a satellite video link to promote clean drinking water. "Everytime I look down at this fantastic planet... it looks so fragile," he said. He also tried to gulp down a drop of water floating in the zero-gravity atmosphere of the ISS where urine is recycled into drinking water, a technology that may someday be necessary down here on terra firma to overcome the water crisis that experts predict will strike in the next 25-50 years."All for water, water for all," was Laliberte's cry. Clowning around with water it may be: the cost of his trip was $35 million, and some critics suggested that the money would have been better spent digging wells in Africa. Laliberte's broadcasts were linked to a 2-hour 14-city worldwide extravaganza here on Earth with celebrity guests that included Al Gore, Bono, Peter Gabriel. This certainly highlights water conservation issues in a new way.
In a related water-in-Space topic, NASA crashed a rocket into the Moon's south pole hoping to find water in the impact debris. Spectacular idea - just the photos were a bit boring. The point of it all? If we want to colonise the Moon or other planet, we need drinking water - and not just recycled from our pee. Water would also have other uses, as a radiation shield (!) and when broken down into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen, for humans to breathe and use for energy: fuel cells and rocket propellant. There have also been tell-tale signs of water on M
ars - the Red Planet has long been a favorite of Sci-Fi enthusiasts for a colonisation. Not so much little green men as little green chips of ice in craters...The European Space Agency is to launch a new satellite (how many are up there??) to follow the Earth's water cycle and its constant flux. Yawn? Maybe not. It is to characterise global changes in soil moisture as well as the salinity of seawater - yep, it will track the drinkable water that we need, leading to improvements in climate models. In turn, these will help water management programmes focused on agricultural and drinking water activities.
In another water-related stunt last month, the Maldives Government 'sank to a new
low'. The president and his ministers donned wetsuits and scuba gear, used sign language and waterproof documents to conduct affairs of state for 1/2 hour on the sea floor, 20ft beneath the waves. Rising sea levels threathen to submerge the Maldives in the Indian Ocean within a century, robbing celebrities and other monied tourists of a favoured vacation spot...not to mention the locals' homes.
No comments:
Post a Comment