Climate change threatens to make dry regions even drier, so scientists at UC Berkeley created a device to make water out of thin air.
At least one hundred million people live in desert regions around the world according to the UN, and they survive off of less than 25 cm of rainfall each year, and for many, even that minuscule water supply is under threat as the climate crisis is making dry areas even drier. So scientists at UC Berkeley have been experimenting with materials that can pull drinking water out of thin air.
That’s right, right out of thin air.
A chemist at the University of California, Berkeley reported that he and his colleagues have created a solar-powered device that could provide water to millions living in water-stressed regions.
At the device’s heart is a porous crystalline material, known as a metal-organic framework (MOF), that acts like a sponge: It sucks water vapor out of air, even in the desert, and then releases it as liquid water.
A single gram of an MOF can have the surface area of a football field, and depending on the metal and organic molecules they’re made of, MOFs can be tailored to capture various different things in their pores. For example, an MOF could have the ability to capture CO2 and turn it into the fuel methanol, or neutralizing nerve agents like sarin gas. The function the Berkeley scientists used their MOF for was extracting water vapor that’s present in the air.
The lead researcher behind the device started a private company called Water Harvesting.
The company’s plan is to launch a microwave-sized device that can supply 2 adults with enough water for their daily hydration and cooking needs. Eventually the research team envisions a harvester device big enough to supply a small village. If the devices end up being affordable, safe, and reliable enough, these metal-organic frameworks have the potential to turn even the driest desert into an oasis.
The climate forcing from methane emissions since pre-industrial times has been 60% of that from CO2, meaning that methane has made a large contribution to observed warming over the past century. However, the climate impact of methane emissions is very different than that of CO2 emissions in terms of time scales, and this must be recognized when setting climate policy targets: use of a single climate metric to compare the effects of methane and CO2 emissions is not appropriate. An additional complication is that methane is emitted by a variety of sources, and there is large uncertainty in the contribution of different source regions and sectors to the overall methane budget. The recent decadal uptick in methane has generated much interest and is still unexplained. Satellites offer considerable potential for global monitoring of methane emissions, quantifying the contributions from different sources, detecting temporal variability, and attributing long-term trends. Atmospheric methane has been measured continuously from space since 2003, and new instruments have been recently launched or are planned for launch in the near future that will greatly expand the capabilities of space-based observations. I will discuss the value of these observations to better quantify and monitor methane emissions, from the global scale down to the scale of point sources.
Daniel J. Jacob is the Vasco McCoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Harvard University. He received his B.S. (1981) in Chemical Engineering from the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI), and his Ph.D. (1985) in Environmental Engineering from Caltech. He went to Harvard as a postdoc in 1985 and joined the faculty in 1987. His research covers a range of topics in atmospheric chemistry. He has led the development of the GEOS-Chem global 3-D model of atmospheric composition, has served as Mission Scientist on eight NASA aircraft missions, and is a member of several satellite Science Teams. Among his professional honors are the AGU Charney Lecture (2016), the ECMWF Fellowship (2016), the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (2003), the AGU Macelwane Medal (1994) and the Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (1989). Jacob has published about 400 papers (H-Factor of 110 according to Web of Science) and trained over 90 Ph.D. students and postdocs over the course of his career. When not doing science he likes to hang out in the White Mountains of New Hampshire or at his family estate in Brittany.
The scale of the climate crisis is more visible than ever. Not only has it been clearly articulated by the world’s leading climate scientists, communities around the world are suffering more frequent, extreme and widespread storms, heat waves and wildfires.
But it’s not enough.
We need to progress faster towards the ultimate goal of net-zero CO2 emissions if we are to prevent the very worst impacts of climate change.
This is the moment for us all to push for greater progress. All businesses – especially those that to date have been silent on the threat of climate change – need to step-up their ambition and actions to tackle climate change.
We’re calling on all companies that haven’t yet done so to commit to set an ambitious science-based emission reduction target that’s aligned with what science says is necessary to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Signal your commitment to setting your company target by signing this pledge: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/…
We Mean Business is a coalition of organizations working with thousands of the world’s most influential businesses and investors. These businesses recognize that the transition to a low carbon economy is the only way to secure sustainable economic growth and prosperity for all. To accelerate this transition, we have formed a common platform to amplify the business voice, catalyze bold climate action by all, and promote smart policy frameworks.
