December 9, 2014

Sao Paulo, a city of 20 million people, has water for 60 days. Whether the cause is global warming, deforestation in the Amazon, or something else is irrelevant. The point is that the city depends on rainfall to replenish its reservoirs. Well, it’s not raining, and there’s no guarantee that the situation will improve. The truth is that despite all our technological achievements, we’re still as dependent on the natural water cycle as our Neanderthal and Homo Erectus ancestors. The difference is that now there are more mouths to feed and industries to supply, and that consumes far more water per person than ever before.

Let Sao Paulo’s predicament ring loud and clear. Perhaps our elected leaders will realize that it is unsustainable and preposterous, in this day and age, to rely on prehistoric technology. We must emulate agriculture: cease collecting water and start “growing” it. Of course, that requires hydrogen,  the one element in water that is not found in the atmosphere.

The principle is simple. If Lima, Los Angeles (currently enduring the worst drought, by some measures, in 1,200 years), Beijing, Teheran, or any city in a similar situation were to use hydrogen instead of fossil or nuclear fuels to generate their electricity, they might well become water self-sufficient and greatly reduce their greenhouse emissions. Better yet, hydrogen is renewable; unlike fossil fuels, we’ll never deplete the ocean.