Desalination Doesn’t Have to Be Bad for the Environment

For millennia, humans have sought to make seawater drinkable. Ancient mariners tried distillation by boiling the oceans in which they sailed, and in more recent times, engineers have experimented with filters and chemicals .

As the climate warms, populations surge and droughts intensify, there is a growing need to make the sea drinkable. Desalination technology is spreading fastest in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia, where there is plenty of ocean but dwindling supplies of fresh water.