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Scientists in China have developed several types of rice that can be grown in seawater, potentially creating enough food for 200 million people. Researchers have been trying to grow the grain in salty water for decades but have only now developed varieties that could be commercially viable. The rice was grown in a field near the Yellow Sea coastal city of Qingdao in China’s eastern Shandong province. 200 different types of the grain were planted to investigate which would grow best in salty conditions.  Sea water was pumped into the fields, diluted and then channelled into the rice paddies. The...

CAITLIN DICKERSON OCT. 12, 2017 SAN JUAN, P.R. — After a day spent working in an office in the dark, without air-conditioning, Iris Díaz arrived at her neighborhood CVS drugstore desperate for what has quickly become one of the most sought-after items in Puerto Rico: bottled water. A sales clerk standing behind the checkout counter explained that the store had been out of stock for three days. “Ni una sola botellita?” Ms. Díaz pleaded in Spanish. “Not even one little bottle?” The employee shook her head and apologized. Three weeks after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, the challenge of finding enough water...

SEEN from space, the Earth is a pale blue dot. Two-thirds of its surface is covered by water. But the vast majority of that water—around 97%—is salty. Of the 3% that is fresh water—which is the kind humanity needs to drink, wash, make things and (most of all) produce food—about two-thirds is locked up in glaciers, ice caps and permafrost. That leaves less than 1% of the planet’s water easily accessible in rivers, lakes or aquifers. In short, the salinity of the oceans means useful water is scarce, while the less useful kind is abundant. So why is the sea...

Brian Handwerk For National Geographic News Clean water is essential for life, but most people in the developed world don't think much about the water they use for drinking, food preparation, and sanitation. In developing nations, however, the search for safe drinking water can be a daily crisis. Millions of people die each year, most of them children, from largely preventable diseases caused by a lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation. Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project and the National Geographic Society's freshwater fellow, said freshwater scarcity presents a growing problem to be addressed during...