Water

With just a few simple materials, a community can map boundaries and see how they fit within the larger city. Photo courtesy "Design With the Other 90%: CITIES"

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Portland hosts the West Coast Premier of "Design With the Other 90%: CITIES"

Of the world’s 7 billion people, 1 billion now live in urban slums.

As the world gets richer, competition for resources like water and livestock will likely increase. Photo: Erin Gray for MercyCorps

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Extreme poverty could end by 2030, but the planet might pay for it

The world’s soaring wealth will nearly wipe out poverty worldwide by 2030, according to the National Intelligence Council.

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Sustainable Energy

How a Portland lab uses remote sensors to measure how aid projects work

Sensors on latrines, cook stoves and water filters help monitor aid projects, and a carbon credit financing scheme generates revenue to scale-up of future projects.

Clogged drain or fabric store, which do you see? Photo:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/3486251054/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Sustainable Sanitation (Flickr)</a>

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Trash-to-purses project pays Filipinos to fend off floods

One man’s trash is another’s flood prevention. An entrepreneur and environmentalist fights flooding in the Philippines by transforming trash into fashion.

Global corporations and NGOs made commitments towards environmental protection and poverty reduction at the Rio+20 conference. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cgiarclimate/7415461108/sizes/m/in/photostream/">CGIAR Climate (flickr)</a>

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Who failed in Rio? The public sector, not the private

Government negotiations largely failed at the Rio+20 UN conference on sustainable development last month. But private sector players led the way with strong commitments for the immediate future.

Water collection might be easier with the help of remote sensing technology. Photo: <a href="http://www.mercycorps.org/jillmorehead/blog/25839">Jill Morehead (Mercy Corps)</a>

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A map of subterranean lakes could cut Kenya's water prices

Kenya has invisible lakes beneath its surface—an estimated 60 billion cubic metres of underground water. A new project intends to tap that untouched source to fight thirst and drought.

With new data transmitters, African hand pumps can keep the water flowing. photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2944066423/sizes/o/in/photostream/">World Bank Photo Collection (Flickr)</a>

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Another job for Africa's mobile phones: Fixing water pumps

First money, then medicine, now water: What problems can’t the mobile phone solve?

From nuclear to coal, power plants turn their turbines by heating and cooling water. When water starts out warm, this gets less efficient. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagalute/5127578547/in/photostream/">Bjoern Schwartz (Flickr)</a>

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Why warmer water will drive up poor people's electric bills

Impacts of energy use on climate change are widely discussed, but what about the other way around?

The SODIS purification process works by placing bottles of warter in the sun for six hours. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartenstein/2193266521/sizes/m/in/photostream/">dominik.bartenstein (flickr)</a>

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In Tajikistan, promise and problems for solar disinfection

Purifying drinking water by putting it in plastic bottles on the roof in the sun sounds simple. But unless people understand how the process works and know when the water is ready to drink, they stay thirsty.

Jeffrey Garten explored the massive shifts taking place in the global economy with an audience at<a href="http://www.mercycorps.org/portland"> Mercy Corps' Action Center</a>. Photo: Kyla Springer/Mercy Corps.

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Yale economist to world: Don't panic. Embrace uncertainty and innovation.

Presented by Jeffrey Garten at Mercy Corps

The world is not ending, and the sky is not falling. But the rise of the global South and East promises to reward the world's most innovative risk-takers.

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Drink up, kid! Nipple shields keep babies safe from HIV

Baby formula isn’t the only way to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission. A nipple shield could be cost-effective and healthier.

Water from the AguaClara plant in Amarateca, Guatemala, scrubbed clear by a gravity filter. Photo: <a href="https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/AGUACLARA/Home">AguaClara</a>.

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Innovation at work: A gravity-powered water purifier

A sustainable water treatment system developed by AguaClara is delivering cheap drinking water to communities in Honduras using a power source far cheaper and more abundant than electricity: gravity.

Environmental enginnering is making clean drinking water more accessible and affordable to those who need it. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/julien_harneis/589718393/sizes/n/in/photostream/">Julien Harneis (flickr)</a>

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Environmental engineering pioneers innovative clean water sources

This article was republished by The Christian Science Monitor

Former President Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives has been a vocal advocate for action against climate change. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/presidencymaldives/5163835114/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Presidency Maldives (flickr)</a>

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A climate warrior deposed: Maldives coup could sink more than a presidency

Last month’s coup in the Maldives cost the country more than just its president. It may also have lost one of the world’s most outspoken advocates for climate change adaptation.