The National Academies Sciences Engineering Medicine gave a presentation online on July 7, 2026 which I attended. I must admit it was way over my head. As a matter of fact, it was way over most people’s understanding. But the one thing that came clear to me, after four hours of listening and seeing the slides, is that scientists have cures for many of the problems that humanity faces. But, in a world of millionaires, billionaires and now trillionaires, there is no funding for the solutions that scientists can offer.
Therefore, problems that could be solved, are not solved.
The focus of the presentation was WATER—the challenge of clearing water of the toxins that have been dumped into it by sewers, manufacturing and natural environmental toxins such as soil that has heavy metals or metals that make water useless to humanity. The worst of these being PFAS, which are chemicals that result from the use and dumping of plastics.
In the presentation, the scientists state that “we cannot achieve economic prosperity without the infrastructure to store, treat and distribute water for agriculture, industry, residential and environmental purposes. We need to create new sources of water that are not affected by drought, floods and other hazards.” This means doing major recycling projects so that waste water can be cleaned and reused.
The idea of filtering sewage water to make it drinkable again is repulsive at first thought, but it is exactly what nature does every day through evaporation, precipitation and filtering through rocks, sand, and plants that pull nutrients from water. Scientists believe that humans can create industries that will do this on a scale to help us always have the water we need, in spite of the earth’s various weather patterns, oscillations, warmings and coolings—some of which are the result of the over use of fossil fuel! In short, we humans created the problems, now we have to create solutions. Yet, remember, there’s no funding for this. But there is funding for war.
For instance, the oceans hold plenty of water but it is not drinkable—we could remove the saline as is already done in some countries, by using sunlight to produce electricity to desalinate. The water could be piped inland for agriculture or drinking water. We have piped oil for thousands of miles to propel automobiles, aircraft and ships, why not pipe water? Solutions are possible—if we can find funding.
The National Science Foundation was created by the U.S. Congress in 1950 with the purpose of health, welfare, prosperity and security. But now we have a society that fears science and rejects scientific concepts that could solve problems. Always doubt those who attack science.
What else is under attack?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: There is no need to oppose AI. It is another scientific advancement that could speed the recovery of our planet from the pillaging that has occurred in the name of modern society. Scientists can use AI to “pinpoint potential hotspots of elevated contamination levels in groundwater.” AI can be useful to “guide membrane design and selection using ML models to optimize PFAS rejection performance.” And AI can be used to monitor water quality in water tanks, reservoirs, rivers and even the ocean. This is a good use of AI.
Ironically, the use of AI which operates in the real world through the existence of DATA CENTERS, creates a huge water use that could take water away from the needs of agriculture, industry and residential.
A thing in itself is neither good nor bad, but how it is used determines its value to humanity. Some of the poorer uses of AI are likely CRYPTO MONEY use to distort the outcome of democratic elections. AI can help build better weapons. But wouldn’t it be better used in the medical field to find, treat and cure diseases?
This is why we need to regulate Data Centers. It would be a kind of “luddite” response to ban data centers just because they don’t provide jobs beyond the building construction stage. Yes, in the 1800s, workers went into the factories and bashed them with hammers to destroy the machines that took their jobs. But letting the machine do the repetitive work give a chance for each of us to be working with and for other people. It is much more rewarding than working like a machine to the machine. Therefore, we need to invest in education and training programs so that workers can gain new skills. We need to better understand economics.
Why is it we can’t find funding for solutions to humanities problems? Having the internet, the “cloud” and social media will be useful in educating and organizing humanity to correct many of the problems we have. Science and technology can help us learn and create a better world than we’ve known so far.
You are right that wealth largely based on taking from the Earth’s resources without cleaning up and giving back. There’s a major problem in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, countries where colonialism or monarchies failed are ruled generally, by strong arm religious or military leaders who's only direction is to gain power and wealth for the autocratic leaders at the expense of the people.
It seems simple that giving up war for helping out our world and restoring its original resources by recycling and stewardship, but it isn't being done. It will take a revolution, worldwide, for everyone to wake up, stop living the way we are…like drinking most of our water, not knowing where it is coming from, from plastic bottles with inflated prices, and then throwing them away.
Knowledge is power. Articles like yours help grow knowledge. We are running out of time before serious problems we have created will make our children and grandchildren miserable. The wrong legacy to leave. So many of us are miserable already. And don't know what to do about it.
Ron
God bless.
Bob Drews