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DRIVER-POLITICS Water Politics Limited, a geopolitical risk advisory and consulting firm, found that water scarcity could lead to conflict or political instability in many countries. Sources including the Euphrates, Tigris, Jordan, Nile, Danube, and Okavango rivers as well as the Tibetan watershed and resources will become insufficient to support the surrounding areas. These sources currently provide water to dozens of countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Water scarcity will therefore affect communities across the globe. Importantly, it may spark conflict over remaining water resources, within a nation or even between nations. Anya Groner at The Atlantic points to evidence of past conflicts that have revolved around water. These include the riots in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2012, which responded to inequality in the distribution of water resources.

DRIVER-INFRASTRUCTURE-SCARCITY-POLITICS By 2071, nearly half of the 204 freshwater basins in the United States may not be able to meet the monthly water demand. These model projections, recently published in the journal Earth's Future, are just one preliminary component of the upcoming Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment expected to be published next year. In 1974, congress required that this assessment of US renewable resources be published every 10 years. Conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, the research describes two causes for the projected shortages. The first is that the U.S. will simply have more people. Despite that the average American is using less water, population growth is still expected to increase water demand across most of the country. Second, the water supply itself is expected to decrease. Projected climate change affects both rain patterns and temperatures. While rainfall is expected to increase in some parts of the US, the southern Great Plains and parts of the South won't be so lucky. The water basins rely on rainfall to feed the rivers and tributaries that flow into them. Separately, more water will evaporate from reservoirs and streams as the climate gets warmer, further chipping away at the water supply. Around 50 years from now, many U.S. regions may see water supplies reduced by a third of their current size, while demand continues to increase.

"The global energy management system market was valued at USD 8.2 billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 19.91 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 16.2% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). The increasing focus toward issues, such as managing energy consumption, optimizing the use for renewable energy sources, and reducing carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, is creating a demand for EMS. Further, cloud services effectively minimize operational costs of software development and maintenance and direct the monetary costs, cost of time, and spent resources on maintaining the in-house IT professionals and infrastructure on gathering, storing, and analyzing energy data.​ Cloud services are an ongoing trend responsible for the growth of the market studied."

With a rapidly growing population, many are searching for new ways of farming that are less harmful and use less resources compared to current practices. This article advocates for hydroponic farms. "Hydroponic farms offer a pathway towards a more sustainable food ethic that prioritizes the health of our food, bodies and environment without the heavy use of chemicals."

DRIVER-SCARCITY The Industrial Revolutions improved living standards for people in most nations where technology proliferated.[1] Populations in modern societies are not overly concerned with accessing food or water on a daily basis. In particular, the availability of clean, freshwater is a reasonable expectation throughout the modern world. However, a growing lack of water ("water scarcity"), propelled by continued technological advancement and high demand, is creating a global crisis. This resource scarcity will change long-held expectations and demonstrate the capacity to disrupt the security and stability of entire regions. This Article examines the global state of freshwater scarcity[2] and the often-neglected linkages of water scarcity to economic, social, political, legal, and security consequences arising from disruptions, failures, or attacks on water access and distribution systems.[3] Our research concentrates on examples of the impacts of water scarcity from past and present utilizing selected examples from North America, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. We contend that poorly understood links between access to adequate water and national stability pose severe global security risks, especially if technological and policy correctives are not implemented to increase water resiliency and ensure availability and access.

"Work together to harmonize standards and practices around the world and to communicate and share corrosion mitigation technologies. Now is the time to make a major impact to protect the environment, preserve resources, and protect our fellow human beings."

DRIVER-POLITICS-SCARCITY Water scarcity is one of the most pressing humanitarian crises facing the world today. Access to water resources has far-reaching political and social implications, especially in areas where water is scarce. Natural water basins do not comply with man-made political borders, and as a result, the allocation of precious water resources becomes a point of negotiation in transnational treaties and agreements. Adding to the politicization of water is the connection between water and energy production. Water is needed for all types of energy production, and energy is needed for the extraction and dissemination of clean water

Scientists continue to invent advanced materials with highly specific properties that outperform existing materials and enable more innovative product designs.

76 pages of Boeing history and them patting themselves on the back but a great tool effort to show their commitment to ESG. I was super interested in page 6-11 where they focus on sustainability for aerospace.

Google has launched a new website called Find Food Support, which puts important resources on how to locate free and affordable food in the US in one place. Perhaps the most useful feature the website can offer is a new Google Maps tool that can point you to the nearest food bank, food pantry or school lunch program pickup site.

The engineering profession won't be exempt from COVID-19 job fallout, but the effects will be temporary. More engineers will be needed than ever before when the world returns to a semblance of normalcy, said Andy Moss, president and owner of M Force Staffing, a Knoxville, Tenn., technical recruiting firm specializing in engineering and manufacturing job placement. "There was already a lack of technical talent before we went into this," Moss says. "This is a horrible situation, but when we come back from it we're going to ramp right back up into the problems we had before. We're not producing enough technical talent to fill the jobs we have." The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment growth for engineers, with nearly 140,000 new jobs expected for engineers from 2016 to 2026. Mechanical engineers were second only to civil engineers in terms of projected new jobs over that time period: civil engineers with 32,200 additional jobs projected and mechanical with 25,300. Industrial, with 25,100 jobs, and electrical, with 16,200, followed behind.

As artificial intelligence tools become more specialized, Moss has one big warning to today's students: stay away from any job AI can take. That doesn't include engineering, though, where there will probably be more jobs created due to the growth of AI, he says. "You'll still have things in engineering design and other aspects of technical work and engineering that a computer just can't do, even if they can think faster than a human."

The Corrosion Engineering Laboratory is a multiuser facility that serves NASA Centers, various DoD and Government Agencies, private companies, and educational institutions. The KSC Beachside Atmospheric Exposure Test Site is unique within the government, making it a valuable resource that is available to customers outside NASA. Kennedy Space Center's launch facilities are located within 1000 feet of the Atlantic Ocean. Salt from the ocean combined with the heavy lift launch vehicles' acidic rocket exhaust make corrosion protection a high priority. For these reasons, KSC maintains state-of-the-art corrosion protection capabilities. Our Atmospheric Corrosion Test Site has been documented as having higher atmospheric corrosion rates than other known test sites in the United States.

"Material science offers corrosion engineers design options in corrosion control with advanced materials. Engineered properties created through specialized processing and synthesis technologies give advanced materials superior performance over conventional materials and include ceramics, high value-added metals, electronic materials, composites, polymers, and biomaterials."

structural steel beams set in concrete allowed them to frame tall buildings that were more fire resistant and more structurally sound than cast iron. Since that time, steel (an alloy made by combining iron and carbon) has not only become the best building material for commercial construction but closely tied to economic health. In fact, many experts look to the steel industry as an indicator of how well the economy is doing [source: Pamuk]. Steel has a long history in the construction industry, but is it still the best material for building?" While no one alternative has become a standard to replace steel, materials like engineered timber and metal composites are becoming more common in new construction projects. "Timber companies tout wood as a durable, renewable resource, and engineered timber is gaining some traction as an alternative to steel. For example, the new arts and media building at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in New Zealand used engineered wood in place of typical steel and concrete construction, and the company that worked on that building says that it's taking on more and more contracts that would have gone to steel construction companies [source: Nelson Mail]."

Corrosion is a huge cost to the environment. These range from structural failures resulting in environmental contamination, to harmful pollutants being released from iron corrosion, to the over-utilization of natural resources when repairing and replacing damaged metals (Hanson, 2011).(....)the longevity of the metal assets in question across key industries such as O&G, aerospace and architecture is one of the largest drivers for innovation in the coatings industry.