Excessive fertilizer and sewage can be deadly. There are zones in our lakes and oceans, where all life is literally wiped out. Here is a new competition that seeks to combats dead, dirty water. If you have an idea for a sustainable solution, you could be one to bring back life, and be the latest millionaire for it too! Read more here, and submit your entry before April 11, 2014.
Tulane University is offering a $1 million prize to the team who comes up with the best solution for combating hypoxia-affected waters, the dead zones in the world’s lakes and oceans. Hypoxia is the oxygen depletion in water bodies caused by “excessive amounts of river-borne fertilizers and other nutrients.” Tulane’s grand challenge is a response to President Obama’s call for universities and philanthropies to step up and pursue innovative solutions to our most pressing environmental problems.
Coastal and inland lake ecosystems are increasingly threatened by hypoxia. While the Gulf of Mexico is famous for its growing dead zone, the issue is increasingly global, writes Tulane. “Nutrient enrichment can jeopardize the future of estuaries and coastal wetlands that depend on freshwater and sediment delivery for stability and persistence.”
Dead zones not only have an impact on the environment but also the economy. These unproductive areas “destabilize the businesses, families and communities…
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