Environment

Geothermal Energy

The dream of tapping the unlimited geothermal energy a few miles beneath the surface may be a little closer to reality, thanks to the same new laser technology developed to spark nuclear fusion.

Efforts to drill down the 7 miles or so have been blocked by layers of granite or basalt that are five times harder than the sedimentary rock just below ground. But Quaise Energy has plans for a test project in 2024 that will use millimeter-wave beam technology to vaporize those hard layers into glass boreholes. The startup says that if successful, the technology could be deployed on a global scale. It adds that if wells were drilled beneath existing coal or gas plants, their steam turbines could easily be retrofitted to generate deep geothermal energy as cheaply as 1 cent per kilowatt-hour.

African Drought

The deaths of more than 7 million head of livestock due to the worst East African drought in four decades is causing a humanitarian disaster to unfold. The World Health Organization warns that more than 80 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia now suffer from food insecurity.

Beyond the loss of livestock, vast swaths of cropland have been parched, and communities are being torn apart as families migrate in search of food and grazing. Even Kenya’s nomadic Masai now struggle to preserve their way of life as they are forced to travel farther than before in search of grazing land and water.