The sun, the desert and the sea under-utilized resources

Commenting on the scarcity of geological reference material on the desert zones, Egyptian American geologist Dr. Farouk El-Baz noted that geology was developed in Europe by scientists who never knew or experienced the desert. Equally true is that conventional desalination technologies were developed by scientists from countries with abundant fresh water resources, and agricultural methods were based on growing on fertile land with conventional irrigation. Too little has been achieved to develop appropriate technologies tailored for the needs of arid lands, harnessing the available resources of sun, desert and sea water. This conference is a serious attempt in the right direction.