Scientific American examines the intersection of humanitarian aid, economic development, and climate change, saying, “Environmental, humanitarian, and economic challenges do not exist in isolation, but that is how the world most often deals with them.” The article quotes several speakers who attended an event on “resilient livelihoods” held on September 25 at the Rockefeller Foundation. Shrinking water supplies and increased urbanization continue to affect agriculture outputs, and hunger remains a problem worldwide, “[s]o finding new ways to fund environmental improvement and economic development at the same time will be crucial,” the news magazine writes.

Scientific American describes the LifeStraw, a small device capable of purifying enough water for a family of four for three years that also offsets the amount of firewood the family would need to sterilize its water through boiling. “Already, according to the company, they are ‘seeing a statistically significant reduction in the odds of a child under five presenting at a clinic with diarrhea,'” Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO of Vestergaard Frandsen, a Denmark-based company that manufactures disease-control products, said, according to the news magazine (Biello, 10/1).