Vanity Fair Profiles Arizona Scientist With Solution for Sea-Level Rise

Following decades of research, the Seawater Foundation promotes the use of natural seawater to irrigate salt-tolerant crops in previously unproductive lands of Mexico, Saudi Arabia, India, and East Africa. The process originates along natural sea coastlines, where shrimp and finfish are farmed, resulting in a nutrient-enriched effluent that is ultimately channeled inland to irrigate forests and meadows of specialty crops developed by the foundation from 20 years of breeding.
Recognized for his innovative effort to address the dramatic effects of rising sea levels, Carl N. Hodges, Chairman of the Arizona-based Seawater Foundation, has been selected for profile in the second annual Green Issue of Vanity Fair magazine. The May 2007 issue, which hit newsstands this week, profiles 17 individuals and organizations which are “propelling a cultural turnaround” in the area of environmental stewardship. The issue’s elite cast of environmental pioneers also includes actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Redford, singers Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt, winemaker Peter Mondavi, the Nobel Laureates of the University of California at Berkeley, and Sir Nicholas Stern, Economic Advisor to Her Majesty’s Government.——————–

While this process represents a dramatic response to sea-level rise and carbon fixation, it has also been shown to contribute to the world’s food supply in regions where drought has taken a devastating toll. The agroforestry crops are also yielding high-demand consumer products such as cooking oil and premium biofuel, as well as job opportunities where employment is needed most around the world.——————-

“This recognition by Vanity Fair is an important validation of the work in which we have been engaged for 30 years,” said Hodges. “Our data are unequivocal,” he affirmed, “we can stop sea level rise in less than 15 years, and ultimately restore the world’s coastal regions and wetlands, eradicate shoreline erosion, and rapidly grow the crops that will effectively address our global communities nutritional and economic needs.”———————-

For more information, visit http://www.seawaterfoundation.org/. Contacts: Matt Russell Lisa R. Grube (520) 232-9840, office (520) 232-9840, office (520) 909-3941, cell (520) 990-8883, cell mrussell@russellpublic.com lgrube@russellpublic.com

Website: http://www.seawaterfoundation.org/

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