Whether chemical companies will actually meet this challenge remains to be seen. If they succeed, Reisch remarks, "it will be the chemical industry's best opportunity in the 21st century to permanently change the reality and the perception of this much beleaguered but vitally important industry."

The article highlights the efforts of two major chemical companies, Dow and DuPont, which are striving to put theory into practice in the areas of economic growth, environmental balance and social progress

A Global View of Earth's Water

"The story of water is really two stories. Water for the rich and water for the poor," writes C&EN contributing editor Wil Lepkowski.

In well-heeled countries, water is cheap and clean and "the task is to keep it clean, keep it available, keep out pollutants and watch out for toxic surprises," says Lepkowski. "It is virtually a crime in the rich world to allow fecal matter in the water supply," he writes. "In the poor world, it can hardly be avoided."

On top of that, water often is more expensive in lower-income areas. Peter Gleick, author of The World's Water, says "the poor often already pay far more for private, poor quality services than the wealthy do for structured, piped water systems, which are often subsidized by the governments."

Today, 1.5 billion to 2.5 billion people lack sufficient - much less clean -water for irrigation and consumption. By 2025, this number is expected to grow by an additional 2.5 billion people, writes Lepkowski.

Water chemists and other experts are now starting to take a more global view of water - "looking at the waters of the earth as an interconnected whole," notes the magazine. Gleick believes that in the lon
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Contact: Beverly Hassell
b_hassell@acs.org
202-872-4065
American Chemical Society
6-Dec-1999