As tensions rise in one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, the ripple effects go far beyond oil—touching food systems, climate pressures, and regional stability

By Dr. Osama Moh’d Gazal, Environmental and Climate Change Advisor, Jordan

The Arabs have controlled the region (The Gulf of the black gold oil), for a longer period, especially considering the spread of Islam and modern Arab states’ establishment. Persians, then known as the Sassanids, controlled it for about 1000 years before the Arab conquest. The term “Persian Gulf” was commonly used historically, while “Arabian Gulf” is often used by Arab states. The name reflects the region’s complex history and competing claims. Returning to the Historical overview of the strait we can find that Persians were the first major power to control the Gulf (definitely with the Strait of Hormuz), but Arabs have had a longer stretch of influence overall.

Historically, the name “Persian Gulf” stuck in Western maps, but Arab states prefer “Arabian Gulf” or “Gulf”. The modern geopolitics of the Gulf involves complex regional dynamics, with Arab states like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar playing key roles. Iran’s influence and tensions with Arab states, especially over issues like nuclear deals and regional power struggles, are significant factors. However, in the last 20 years, after the Iraqi regime of Saddam was destroyed, the conflict between Arab and Iran escalated into three main dimensions (Iran-Arab tensions: Proxy conflicts in Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon, Competition for resources and influence, lastly, and the most important, the Security pacts where US and European alliances with Gulf states). The Gulf has been a contested region, with various empires vying for control.

Amid the repercussions of war, the struggle for control, the imposition of influence, and the assertion of dominance by the strongest power in the region, the most potent leverage has emerged in the hands of the Persians, for now, the Hormuz. Whether this leverage remains in their grasp or is lost will depend on the unfolding course of the conflict. The Persian/Arabian Gulf has been strategically significant since ancient times, though it has experienced prolonged periods of Arab control, particularly following the collapse of the Persian Empire during the era of Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab. With the decline of the Arab Caliphate and the rise of the Ottoman Empire, Persian influence over the region was reasserted.

Today, we are witnessing a renewed struggle for dominance and control over one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints. The Strait of Hormuz represents a formidable asset for the Persians, who seek to leverage it to exert pressure on the global stage, particularly by influencing oil prices.

As one of the eight most strategically significant straits worldwide, it facilitates the transit of approximately 90% of globally traded petroleum fuels. More specifically, it ranks as the second most vital maritime passage, governing over 26% of the world’s seaborne petroleum trade. Any sustained disruption or restriction of maritime movement through this strait would not only jeopardize oil and natural gas supplies. Still, it would also have profound implications for food security, both regionally and globally.

From the outset, international warnings have emphasized the necessity of maintaining the unimpeded functionality of this critical waterway through diplomatic engagement and commitment to peaceful conflict resolution. The focus has been on upholding humanitarian considerations and ensuring that the strait continues to serve its vital role in global trade. However, amid escalating military tensions and intensifying geopolitical rivalries, diplomatic channels and multilateral agreements have collapsed, and the security of international maritime routes has been severely compromised. The prevailing dynamic is now dictated by the logic of military force.

We must broaden our assessment of the potential consequences beyond the prevailing discourse centered on oil. While economists and military analysts have naturally concentrated on the hydrocarbon sector given its strategic importance and the immediate disruptions to energy markets caused by deteriorating security in the Strait of Hormuz, the repercussions extend far beyond petroleum. Despite the overwhelming military superiority of the primary adversary of the Persians, an ally of Arab states in this confrontation, the strait remains a highly advantageous asset for the Persians in this struggle. Even if the conflict remains confined to sporadic threats and patrols by small naval vessels, the strategic value of this chokepoint endures. However, the current reality involves more than posturing; it includes the mining of waters and tangible measures to maintain control over this historically contested passage.

Now we can’t understand issues related to the Oil-Food Security Nexus without returning to the recent Oil Price Shocks and Food Security in the region, recognizing that these are food-import-dependent nations. The 1991 Gulf War led to a sharp increase in oil prices, which in turn raised transportation and production costs for food commodities. This resulted in higher food prices, disproportionately affecting low-income households. Countries in the Arabian Gulf region, already reliant on food imports, faced exacerbated food insecurity due to increased costs and disrupted supply chains. The current crisis calls for global food price volatility. The war-induced oil price spike contributed to global food price instability, emphasizing the vulnerability of food systems to energy market shocks.

Current oil prices already offer a glimpse into the potential impact of a full-scale closure of the strait. Yet, the threat to global food security is equally dire and will become increasingly evident over time, affecting both the region and the world at large.

Furthermore, the environmental toll is mounting, with elevated greenhouse gas emissions resulting from military operations, the destruction of vast fuel storage facilities, and the potential ignition of oil wells should the conflict escalate. (The consequences will not be confined to the Gulf states and Iraq, affecting tens of millions of people, but will reverberate across the interconnected global system. Food security is at risk, agricultural productivity will decline, and production costs will surge. Farmers will face increased operational expenses and greater difficulties in exporting goods, all of which will contribute to rising prices and exacerbate food insecurity. This raises a critical question: Are the countries in the region prepared to withstand these far-reaching and debilitating indirect consequences should the conflict persist? This burden will weigh most heavily on nations with fragile economies and vulnerable food systems.

Natural disasters caused by climate change were historically several times more devastating than those caused by other factors, but the impact of these disasters has now become more balanced as a result of humanity’ ability to adapt to climate change and lessen loss of life. However, the impact of these calamities on food security remains significant due to the lack of sustainable human agricultural systems. Military conflicts and wars related to the control and expansion of influence, such as those currently taking place in the Middle Eastern Gulf region, known as the Arabian or Persian Gulf today, are among the most significant human-related activities contributing to climate change, given their link to emissions that exacerbate this phenomenon.

Despite my scientific perspective and in-depth understanding of climate change, which is regarded as a natural periodic phenomenon on Earth that existed before humans and their activities, human-caused pollution has piqued the interest of numerous experts. They investigated the potential influence of higher concentrations of specific human-caused emissions on climate change using mathematical and statistical models. And because many activists in this field are not specialists but merely amateurs in the world of climate change, participating in workshops, traveling, and gaining fame, the idea of real climate change has shifted to be associated only with the gas emissions resulting from direct human activities, such as energy production from fossil fuels, or indirect activities, such as livestock and poultry farming, among other activities that many accuse of causing climate change.

Climate change is a reality, despite mistakes in mathematical and statistical models that underpin all scenario forecasts based on carbon dioxide levels, despite studies showing that carbon dioxide concentrations were far higher during ice ages. These errors result from assigning scientific topics to unqualified individuals who are only interested in money and fame and do not delve into understanding the meanings of the phenomenon of climate change in a scientifically precise manner, rather than going beyond logic and science in terms of Earth’s climate history. Although their violations of logic have become sophisticated and presented through statistical and mathematical models that astonish people and even impress those managing these models into believing results that are built on non-scientific foundations, without considering a scientific historical study of Earth’s climate and the real factors influencing this climate, and excluding factors related to the primary energy source for the planets of the solar system and the changes occurring in this system.

In my opinion, any model intended to imitate reality and predict the future is a failure if it does not account for sun-related phenomena and their impact on Earth’s climate. However, as scientists, we must acknowledge that climate change is a reality that we face, and we must adapt as humans to the dangers of climate change, particularly during periods of drought and rainfall scarcity, as well as seasonal overlap and irregular rainfall distribution in comparison to what we and the Earth’s biosphere are accustomed to. And let us not forget the risk that has gone unnoticed due to the focus on global warming and the greenhouse effect, which is associated with a fall in temperature as well as a reduction in carbon dioxide levels, resulting in reduced agricultural production and affecting food security.

Interestingly, this more genuine hazard, from which we are now clearly experiencing, demonstrates that death rates from severe cold waves greatly outnumber those from heat waves. Many specialized scientists have written on the subject, and their studies have demonstrated that the future will be worse, especially as the current solar cycle brings us into a period of low solar activity, increasing the risk of the Earth entering a little ice age.

Our readiness for food security concerns is inadequate and has not been thoroughly investigated, as we continue to rely on investment strategies in four key crops: wheat, rice, corn, and soy, to assure more efficient production, but with less diversification and greater fragility. Our agricultural policies have utterly overlooked the value of crop diversity in ensuring a more resilient and sustainable food system in the face of climate change and the hazards of disrupted supply chains, as is currently occurring because of the Strait of Hormuz issue.

With great thankfulness, the focus and debate were on human activities that produce gas emissions that are thought to exacerbate or accelerate climate change on Earth. However, there has been only timid discussion of the impact of wars in this equation, as they are regarded as one of the most prominent and dangerous reasons, not only for the direct suffering of peoples involved in conflicts or forced to participate in bitter wars between great powers seeking control and extending influence, but also for the indirect effects, which are regarded as the most difficult and dangerous in the long run.

Conflicts, the desire for control, and the expansion of influence, away from the meanings of humanity and the spirit of sharing in the Earth’s resources, and prioritizing the principles of diplomacy and agreements that guarantee everyone’s rights, lead to an increased focus on heavy military industries and the pollution and gas emissions they produce, which are accused by mathematical and statistical model studies of causing climate change, global warming, and extreme events related to heat waves or extreme cold periods or heavy rain and hard drought periods.

The Gulf War and subsequent conflicts underscore the intricate relationship between oil prices and food security. Policymakers must consider the food security implications of oil price volatility when addressing regional stability and global food systems. Representing Jordan, our recommendations include:

1. Diversify energy sources to reduce dependence on oil.

2. Enhance regional food production and trade cooperation.

3. Implement policies to mitigate the impact of oil price shocks on vulnerable populations.

4. To address future challenges following the escalation of global food insecurity risks as a result of the Strait of Hormuz crisis, it is critical to first defuse the crisis and develop plans to prevent vital waterways for global food and energy supply chains from becoming threats and tools in the hands of regimes that disregard international law and respect for the integrity of global trade, exploiting such situations to exert pressure and control. Perhaps the solution is to put these critical waterways under international supervision.

5. Furthermore, it is critical to expand efforts to urge countries to strengthen their food security strategy and prepare for emergencies, whether natural disasters caused by climate change, such as droughts, or by conflict.

The Persians are known for wisdom, civilization, legacy, and a worldview with deep roots in administration and the capacity to govern and expand their power. But the problem with the Persians is not with the people who carry on this great heritage, which I personally respect and admire; rather, the problem is with the system that uses religious beliefs to control and be hostile to others, not with the ancient Persian civilization. Despite America’s vast dominance, there have been several studies and projections, but has Iran opted to commit suicide? And will it take positive steps for the benefit of its people and the region, as Japanese Emperor Hirohito did after World War II, adopting a peace, development, and renunciation of foreign interventions and the nuclear issue to save the country (similar to Japan’s renaissance), because continuing on the path of confrontation is very costly and will lead to Iran’s destruction and return to the Stone Age.

The Middle East, particularly Jordan, faces significant food security challenges exacerbated by regional conflicts, economic vulnerabilities, and climate-related stressors. Key factors complicating food security in Jordan include:

1. Trade Disruptions: Jordan’s reliance on imports for staple foods (e.g., wheat, sugar) makes it vulnerable to trade disruptions in neighboring countries, especially given the current regional instability.

2. Economic Pressures: High unemployment, inflation, and a substantial public debt burden strain household purchasing power, limiting access to food.

3. Water Scarcity: Jordan’s severe water scarcity impacts agricultural production, increasing dependence on imports and vulnerability to global price shocks.

4. Refugee Crisis: Hosting a large refugee population (e.g., Syrians) strains food systems and increases demand for limited resources.

5. Climate Change: Decreasing rainfall and increasing temperatures threaten agricultural productivity, further straining food availability.

6. Global Price Volatility: Jordan’s import-dependent food system is exposed to international price fluctuations, particularly for staples like wheat and oil.

Jordan’s food security is intricately linked to regional stability, global market trends, and climate resilience. Addressing these challenges requires, enhancing regional trade cooperation, investing in water-efficient agriculture, implementing social protection programs for vulnerable populations, diversifying energy sources to reduce import bills. We pray for a peaceful resolution to this conflict and an end to power struggles that come at the expense of peaceful nations.

May God grant the peoples of this region the strength to overcome these tribulations and crises, and to transcend the sectarian divisions and animosities that have plagued them for decades. We also pray for the protection of our leadership, our people, and our nation, Jordan, as an oasis of security, peace, love, and coexistence in a region that has long endured more than its share of global conflicts.

Editor’s note: Green Prophet, founded by Karin Kloosterman, has been a leading voice on ecological issues in the Middle East for 20 years, while following Hormuz, Iran, water, war, freight, food security and climate resilience across the region. For related reading:

A Fact-Based Reflection on Sustainability and Tourism in Hormuz

The Aga Khan is greenwashing their awards

Design a Bridge for the Strait of Hormuz

Electric and hydrogen long-haul trucks are finally leaving the prototype era

The future of trucking and freight is electric and hydrogen

Tesla Semi, electric road trains and the safer freight future

From “Water Terrorist” to Global Laureate: Iran’s Kaveh Madani Wins the Nobel of Water

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The post Hormuz 2026 Conflict Poses an Energy and Food Security Dilemma in a Warming World appeared first on Green Prophet.

A new study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York offers a striking insight into how the environments we are born into can quietly shape our brains years later. By analyzing naturally shed baby teeth, the ones tucked under pillows for the tooth fairy, researchers have reconstructed a detailed timeline of exposure to environmental metals during pregnancy and early infancy. What they found reads like a forensic map of vulnerability.

The study, published in Science Advances, followed children from the PROGRESS birth cohort in Mexico City, tracking them from the womb into adolescence. Using a laser-based technique, scientists were able to read the chemical composition of baby teeth much like tree rings: each layer revealing exposure to metals such as lead, manganese, zinc, and magnesium at specific developmental stages.

This approach allowed researchers to pinpoint not just what children were exposed to, but when, and timing, it turns out, is everything.

Two critical windows emerged as especially sensitive: the first between weeks 4 and 8 after birth, and the second between weeks 32 and 42. During these narrow periods, higher exposure to metal mixtures correlated with measurable differences in later brain structure, connectivity, and behavior.

Adolescents who had higher exposures during these windows showed increased symptoms linked to anxiety, attention challenges, and mood disorders.

Many of the metals studied—such as manganese, zinc, magnesium, and lead—are commonly encountered through food, drinking water, and the built environment.

“This study shows that when exposure happens matters just as much as what the exposure is,” said senior author Megan K. Horton, PhD, MPH, Professor, Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Our findings shift prevention from broad early-life exposure concerns to protecting children during specific high-risk windows.”

Lead author Elza Rechtman, PhD, Assistant Professor, Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, emphasized the broader environmental significance: “What surprised us most was how precisely these vulnerable windows emerged. Exposures occurring during just a few critical weeks—especially in early infancy—were linked to measurable differences in brain structure, connectivity, and behavior more than a decade later. These findings highlight how environmental policies that reduce metal exposure during pregnancy and infancy could have lifelong benefits for brain health.”

“The results suggest that environmental regulations and public health policies may need to focus more specifically on protecting pregnant people and infants from metal exposure in food, water, and housing,” added Dr. Arora.

This isn’t about a single toxin causing harm, the researchers note. Instead, it’s about a complex cocktail of everyday exposures: heavy metals found in food such as fish, water, and pesticides from the urban environments interacting with a developing brain at precisely the wrong moment. About 4% of children in the study showed behavioral scores in the clinical range, suggesting real-world implications for mental health.

Brain imaging backed this up. MRI scans revealed that early exposure was linked to changes in how different brain regions communicate, subtly rewiring that may only become visible years later in behavior or emotional regulation.

For researchers, this marks a shift toward what they call “precision environmental health.” Instead of broadly warning about early-life exposure, the goal is now to identify, and protect, the specific developmental windows when the brain is most at risk. It’s a more targeted, and potentially more actionable, way to think about prevention.

The researchers noted that simple steps that may help reduce exposure include:

• Ensuring safe drinking water
• Careful food preparation and sourcing
• Reducing exposure to known environmental metal sources

The implications ripple outward. For families, it reinforces the importance of reducing exposure to contaminants in water, food, and housing, especially during pregnancy and infancy. For clinicians, it suggests that environmental history should be part of how we understand long-term mental health risks. And for policymakers, it raises a sharper question: are current environmental regulations precise enough to protect the most vulnerable moments of human development?

In a warming, industrialized world where environmental exposures are shifting, this kind of research feels necessary. The idea that a few weeks of exposure early in life could echo across a decade reframes how we think about both risk and responsibility. How we help reduce exposure to toxins is another story.

A brief history: Mount Sinai as a Jewish hospital

Mount Sinai Hospital in New York was founded in 1852 by members of the city’s German Jewish community as the “Jews’ Hospital,” created to serve Jewish immigrants who often faced discrimination in existing medical institutions. It quickly became a center not only for care but for medical training and innovation, open to all regardless of background. Over time, it expanded into one of the leading academic medical centers in the United States, shedding its sectarian name but retaining its roots in community care, social justice, and scientific leadership, which are values that continue to shape its research today.

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Apart from finding life, a new ecology study on New York City’s East River also reveals the city’s dining habits. Researchers looked at what’s living in the water over a year and analyzed the DNA from what they found, in living organisms and in remains from human feces. The samples included DNA from chicken, pork and rats.

The researchers took liter water samples every time and revealed in unexpected detail a snapshot of life in and around the city, from weekly and seasonal shifts in fish species and abundance to urban wildlife activity, the pets they keep and what New Yorkers eat.

The findings suggest that urban waterways anywhere could become continuous biosensors, tracking biodiversity, habitat restoration outcomes, and human impacts in real time.

Among the most novel results of the weekly East River sampling were genetic indicators of human food consumption, of rat and other terrestrial wildlife populations, and the discovery of newly abundant fish species, thought to reflect the success of habitat restoration efforts.

“The water that flows under the Brooklyn Bridge and alongside the United Nations Headquarters is teeming with life and information valuable for improving nature where most people live,” said lead author Mark Y. Stoeckle, M.D., of The Rockefeller University’s Program for the Human Environment.

“We can now assay life in and around rivers by applying modern genomic techniques to a small sample of water,” said Dr. Stoeckle. “This approach promises to make environmental monitoring as simple and routine as a blood test.”

“Environmental DNA doesn’t just tell us what lives in the water, it reveals insights into the entire ecosystem surrounding it, including the city itself.”

The most unexpected findings, Dr. Stoeckle said, included the detection of food animals’ DNA in proportions closely aligned with human diet patterns – genetic traces of chicken, beef, pork, turkey, lamb, goat, and commonly consumed fish such as salmon and European sea bass.

Instead of obscuring ecological data, these readings provide a unique window into eating patterns and public health trends, said Dr Stoeckle.

From sampling fish to reading the city

About eDNA: Fish and wildlife leave environmental DNA traces in water by shedding skin cells, waste, or other biological traces. Thanks to advances in sequencing technology, researchers can now use these waterborne DNA traces to identify species and estimate their relative abundance, among other insights.

Sampling was simple: weekly 1-liter shoreline water grabs from May 2024 to May 2025 put through something akin to a small coffee filter. From the sediment on a piece of the filter the size of a small tortilla chip, using 12S metabarcoding primers, the researchers produced a continuous, high-resolution picture of seasonal fish abundance.

Urban waterfronts are classically tough places to study for ecological and social reasons, but eDNA makes them safely accessible,” Ausubel added. “With the right coordination, this approach could become the backbone of urban coastal monitoring across the country.

Key patterns:

Seasonal cycles were clear, with species arriving and departing in predictable waves. Results aligned with traditional trawl surveys, confirming the method’s reliability. By monitoring eDNA-dominant species, researchers can identify habitats and flag shifts quickly.

“We can turn raw DNA reads into reliable abundance estimates,” Dr. Stoeckle noted. “That brings eDNA out of the experimental phase and into everyday scientific use.”

The East River’s most reliably detected species included skilletfish, tautog, and feather blenny.

Indeed, the study found skilletfish and feather blenny surprisingly abundant compared with earlier monitoring efforts, thought to reflect recent remediation initiatives such as oyster reef restoration. 

In all, the eDNA of 71 local marine fish species was detected and changes in their abundance was tracked over time. Fish DNA levels rose roughly tenfold during summer months, consistent with known ecological patterns, demonstrating that eDNA can reliably and accurately reflect biological dynamics.

Many dominant species were reef- or structure-associated fish aligned with the rocky habitat of the East River, reinforcing confidence in the reliability of eDNA signals.

Frequent eDNA sampling could detect ecological change earlier than traditional monitoring programs, offering a near-real-time view of ecosystem response.

Alongside marine species, the study detected DNA from more than 60 terrestrial animals, including rats, raccoons, squirrels, and common city birds. Levels of wildlife DNA tracked closely with human DNA signals, suggesting combined sewer overflows were transporting biological information into the river.

Using eDNA, municipal authorities could potentially assess, for example, whether rat populations are increasing or decreasing, that is, whether rat control programs are working, Dr. Stoeckle said.

Towards continuous urban environmental monitoring

“After a heavy rain, the DNA of almost everything that makes the city tick — and squawk and squeak — ends up in the East River,” said co-author Jesse Ausubel, Director of The Rockefeller University’s Programme for the Human Environment.

“Genetically speaking, a rainstorm turns the river into something akin to Times Square on New Year’s Eve: crowded, noisy, and full of signals.”

“Environmental DNA could form the basis of future monitoring, allowing cities to track ecosystem health continuously without traditional surveys that are often limited by cost, logistics, or safety.”

“Urban waterways worldwide could become distributed observatories of ecological change, reporting almost real-time what lives in and near them, not only fish but bats, beavers, and foxes.”

“Urban biodiversity monitoring could expand dramatically and inexpensively using minimal equipment at relatively low cost,” added Dr. Stoeckle. “This ability to integrate environmental and human signals positions eDNA as a powerful tool for understanding the Anthropocene – the era defined by human influence on Earth’s systems.”

Compared with trawl surveys, eDNA detected more species and captured short-lived seasonal pulses that nets simply cannot. Traditional gear remains essential for age structure, reproduction, contaminants, and health, but eDNA reduces “false absences” and fills important gaps.

A full year of weekly sampling cost about US$ 15,000 and a fraction of a staff member’s time – far below the cost of large survey vessels. The method is equally suited to surf zones, shallow estuaries, and other places where nets cannot go. A person, or even a drone, with a bucket on a rope can collect the water sample.

“Urban waterfronts are classically tough places to study for ecological and social reasons, but eDNA makes them safely accessible,” Ausubel added. “With the right coordination, this approach could become the backbone of urban coastal monitoring across the country.”

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People whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those whose drinking water came from older groundwater, according to a preliminary study released March 2, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78th Annual Meeting taking place April 18–22, 2026, in Chicago and online.

The study does not prove that newer groundwater causes Parkinson’s disease; it only shows an association.

The research focused on the age of groundwater and the aquifers that supply it. An aquifer is an underground layer of porous rock, silt, or sand that stores and transports groundwater. Scientists increasingly see water sources as a window into long-term environmental exposures.

“One way to examine our exposure to modern pollution is through our drinking water,” said study author Brittany Krzyzanowski, PhD, of the Atria Research Institute in New York City, who conducted the research while at the Barrow Neurological Institute. “Newer groundwater, created by precipitation that has fallen within the past 70 to 75 years, has been exposed to more pollutants. Older groundwater typically contains fewer contaminants because it is generally deeper and better shielded from surface contaminants. Our study found that groundwater age and location is a potential environmental risk factor of Parkinson’s disease.”

The study analyzed data from 12,370 people with Parkinson’s disease and more than 1.2 million people without the disease, matched for age, sex, race, and ethnicity. All participants lived within three miles of 1,279 groundwater sampling sites across 21 major U.S. aquifers.

A case for raw water from ancient sources

Researchers examined groundwater age, aquifer type, and drinking water source—such as municipal groundwater systems or private wells—as indicators of possible exposure to neurotoxic contaminants.

Two types of aquifers stood out. Carbonate aquifers, made mostly of limestone, often allow water to move quickly through fractures, making them more vulnerable to surface contamination. Glacial aquifers, formed more than 12,000 years ago as glaciers advanced and retreated, are composed of sand and gravel that can naturally filter water as it moves underground.

After adjusting for factors such as age, sex, income, and air pollution, people whose drinking water came from carbonate aquifers had a 24% higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease compared with those whose water came from other aquifers. When compared specifically with people whose water came from glacial aquifers, the risk was 62% higher.

Researchers also found that older groundwater appeared to have a protective effect in carbonate aquifers. For each increase in groundwater age, the risk of Parkinson’s disease declined by about 6.5%. In contrast, groundwater formed in the past 75 years in carbonate systems was linked to an 11% higher risk compared to water dating back to the ice age.

“We speculate that the apparent protective effect of older groundwater is seen mainly in carbonate aquifers because these systems can show a clearer contrast between newer and older water,” said Krzyzanowski. “In these aquifers, newly recharged groundwater is more vulnerable to surface contamination, while older groundwater can remain cleaner if it is separated from recent inputs by a confining layer.”

“In contrast, glacial aquifers tend to slow groundwater movement and naturally filter contaminants as water travels underground,” she added.

The findings highlight how where drinking water comes from may matter for long-term health. People can often learn about their water source through local utilities or regional groundwater agencies. For households using private wells, testing water periodically and considering filtration systems can help reduce potential exposure to contaminants.

“This study highlights that where our water comes from, including the age of groundwater and the type of water source, could shape long-term neurological health,” said Krzyzanowski. “While additional research is needed, bringing together knowledge about groundwater and brain health may help communities better assess and reduce environmental risks.”

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Every day, the Middle East’s desalination industry produces more brine than freshwater. Aquifers are drying up and becoming full of brine. Companies like Iyris claim to be able to farm on brackish water, solving part of the problem of access to freshwater. But a a small Saudi startup has found a solution to the problem inside the problem itself.

The math of desalination has long been troubling. Its energy-intensive and polluting. For every gallon of water pulled from the sea, a typical reverse osmosis plant discharges roughly 1.5 times the among of concentrated, chemically laden brine back into the ocean. Multiply that across the Middle East and North Africa, which is the region responsible for more than half of the world’s desalination output, and the scale of brine becomes alarming.

Global brine discharge now exceeds 140 million cubic meters per day, according to a 2019 UN-backed study, with Saudi Arabia alone accounting for 22 percent of the world’s total, according to a UN University Institute for Water study. The Arabian Gulf, already naturally one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth at 45 grams of salt per liter compared to a global ocean average nearer 35, is absorbing the consequences.

Into this problem has stepped Qalzam, a Saudi startup with a counterintuitive proposition: the brine is not the problem. It is the raw material.

Founded in Riyadh and incubated at the Saudi Water Innovation Center (SWIC), Qalzam has developed a process to extract sodium hypochlorite (the active compound in chlorine disinfectant) directly from the waste brine produced by reverse osmosis plants. That sodium hypochlorite is then fed straight back into the same plant to disinfect the freshwater it has just produced, closing what Qalzam describes as a circular loop within the desalination process itself. In conventional plants, sodium hypochlorite must be manufactured separately, transported to site, and purchased as a chemical input.

Qalzam eliminates all three steps simultaneously.

The chemistry is not new. Sodium hypochlorite can be generated electrochemically from saline solutions, which is a process long understood in laboratory settings and applied at small scales in wastewater treatment. What Qalzam is engineering is the industrial translation of that process specifically for the high-salinity, high-volume conditions of Gulf desalination, where brine concentrations are substantially higher than those seen elsewhere in the world, and where the scale of operations can make even marginal improvements in cost or chemistry enormously significant.

“The chemicals should be all neutralized,” said Noreddine Ghaffour, a research professor at the Water Desalination and Reuse Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), speaking about brine management at Saudi desalination plants more broadly. His comment reflects a growing scientific and regulatory consensus: the era of dumping chemically complex brine into already-stressed marine environments is approaching its limits.

The timing is propitious. Saudi Arabia has positioned itself as a global leader in desalination capacity, doubling its output in recent years and announcing $9.33 billion across 60 new projects in its latest expansion.

The Saudi Water Partnership Company is targeting a near-tripling of national desalination capacity to 7.5 million cubic meters per day by 2027. Each new plant that comes online represents both a new source of brine and a potential customer for Qalzam’s on-sitewater

disinfectant solution. The startup has also graduated from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources’ “Numuw” industrial incubator and accelerator program, giving it institutional credibility at a formative stage.

The wider scientific case for brine valorization is strengthening rapidly. Research published in the journal Water in November 2025 modeled a 100,000-cubic-meter-per-day reverse osmosis facility and found that a sequential brine recovery process could achieve over 90 percent total salt recovery while producing marketable materials including sodium chloride, magnesium hydroxide, and bromine.

The estimated revenue from recovered materials in such scenarios ranges between $4.5 million and $6.8 million per year, potentially offsetting 65 to 90 percent of annual desalination operating costs, with a payback period of three to five years.

Qalzam’s narrower focus on sodium hypochlorite extraction and reuse sits within this broader economic logic but is considerably simpler to implement, requiring no complex mineral separation trains or crystallization equipment. This matters because complexity has consistently been the enemy of adoption in industrial water treatment. The technologies that scale are typically those that integrate cleanly into existing infrastructure rather than requiring its wholesale redesign. A bolt-on electrochemical unit that converts waste brine into a disinfectant that the plant already needs is, in engineering terms, a much easier sell than a full brine-mining operation requiring downstream chemical processing and commodity markets for the outputs.

Beyond the economics, the environmental calculus is straightforward. Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coastline is already under documented ecological stress from brine discharge, with dense, oxygen-depleted plumes affecting benthic marine life near major outfalls. Over in the Red Sea, dolphins, coral reef and at-risk species cannot tolerate more stress on the already noisy and polluted shipping areas.

Any technology that reduces both the volume and chemical load of that discharge addresses a concern that regulators, ecologists, and increasingly the operators themselves recognize as unsustainable at the scale to which the region is building.

Qalzam is still early-stage, with its team small and its first commercial deployments ahead of it. But the company sits at the intersection of three converging forces: a region building desalination capacity at a pace unmatched anywhere on earth (despite the scaling back of Saudis’ Vision 2030 with lowering prices of oil), a scientific community that has spent a decade documenting the harms of brine disposal, and a policy environment.

Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 strategy incentivize circular economy approaches to industrial water management.

The Middle East did not choose to become the world’s desalination laboratory. Geography and hydrology made that decision for it. But the region’s sheer scale of operations means that solutions proven here, including whatever Qalzam refines on the shores of the Gulf, will be exportable to every water-stressed coast on the planet.

Red Sea Farms (now Iyris) who we interviewed here, is a separate but thematically related KAUST spinout worth contextualizing alongside Qalzam, not as partners, but as parallel examples of Saudi water innovation coming out of the same university ecosystem.

Not far away, with Jordan between them, Israel’s IDE Technologies, founded in 1965 and headquartered in Kadima-Zoran, built the Sorek desalination plant south of Tel Aviv, which for years was the largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination facility on earth, producing 624,000 cubic meters of drinking water per day and supplying roughly 20 percent of Israel’s municipal water demand.

Today, desalination supplies over 70 percent of Israel’s domestic water consumption, a figure that has effectively drought-proofed a country that receives less than 200 millimeters of rainfall annually across much of its territory.

::Qalzam

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About 20 years ago we were all throwing out bottles and food packaging that contained BPA. The words BPA stand for (bisphenol A) – it’s a chemical used to make hard, clear plastics and protective resin linings inside metal cans. It helps plastics stay strong and heat-resistant, but small amounts can migrate into food and drinks. But the chemical is an endocrine disruptor, hurting our bodies in a number of ways.

We’ve come a lot further since BPA. We now have microplastrics and PFASs to worry about. Forever chemicals, or PFAS, are man-made chemicals and products made to repel water, grease, and stains. They’re in firefighting foams, non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing (yes, they’ve been used by the eco-darling Patagonia), stain-resistant carpets, fast-food packaging that seem like paper but which are water-proof, and many industrial processes.

PFASs don’t break down, and they escape factories, landfills, and training sites into soil and groundwater, eventually reaching our drinking water. Wastewater plants can’t fully remove them, so they circulate in rivers and crops too. Long-term exposure has been linked to immune, hormone, and cancer risks.

This report on Green Prophet explores PFAS in German drinking water.

Consumers can reduce exposure by limiting grease-proof packaging, choosing PFAS-free textiles and cookware, and supporting water testing and filtration in their communities. And now the EU is taking a bold step in making sure all European Union member states worked to monitor and reduce PFAS levels in drinking water. Consider that if you live in Iraq, PFAS are the last thing you need to worry about – European, American and Chinese oil companies are leaking crude oil right into the water, and they know about it.

But those same Europeans who want to make the world a better place, at least where they live, has created a  Drinking Water Directive. Don’t click on that link if you have an aversion to bureaucratic policy speak.

According to a press release sent out, EU countries will need to inform the commission on PFAS in water, including data on exceedances of the limit values. According to the commission, rife with overpaid bureaucrats who engage in political activities against western values,  the new reporting system is reportedly “simpler than under the previous Drinking Water Directive and reduces the amount of data to be reported.

“It is the first time systematic monitoring of PFAS in drinking water is being implemented in the EU,” they write.

What happens if your country exceeds the limits put in place? The EU countries must inform the public, and protect public health. Actions may include closing contaminated wells, adding treatment steps to remove PFAS, or restricting the use of drinking water supplies for as long as the violation continues.

The UE believes that people should have access to safe drinking water.

If you are from a non-EU country and are concerned about PFAS in your drinking water, take these guidelines to your ministry or oversight group in your region or country dealing with water monitoring.

The EU says that the guidelines were developed with member states.

“PFAS pollution is a growing concern for drinking water across Europe. With harmonised limits and mandatory monitoring now in force, Member States have the rules and tools to swiftly detect and address PFAS to protect public health, says Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and Competitive Circular Economy.

How to remove PFAS from your tap water at home?

Next question for readers and entrepreneurs? The most common in-home water filters that remove PFAS are activated carbon filters like those found in a Brita Elite jug or Berkey filter, but the best is reverse osmosis and undersink-ROs like Aquafor.

In Canada and the US, the main Berkey-style gravity water filter options people compare are Berkey, ProOne, British Berkefeld, Alexapure, and Waterdrop.

Dual stage filters (activated carbon + reverse osmosis) the best option.

If you are taking minerals out of the water, you do need to put them back in. The  company Mayu developed a novel method to rejuvenate purified water after understanding how “dirty” tap water has become. And on that note, here are 6 ways to soften hard water naturally.

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