With 5 billion facing water shortages by 2050, artist Ap Verheggen has developed patent-pending technology to quench the world’s thirst. “You asked for it,” Ap Verheggen says in a low, scratchy voice when I ask about the painting on the wall behind him. He proceeds with a Skype tour of his apartment, which is filled with his surrealist sculptures and a coffee table with metal legs modeled after his wife’s face. Today, the 54-year-old Dutch artist-slash-inventor is blending art, science and technology to help mitigate the world’s growing thirst. The trajectory of Verheggen’s career shifted in the wake of a 2010 Arctic experience. Working on a personal art project in Uummannaq, Greenland, he set two GPS-equipped sculptures adrift on an iceberg he planned to track for years — only it melted within weeks. Galvanized, Verheggen initiated a more ambitious project, creating what he calls “an icon of human ingenuity” intended to draw attention to climate change. What started as the SunGlacier conceptual art project has evolved into the patent-pending Droppler technology, which uses solar power to pull water from the driest air — and could help some of the 5 billion people the United Nations projects will face water shortages by 2050. | 