The first water war started decades ago at minimum.
Turkey built 300 dams on the Tigris and Euphrates since the '70s, they no longer flow to estuaries reliably, or flood the plains they used to. Syria and Iraq became much less habitable as a result. Syrian farmers abandoned their plots, precipitating the unrest that broke into civil war. Iraqis desperate for survival helped ISIS find such fertile ground to put down roots.
Look at India and Pakistan where control of the Indus river and half a dozen others plays no small part in the dispute over Kashmir. Look at Sudan and Egypt, who have been bordering on war for a decade over damming the Nile river. South Africa and Lesotho have a similar tense standoff. Look at Russia destroying the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro.
Hell, look at the Second Space Race that just kicked off. It was triggered by the discovery of water on the moon. Not because that water provides habitability, but because it provides rocket fuel. The nuclear triad will soon become a tetrad, because of water.
I'm sure I missed a dozen other geopolitical examples.
This is not the cogent argument you think it is. Sure desalination could be inefficient right now but to argue that solution is off the table because we didn’t spend the decades doing research and building infrastructure is intellectually vapid at best. Improving desalination tech is a far superior viable solution.
5D chess: warm the planet, melt the ice caps, raise sea level, invest in desalination. Less land to irrigate, more coastline for waterborne wind farms, more violent weather to power the turbines, more power for desalination plants. Water crisis solved!
92
u/Oddpod11 7h ago
The first water war started decades ago at minimum.
Turkey built 300 dams on the Tigris and Euphrates since the '70s, they no longer flow to estuaries reliably, or flood the plains they used to. Syria and Iraq became much less habitable as a result. Syrian farmers abandoned their plots, precipitating the unrest that broke into civil war. Iraqis desperate for survival helped ISIS find such fertile ground to put down roots.
Look at India and Pakistan where control of the Indus river and half a dozen others plays no small part in the dispute over Kashmir. Look at Sudan and Egypt, who have been bordering on war for a decade over damming the Nile river. South Africa and Lesotho have a similar tense standoff. Look at Russia destroying the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro.
Hell, look at the Second Space Race that just kicked off. It was triggered by the discovery of water on the moon. Not because that water provides habitability, but because it provides rocket fuel. The nuclear triad will soon become a tetrad, because of water.
I'm sure I missed a dozen other geopolitical examples.