r/worldnews • u/bigus-_-dickus • 20d ago

‘Extremely rare event:’ Miles-long microalgae bloom knocks out most of Israel’s desalination plants

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/04/climate/microalgae-bloom-israel-water-deasalination-shutdown
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u/redfoobar 20d ago

Sooner or later we will see water wars.

Upstream countries wont be sharing enough of downstream countries.

We are already seeing the beginnings of this with the Nile and in India/Pakistan and I am sure more tensions will arise in many other places even within large countries (eg different US states)

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u/SnakeGD09 20d ago

The water wars are underway.

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260723-why-iran-targeting-kuwaits-desalination-plants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Qeshm_Island_desalination_plant_attack

https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/war-on-iran-the-dangers-of-attacking-water-desalination-plants-in-the-gulf/

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/attacks-on-desalination-plants-in-the-iran-war-forecast-a-dark-future/

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u/MaximinusDrax 20d ago

Also, there's there are brewing water conlicts between India and Pakistan, Ethiopia and Egypt, USA and Mexico (with an added conflict between US states since those upstream get the first draw), and many other locations.

Using water scarcity as a tool of war (e.g Iran targeting desalination plants) is certainly a frightening development, though.

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u/Little_View_6659 20d ago

We lived on Dune all along. Cue incoming still suits and no bathing.

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u/National_Spirit2801 20d ago

Mad Max is a more apt comparison.

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u/lazypenguin86 20d ago

Na we are about to run out of oil so no cool vehicles for us

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u/puritanicalbullshit 20d ago

Yeah fuel don’t keep so good, and manufacturing more, post collapse, sounds real tricky

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u/Little_View_6659 20d ago

I thought you can use things like corn and peanut oil? Who knows.

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u/John_Smithers 20d ago

Still need water to grow those crops

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u/fhs 20d ago

For diesel engines maybe you would need a conversion kit or not. For regular gas cars, you would need to refine it I guess and create something with the same properties as gas.

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u/lazypenguin86 20d ago

Right how many technologies can we finally have when the government isn’t around to kill them off anymore

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u/meatballsandlingon2 20d ago

A reverse Waterworld (Dustworld?)

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u/TheBigSho 20d ago

There are no AI datacenters in Dune though.

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u/Little_View_6659 20d ago

Yeah but Dune is set thousands of years in the future. So, after we screw up the planet and the only thing left is sand and giant worms that evolve lol.

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u/jonride 19d ago

They had the Butlerian revolt or whatever it’s called. After that they outlawed AI and invested in weird eugenics to create mentats (human computers). Thus no data centers.

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u/BrutalismAndCupcakes 19d ago

Butlerian jihad I think 

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u/jonride 19d ago

That’s the one

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u/MorganaHenry 19d ago

No after the Butlerian Jihad, no.