• HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    5 hours ago

    From what I’ve heard, the current government tapped the groundwater table to push farming. Now, there isn’t enough groundwater to accommodate the difference between water demand and river water.

    It sucks for Iran.

    • Vupware@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Meanwhile, the rest of the world will completely disregard this cautionary tale and continue to extract groundwater to farm until only saltwater remains.

      Then, as billions of people are dying of starvation, thirst, and societal downfall, the elite will finally prioritize desalination R&D and if/when they get something to work they will hail it as a revolutionary step for humanity and completely disregard the fact that this R&D / subsequent proliferation could have been initiated decades ago when the problem was first apparent.

      Voila, no more overpopulation crisis, and water, what the civilized world once considered a human right, is now used as a method for exerting control, as it is only ever potable (sans rainwater) after being processed.

      • BanMe@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Parts of the US, like all the major cities in Texas, are actively sinking because we’re draining the aquifers that took millennia to fill. It’s yet another problem just festering, fascinating to watch as the reality approaches.

      • titanicx@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Yeah they’ve talked about how Iran has been in a drought for quite a while. It’s like utah, we’ve been in a drought for 20 plus years at this point we had one good water year last year and for the first time in quite a while came out of our drought status and everybody just kind of forgot and then all of a sudden by the end of the summer most the state was back in a drug in severe drought status again I can’t wait for all of our idiotic agriculture here to dry up the water table just like it has over there.

    • nullptr@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Lol oh look, people in power are myopic and prioritize short term benefice over long term thonking; I wonder how often that happens!

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        4 hours ago

        people in power are myopic and prioritize short term benefice over long term thonking

        I’m not sure “maintaining adequate levels of domestic crop yield” is a short-term benefit. They’re stretched for water because they’re in a historic drought during a climate catastrophe. This is a no-win situation, exacerbated by the constant threat of military invasion by nuclear superpowers and their rabid fascist local proxies.

        The Iranian government can’t summon rain from the heavens any easier than their Saudi or Qatari neighbors. Those states just have the benefit of access to western markets and engineering firms for enormous desalination plants. Meanwhile, Iranians’ energy infrastructure - necessary to run the pumps and pipelines that irrigate much of the country - have been subject to repeated bombardment by Israeli and US aircraft. Most notably, their civilian nuclear program was crippled by Trump’s B-2 bombing run in June. But this is just the tail end of the damage inflicted by the eleven day shootout with Israel.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          3 hours ago

          And yet other articles were blaming corruption and cronyism for not adequately limiting water used for agriculture

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 hour ago

            Western Press do be like that. The Saudi government is experiencing the same water crisis, but somehow remains beyond repute.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 hour ago

            I hughly doubt their uranium is civilian

            It is at least as civilian as any French nuclear plant. To date, there is no evidence of plutonium enrichment or bomb construction, which is more than can be said of their Israeli neighbors.