Parched Western states need help to avoid even worse outcomes.
This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a water authority of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. In Paolo Bacigalupi’s 2015 cli-fi novel “ The Water Knife,” a hitman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority rides through the desert in a Tesla taking out the water supplies of rival states and factions. In 2015, this was speculative fiction. In 2021, it’s tomorrow’s headlines. Parched Western states and factions are already fighting over scarce water, writes Amanda Little. Right now, they’re using Tesla-driving lawyers instead of Tesla-driving hitmen. But given water’s importance to everything from agriculture to hydroelectric power — not to mention the whole sustaining-human-life thing — its scarcity inspires not just scary stories but also actual armed conflict. Without some heavy government investment in water infrastructure, the Water Knives won’t stay sheathed forever. Yes, there’s that “I” word again. Sorry. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan spends a teensy bit on Western water infrastructure, but it won’t be nearly enough. And even that paltry amount hinges on the political Jenga game Biden and Congress are playing over his plan. Biden last week was almost the guy who trips over the cat and knocks down the tower, with some ill-considered comments that nearly wrecked a fragile bipartisan agreement. Jonathan Bernstein suggests Biden’s near-goof won’t matter; the votes are there or they aren’t. Isn’t it fun that this is what stands between us and a future of Tesla-driving hitmen? The biggest problem with space travel is not xenomorphs or the fact that humans can’t build ships with warp drives, but that space is just a nightmare for human bodies. There’s no air. There’s no gravity. And it’s constantly showered in deadly radiation. Some science fiction solves these problems by pretending they don’t exist (see Wars, Star). Other sci-fi assumes humans will reshape their bodies to handle it better.
