Finding New Water Resources for Survival

Posted by etrlabs on March 27th, 2019

For many years, the inhabitants of the planet had been frantically searching for new sources of water that were non-toxic and safe. Ever since the environment had been destroyed by pollution and over-consumption, water had become the most precious and scarce resource left in the world. Valued higher than money, which had no material value once the economy ceases to exist, water was the new gold.

Excavation efforts on foreign planets had yielded little to no results, and mankind was beginning to run out of hope. Private water testing laboratories had ceased to exist many years ago, forcing the man to test the water on their own or drink it and merely hope for the best. The strongest among the remainder of humanity would set off on expeditions to retrieve water from trusted sources. Oftentimes, the individuals involved in these expeditions would not return.

Since water was hard to come by, private corporations had begun to purchase land where water resources were located and then sell them off to the highest bidder. As a result, raids upon these water facilities had become widely commonplace. One such expedition had become legendary, as thousands of gallons of water were liberated from a corporation that had been hoarding it in order to gain profits. The bulk of humanity had decided that sharing this precious resource was more important than political squabbles and corporate infighting. Water was a precious commodity that was sold at high prices in black markets all over the world. Water raiding and pirating had become an industry in itself, as regular everyday people resorting to desperate measures in order to obtain the needed water to support their family's livelihood.

There was talk of a quest to Mars in order to melt the polar ice caps and use the water that was thawed for transport back to Earth in hopes of extending mankind's survival for another few decades. Earth's leaders had set a date for the launch of nuclear weapons which would heat the ice caps, forcing the water to melt and fill up the Martian canals. Once this had taken place, astronauts would file into spaceships and head to Mars, armed with the latest equipment in an effort to bring back as much of the precious resource that they could. The private water testing laboratories that used to function had left over a wide variety of safety equipment that they had used to test the toxicity of the water they hoped to drink. In most cases, this water was highly toxic and not safe for consumption. This was one of the issues with the plan to melt the Martian ice caps. There was a concern that once the nukes had hit the surface, the water would then be as irradiated as Earth's supply. At this point, mankind would be in the same place they had been in for decades already. But, as long as there were options, there was hope and mankind would never give that up.