[a2tech]

I assume marketing. I’m wondering what will happen when they force the afghan refugees back over the border into Afghanistan since they don’t have the water to give them.

Climate change and bad decisions from the last 50 years are starting to bite now. It’ll just get worse. Expect migrations and countries collapsing as millions of people are pushed to migrate for survival.

[londons_explore]

Drinking water is such a tiny proportion of total water use that it is essentially irrelevant.

Water for farming and power stations are the things that will be hit first.

[a2tech]

The drinking water is just part of the issue (as you said). Water is used in countless industrial processes, farming, EVERYTHING. if the water goes, so does everything else.

And it’s not just water going away—it’s impingement by salt as well.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Drinking water is such a tiny proportion of total water use

A lot of water infrastructure needs minimum levels to function. Drinking water may be a small fraction of use. But if the big users deplete a reservoir below its minimum operational level, the fact that the dead water is enough to keep Tehran alive is more trivia than solace.

[ants_everywhere]

> Climate change and bad decisions from the last 50 years are starting to bite now. It’ll just get worse. Expect migrations and countries collapsing as millions of people are pushed to migrate for survival.

For those unfamiliar, climate change and drought are believed to be one of the major causes of the bronze age civilization collapse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Bronze_Age_collapse#Droug...

[marcosdumay]

People speculate climate change and drought are one of the causes for every major collapse in history. It's even likely, because people keep fighting the collapse until something forces their hands, and that's one recurrent big thing to trigger change.

That said, we never had the climate change that strongly on history.

[waps]

In Iran the cause of the water shortage is at least 99.9% the current government's policies. If global warming accelerated matters it was by days or weeks probably.

But you have to admit it would be very funny if a theocracy was forced to abandon it's capital by forces of nature.

[zer00eyz]

> bad decisions from the last 50

Some of these "bad decisions" are ignoring the old systems, and ways. The hubris of "modernization" as better.

The water systems of old Iran are fascinating, and well covered if you hunt around for the info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat

[fakedang]

Old techniques like Qanats and Shabestans aren't going to help Iranians deal with effluents in the water, or straight-up water misuse by businesses controlled by the Ayatollahs.

[breppp]

you mean more than the 1.1 million afghans they have already deported this year?

[matt_kantor]

Why not both? I'm no expert, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_Iran (and its sources) indicate that climate change is part of the problem.

[ceejayoz]

> using the water to fight a war

Look, I know they didn’t fare well against Israeli F-35s and American B-2s, but the tech disparity isn’t quite as bad as them using Super Soakers for air defense.

Ten million civilians are about to deeply suffer. A multi-year drought is a key contributor.