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The Middle East: It's the Water, Stupid [1]

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Date: 2025-05-14

Trump hotels! Trump golf courses! It’ll be the most awesome thing that’s ever happened in the Middle East! Even Syria! Oh, but wait: if one is a fan of fresh water — i.e. every living thing on Earth — you should know that the Middle East is perhaps the most water stressed area on the planet and getting worse. Don’t believe me? I did a quick search and found numerous articles about it, like this one — thewaterproject.org/…

Seriously, there are actually two things that the Middle East is going to start running out of: oil and fresh water. And it looks like the fresh water is disappearing faster than the oil. It has been a desert for millions of years. Most of that time, the water supply only had to support smallish nomadic tribes and their animals. Because of the relatively small scale of development, there was typically enough water to support life in the area, with some exceptions.

Since the discovery of oil in the Middle East, and the post-World War I European — and later, the US — colonialism that swept over the area, the demands on the limited water supply have increased steadily, year after year.

Add to that the increased heat and droughts from climate change, and this would appear to be the stupidest place on the planet to do major industrial and commercial projects at this time.

Trump and his kids have been parking themselves in the Middle East for weeks now, making plans and deals to build huge hotels, huge golf courses, AI infrastructure, etc. And guess what resource all of them are going to need huge quantities of? Fresh H20.

The hotels will be filled with people who drink water, bathe in water, swim in water, etc. Golf courses, even those here in Wisconsin, require irrigation, especially on the greens. I can’t even imagine how much water a golf course in a desert requires. And the computer infrastructure for AI generates an incredible amount of heat and is cooled by — water.

So, where is all of this fresh water going to come from? It will have to come from somewhere else because, frankly, the existing fresh water supply in the Middle East is totally inadequate. And desalination plants are expensive and environmentally disastrous.

The Great Lakes. Don’t laugh. It’s the largest supply of fresh water in the world. Western states have already explored building huge pipelines from the Lakes to their states for irrigation and supporting new development. And Saudi Arabia owned hayfields in Arizona and California, to ship it across the ocean to feed their dairy cattle. Arizona cut them off a few years ago, but they were interested in piping Great Lakes water to their hayfields. And countries have explored filling huge cargo ships with Great Lakes water and shipping it overseas.

Thankfully, the Great Lakes Compact prevents this type of thing from happening. Canada and the several states that abut the Great Lakes have agreed to keep our water here. Great Lakes water must remain in the Great Lakes watershed, although a community may apply for a waiver. For example, the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin, lies just outside the watershed, even though it’s only about 30 miles from Lake Michigan. They received permission to pipe water out of the lake, treat the used water, and pipe it back to the lake. Not nearly as bad as sending it to Arizona to raise hay that will be sent to Saudi Arabia to feed beef cattle. [And why are they growing beef cattle in a desert anyway?]

So far, the Great Lakes Compact has mostly held. But some things have changed.

First, Trump has nearly ruined the once-friendly relationship we’ve had with Canada for decades. Hopefully, this won’t affect the Great Lakes Compact. Second — and worse —, Trump is decimating EPA programs that protect the Great Lakes from pollution and other problems.(greatlakes.org/... ) If he can do this, there is nothing that will stop him from selling Great Lakes Water. Which leads to point three, if there’s any money to be made from this, he’s the one who’ll be making the most.

The bottom line is that there is no way the Middle East can support the water demands of large hotels, large golf courses, and mega-AI centers. Trump and his supporters are claiming that they are negotiating to get the Arab countries to invest in America. But just what will the Arabs be investing in? What is the one thing they need more than anything to survive? The one thing they need more than anything to build hotels, golf courses, and AI centers? Fresh water.

We really need to keep a pro-active eye on this. As someone who has lived near the Great Lakes my entire life, I can say without reservation that they are a giant cosmic gift to those of us who live, play, and work here. We will reach a point, with climate change, that people will want to pipe or ship our God-given/cosmically-given treasure away.

Midwest folks, let your state and Congressional reps know that our water is not for sale, especially not to the Middle East where it will be irrigating Trump golf courses and become the lifeblood of Trump hotels.

In the end, it IS the water, stupid. We can live with only 2 dolls and 5 pencils. We cannot live without water.

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