Water as a Weapon of War

About ten days ago, Iran accused the U.S. of damaging an Iranian desalination facility that supplies 30 villages. A spokesperson for the U.S. denied that allegation. Then, Iran allegedly damaged a desalination facility in Bahrain. As The Independent reports, analysts worry it’s the culmination of a long-feared scenario in the Middle East in which water becomes a weapon of war. 

Nations in the Persian Gulf have constructed huge networks of desalination plants with about 400 facilities producing water. According to the Arab Center in Washington, DC, Kuwait uses seawater to get about 90 percent of its drinking water, Oman 86 percent, and Saudi Arabia 70 percent. The UAE gets about 42 percent of their drinking water from this method. Writing in The Conversation, Michael Christopher Low, director of Utah University’s Middle East Center, said that while the gulf’s monarchies are often described as “petro-states,” he calls them “saltwater kingdoms”—superpowers in the production of fresh water from the sea. 

Facilities that supply water to human populations are theoretically protected under international law through rules developed under the Hague and Geneva Conventions. On March 2, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that American forces will not follow any “stupid rules of engagement.” Mohammed Mahmoud of the UN told the New York Times that it is absolutely a war crime to attack infrastructure that civilians are dependent on—on either side. Attacking power-generating facilities that supply electricity to desalination plants or striking close-by buildings and water sources could jeopardize their ability to function for millions of people.

Last weekend, “black rain” fell in the city. The rain was soaked with oil caused by fires producing smoke clouds following airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel on oil depots, according to CNN. Euronews reports that the plumes of toxic contamination likely contained precursors to acid rain and carcinogenic compounds from the burning hydrocarbons. 

Residents were urged to stay indoors. People said they had difficulty breathing and their eyes and throats burned. Long-term health risks from the smoke include neurological and heart conditions, birth complications, and cancer. The pollutants can stay on buildings and get into waterways, affecting ecosystems for a long time.

If demand grows—despite the Trump administration killing the rebates and incentives put in place under Biden—it will require more lithium for car batteries and energy storage. 

Although EVs and renewables have lower environmental impacts, harvesting lithium—whether through open-pit mines or brine ponds—can deplete fresh water, pollute ecosystems with toxic chemicals, and release greenhouse gases.

A team of researchers at Rice University might have found a win-win solution. They are using toxic PFAS compounds, also known as “Forever Chemicals,” to extract lithium from briny water. The compounds are destroyed in the process—solving two problems at once.

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic chemicals. They’re everywhere—in our air, our water, and us—because they’re used in so many products from cookware to waterproof clothing and food packaging for their ability to resist heat, grease, and water. Studies have linked them to liver damage, reproductive disorders, immune system disruption, and certain cancers. 

Granular activated carbon (GAC) filters are used to remove PFAS from water and firefighting foam, but as James Tour of Rice University told H2O Radio, the carbon is often thrown in the garbage and the PFAS ends up in the environment again. So, he and his team decided to turn that trash into treasure. In their study, they took PFAS-saturated carbon and mixed it with brine. They then flash-heated the mixture, which produced lithium fluoride that can be used in batteries. Any leftovers from their process are nontoxic.

Tour and his team tested the lithium fluoride in lithium-ion batteries, and it not only worked well but also showed increased stability and performance. They say their approach uses less energy and water than the two most common methods used to extract lithium from brine. Additionally, they say it will likely have lower operating costs and be faster—taking only a few minutes rather than months to complete.

The study was published in the journal Nature Water.

That’s the conclusion of a new Canadian study that looked at the brains of birdwatchers and found that expert birders had more structurally compact areas related to attention and perception than the rest of us who might be able to recognize only a duck from a seagull.

Birding requires a keen eye and strong memory, but as we age, our brain's structure becomes less complex. The team says that birdwatching can build neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to change, reorganize, or grow neural networks.

The study used MRIs to track how water moved through brain tissue to determine its density. Denser areas are associated with processing working memory, spatial awareness, and object recognition. They found that expert birders had denser tissue compared with novices even though they were roughly the same age. That doesn’t mean birders will avoid cognitive decline, but it might happen more slowly, giving new meaning to the word birdbrain.

The study was published in JNeurosci, the Journal of Neuroscience.