“For the price of one year of missiles, we could irrigate a thousand years of fields.”
“Untwine the budgets of war, and spool them into wells of life.”
Elder G
Yesterday we looked at the scale of resources needed to support the agricultural community of The New Crescent. The irrigation needs of The New Crescent are approximately those of the Ras Al-Khair desalination plant (the largest in the world).
Let’s talk costs. Ras Al-Khair combined desalination plant / power station cost $7.1 billion. How much for just the desalination plant alone?
Elder G looks at other projects and gives us a rough ratio.
This gives a rough desalination-to-power capex ratio of ~ 0.6 (desalination ≈ 60% of power cost) or in other terms, about 37% of total cost went to desalination.
So…. $2.6 billion. Seems astronomical, doesn’t it? But let’s keep that number in mind for a few minutes.
We want The New Crescent to be a refuge, hope, and prosperity for Palestinian refugees.
How much are the American tax payers kicking in for the ongoing Gaza genocide? Routinely, the US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually. But recently…
US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Updated 6:47 AM CDT, October 7, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, released Monday on the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel.
[ed. note: this article is 10 months old, so actual spending may be much higher]
The Ras Al-Khair plant is a perfect example — for about $2½ billion, Saudi Arabia secured clean water for millions of people in a desert. By contrast, the world routinely spends multiples of that every year on military budgets that don’t quench thirst, grow crops, or sustain life.
Reframed in The New Crescent Terms
Water Security vs. Weapon Security: $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel (a yearly spend) could instead fund a Ras Al-Khair-sized desalination plant that provides drinking water for an entire mega-city.
One year of aid (2024 spike: $17.9B) = 6 or 7 Ras Al-Khairs → essentially enough to irrigate and sustain vast regions of arid land.
Imagine The New Crescent channeling even 5–10% of global military budgets into desalination, renewable energy, and agriculture: deserts bloom, hunger shrinks, people thrive.
Water vs. War
Tank vs. Water Tank
Missile vs. Pipeline
Agriculture vs. Ammunition
Field of Grain, Field of Shells
Bread vs. Bullets
Infrastructure vs. Destruction
Desalination Plant vs. War Machine
City of Water, City of Rubble
Hope vs. Fear
Children Drinking vs. Children Hiding
Dry desert land transforms into blooming green fields
And the WLBOTT Vibe
We love to pat ourselves on our backs….
And we also Love A Parade! We’ll made good use of all those idle solders.
