Plankton decline, 'Soylent Green' and the future of civilization

Last week I watched the 1973 dystopian film thriller "Soylent Green" for the first time in probably 30 years. The film depicts a society in which climate change has put most of the world into a hellish, near perpetual heat wave (at least during the summer), dramatically increased the inequality of wealth (with the fortunate few living in luxury apartments with air-conditioning), and caused a scarcity of food such that most people are reduced to eating what is called "soylent," a processed wafer-like food that supplies essential nutrients (the production of which is monopolized by one huge corporation called the Soylent Corporation).

You don't have to stretch your mind all that much to see that a lot of what is depicted in "Soylent Green" is already coming true. I found one part of the plot particularly prescient in predicting the decline of plankton in the oceans. You see, in the film plankton form the basis for one type of soylent, namely soylent green. (Soylent red and yellow are also available but less desirable.)

Ostensibly a crime drama, the film follows a police detective played by Charlton Heston who is trying to solve the murder of one of the members of the board of directors of the Soylent Corporation. Ultimately, the detective stumbles onto a forbidden secret: The plankton in the oceans are dying thus threatening the worldwide food supply. As the investigation continues, the detective penetrates a production facility for soylent green where he discovers (spoiler alert!) that soylent green is now being made from recycled bodies of the dead, a sort of civilization-wide cannibalism.

Something's gotta give: The American West and the dwindling Colorado River

Depending on whom you talk to the Colorado River serves either 35 million or 40 million people, all of whom are having to reconsider how much water they use and how they use it in the wake of an ongoing megadrought that arrived at the beginning of this century. The changes are no longer in the "let's-discuss-this" phase as the federal government threatens to impose up to a 40 percent cut in river water allocations over the next 10 years if the seven western states—Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California—and the 30 recognized tribal jurisdictions with water rights don't agree among themselves about how to divvy up the dwindling Colorado River.

There isn't as much water as there used to be and that means that not everything people are using water for now will get its previous allotment. No doubt the volume of water representing the 52 percent of the total river withdrawals currently taken for agriculture could be reduced through conservation and efficiency measures. But it turns out that "conservation" in some instances might mean simply leaving fields unplanted for lack of water. And, it's not as if efficiency measures haven't already been implemented as irrigated agriculture in the Colorado basin has been transitioning to the much more efficient drip irrigation away from traditional surface irrigation. I could not find any statistics for this, however. So, it's not clear how much more water savings could be achieved through the installation of additional drip irrigation in place of surface irrigation.

Then, there is the 18 percent of the water withdrawals currently going to municipal water systems. The people in those cities have taken seriously the need to reduce water use. Even though those systems now serve 24 percent more residents today than in the year 2000, those systems use 18 percent LESS water. How much further could these cities reduce water consumption? It's almost certain that the easiest forms of reduction have already taken place. The next leg down in water consumption will be harder.