Hypothetical Hardships

I was so surprised...that it's impressively difficult to find scientific information about what would happen if our water supply was dramatically decreased.

Would the world be one giant Arizona?

Yes, I realize that it hasn't happened, at least not in recent times, and so there can only be so much information about it, but I just wonder how there can be so few people interested in looking into the effects of such an occurrence.

Let me explain why this is so frustrating to me: I'm currently working on a new novel, under the premise that the world has run into a water crisis. If you read my post a while ago about a "new project," this is the story I was hinting at. It's a really cool concept, in my opinion, and I think it's a fairly uncommon one, so I'm pretty excited about getting to write my version of what would happen. But I still want it to be as accurate as such a huge, hypothetical situation can be, and that's really hard to find! I started out with enough information to tell me that I should absolutely not make it so the entire supply of water (including oceans) dried up, because that would be the end of pretty much all life on the earth right now...So there's that.

I've been looking, however, for the other effects. I want to know how it would affect the land-based animals if fresh water was so used up that there was none but what humans held for themselves. Probably mass extinction, I'd venture to guess, but then what about the next creatures on the food chain? Sure, herbivores would die because the plants would mostly die (and I'm only saying mostly because I'm also working with the assumption and hope that the ocean's meager supply could still sustain enough plant life to produce oxygen, so that, for example, my human protagonist can even exist), and then carnivores would die out, and then what about bugs? And birds? Do they rely as heavily on that system? Can I keep birds in the story? Can I keep any animals in there? What's plausible?

There's where I run into problems. Apparently no scientists are interested enough in this premise to look into it, or hypothesize. I would take any scientific hypotheses just to supplement my own! I just want to make sure that what I'm writing makes sense in the scheme of things--even if my overarching idea is a far-fetched one (hopefully).

Honestly, I've become so fascinated with the concept, and I really want to get this right, so that maybe if I get some readers, they can say, "Wow. I really feel like I've learned about a possible scenario for this situation." That's all I want! An outcome that could make sense. So, I guess the best I can do is take the information I have found and apply it, and hypothesize the rest myself. Someone's gonna have to read it and tell me it makes sense, though.

Pictured: Not fun.

Ooh, on a more positive note, I've remembered something that could be quite useful: the Dust Bowl of the '30s! What a severe drought that was, and, well, I'm gonna have to use it. So, thanks, random Google search I just did that gave me the idea! Much appreciated! And you, readers, look out for some...well, it's not fun, as you can imagine...