4hodmt comments on Open thread 7th september - 13th september - Less Wrong Discussion
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I do not know if emigration can be attributed to climate change or not, but I do that that Israel produces very large quanties of fresh water by desalination:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Israel
Neighboring countries may not be able to afford this.
The wholesale cost of desalinated water in Israel is quite cheap, about 50 cents for a cubic meter, which is significantly more than the average household uses.
Households hardly matter at all in terms of water use compared to agriculture. (It's worth noting that those that link recent events in the middle east to climate point towards a combination of an influx of people abandoning dried up farms into cities accelerating unrest, and increased food prices.)
So the question is "why doesn't Israel sell desalinated water to its neighbours", but I guess we already kind-of know that.