History Main / MarsNeedsWater

* Downplayed in ''Videogame/{{Half Life 2}}''. When close to some docks, if the player looks really close, they can notice that the dock isn't anywhere ''close'' to the shore, implying that there's less water in the ocean than before. WordOfGod also states that The Combine have placed a giant portal at the bottom of Earth's oceans, which is sending the water to other Combine-conquered worlds.

[[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy Realistically, invading Earth isn't the best way to get water]] as there are a variety of other more easily accessible locations in space. All comets and a variety of asteroids, moons, and even large, interstellar clouds have water in great abundance and are much more accessible and easy to harvest than Earth, as well as lacking those pesky hairless apes. (For instance, Europa has a water ocean ''60 miles deep''.)

Involves some FridgeLogic as there is water in a variety of other more easily accessible locations in space. All comets and a variety of asteroids, moons, and even large, interstellar clouds have water in great abundance and are much more accessible and easy to harvest than Earth, as well as lacking those pesky hairless apes. (For instance, Europa has a water ocean ''60 miles deep''.) Hence it rarely appears outside of Hollywood.

[[ScienceMarchesOn Ironically, using Mars itself as a setting for this Trope has become averted (barring specific details, such as potential toxicity levels or larger immediately available quantity)]] in RealLife as of September 2015 ([[https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars/ NASA Link here]]).

* In ''Series/{{V 1983}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that [[ToServeMan humans are delicious]] too doesn't hurt. The {{Novelization}} has a good [[JustifiedTrope justification]]; in this {{Verse}}, the industrial effort of interstellar space development [[GreenAesop irreversibly destroys biospheres]], and they have been unable to develop water purification technologies capable of efficiently supporting millions, let alone billions of people. Thus, the resulting empires are not only constantly fighting over whatever ''relatively pure'' water remains, but ''food'' as well; maybe they could harvest water from undefended comets(after filtering out twenty percent of their weight in [[{{Squick}} ammonia]]), but a life-sustaining world which not only has over a quadrillion tons of fairly clean water but four and a half billion two-hundred-pound food animals too stupid to colonize space themselves? The planet looks like a buffet table guarded by illiterate street punks. And the Visitors have FrickinLaserBeams... which happen to be fusion powered and need heavy water as fuel. [[note]]Heavy water has deuterium instead of regular hydrogen - about 115 in every million water molecules are heavy, regardless of where the water comes from, so they could use space-harvested water for that and for at least some industrial stuff. But where's the fun in that?[[/note]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DoctorSnuggles'' called "The Remarkable Fidgety River", a race of aliens are stealing cubes of water from the ocean and taking them to their home planet. It turns out to be subversion, however, as the aliens [[InnocentAliens meant no harm]] - they thought the water was rubbish because [[GreenAesop it had so much garbage in it]]. When Snuggles explains that the plants and animals on Earth need the water, the aliens promptly agree to give it back.

** Inverted by the Gem Homeworld: They tried to colonize Earth for its minerals, physically consuming the planet's mass, but water seems to be one of the few materials they ''don't'' want. Homeworld has no rain and a graphic shows a [[HostileTerraforming fully colonized Earth]] would have no oceans, as it's not needed for their [[SiliconBasedLife biology]] or technology--except perhaps a small amount used in Diamond Authority's "extraction chamber". They even appear to have created Lapis Lazuli's [[HiveCasteSystem caste]] just to ''dispose of'' all that water.

** Inverted by the Gem Homeworld: They tried to colonize Earth for its minerals, physically consuming the planet's mass, but water seems to be the only thing they ''don't'' want. Homeworld has no rain and a graphic shows a [[HostileTerraforming fully colonized Earth]] would have no oceans, as it's not needed for their [[SiliconBasedLife biology]] or technology--except perhaps a small amount used in Diamond Authority's "extraction chamber". They even appear to have created Lapis Lazuli's [[HiveCasteSystem caste]] just to ''dispose of'' all that water.

* Inverted in ''Series/BattlestarGalactica'' where it's the humans who need water. The problem is finding an ice-bearing asteroid or planet when you are in interstellar space.

Involves some FridgeLogic as there is water in a variety of other more easily accessible locations in space. All comets and a variety of asteroids, moons, and even large, interstellar clouds have water in great abundance and are much more accessible and easy to harvest than Earth, as well as lacking those pesky hairless apes. Hence it rarely appears outside of Hollywood.

* In the Creator/IsaacAsimov novella ''The Martian Way'' spacecraft use water from Earth as reaction mass. To stir up anti-Martian sentiment as part of his campaign, an Earth politician named "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Hilder]]" (though Asimov planned it as an attack on [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy Senator McCarthy]]) says that spacers are using up Earth's water. In response the Martians go to Saturn and haul home one of the ice chunk asteroids which make up Saturn's rings, providing them with enough water to last 2000 years. The Martians snarkily offer to sell Earth some to "make up for" the minuscule amount of Earth water they've used over the years.

** Inverted by the Gem Homeworld: They tried to colonize Earth for its minerals, physically consuming the planet's mass, but water seems to be the only thing they ''don't'' want. Homeworld has no rain and a graphic shows a [[HostileTerraforming fully colonized Earth]] would have no oceans, as it's not needed for their [[SiliconBasedLife biology]] or technology. They even appear to have created Lapis Lazuli's [[HiveCasteSystem caste]] just to ''dispose of'' all that water.

* Played with in Ricardo Arjona's song "Del Otro Lado del Sol" ("On the other side of the Sun"), which is the narration of an alien from a planet that has no water visiting planet Earth to see if it's viable to contact. He is from a race of PerfectPacifistPeople, and is so horrified at how much HumansAreBastards that he reasons [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere going back to his planet to die of thirst is the better choice]].

* Played with in Ricardo Arjona's song "Del Otro Lado del Sol" ("On the other side of the Sun"), which is the narration of an alien from a planet that has no water visiting planet Earth to see if it's viable to contact. He is from a race of PerfectPacifistPeople, and is so horrified at how much HumansAreBastards that he reasons [[ScrewThisIAmOuttaHere going back to his planet to die of thirst is the better choice]].

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

** Played with in "Ocean Gem": Lapis Lazuli steals the Earth's oceans, but not for any chemical use--she wanted to get back to her home planet, and thought using her [[PersonOfMassDestruction super-powerful]] [[MakingASplash hydrokinesis]] to build StarScraper was the best option. It still wasn't nearly enough.

* In ''Series/{{V 1983}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that [[ToServeMan humans are delicious]] too doesn't hurt. The {{Novelization}} has a good [[JustifiedTrope justification]]; in this {{Verse}}, the industrial effort of interstellar space development [[GreenAesop irreversibly destroys biospheres]], and they have been unable to develop water purification technologies capable of efficiently supporting millions, let alone billions of people. Thus, the resulting empires are not only constantly fighting over whatever ''relatively pure'' water remains, but ''food'' as well; maybe they could harvest water from undefended comets(after filtering out twenty percent of their weight in [[{{Squick}} ammonia]]), but a life-sustaining world which not only has over a quadrillion tons of fairly clean water but four and a half billion two-hundred-pound food animals too stupid to colonize space themselves? The planet looks like a buffet table guarded by illiterate street punks. And the Visitors have FrickinLaserBeams... which happen to be fusion powered and need heavy water as fuel. [[note]]Heavy water has deuterium instead of regular hydrogen - about 115 in every million water molecules are heavy, regardless of where the water comes from, so they could use space-harvested water for that and for at least some industrial stuff. But where's the fun in that?[[//note]]

* In ''Series/{{V 1983}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that [[ToServeMan humans are delicious]] too doesn't hurt. The {{Novelization}} has a good [[JustifiedTrope justification]]; in this {{Verse}}, the industrial effort of interstellar space development [[GreenAesop irreversibly destroys biospheres]], and they have been unable to develop water purification technologies capable of efficiently supporting millions, let alone billions of people. Thus, the resulting empires are not only constantly fighting over whatever ''relatively pure'' water remains, but ''food'' as well; maybe they could harvest water from undefended comets(after filtering out twenty percent of their weight in [[{{Squick}} ammonia]]), but a life-sustaining world which not only has over a quadrillion tons of fairly clean water but four and a half billion two-hundred-pound food animals too stupid to colonize space themselves? The planet looks like a buffet table guarded by illiterate street punks. And the Visitors have FrickinLaserBeams... which happen to be fusion powered and need heavy water as fuel.

* In ''Series/{{V 1983}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that [[ToServeMan humans are delicious]] too doesn't hurt. The {{Novelization}} has a good [[JustifiedTrope justification]]; in this {{Verse}}, the industrial effort of interstellar space development [[GreenAesop irreversibly destroys biospheres]], and they have been unable to develop water purification technologies capable of efficiently supporting millions, let alone billions of people. Thus, the resulting empires are not only constantly fighting over whatever ''relatively pure'' water remains, but ''food'' as well; maybe they could harvest water from undefended comets(after filtering out twenty percent of their weight in [[{{Squick}} ammonia]]), but a life-sustaining world which not only has over a quadrillion tons of fresh water but four and a half billion two-hundred-pound food animals too stupid to colonize space themselves? The planet looks like a buffet table guarded by illiterate street punks. And the Visitors have FrickinLaserBeams... which happen to be fusion powered and need heavy water as fuel.

** Played with in "Ocean Gem": Lapis Lazuli steals the Earth's oceans, but not for any chemical use--she wanted to get back to her home planet, and thought using her [[PersonOfMassDestruction super-powerful]] [[MakingASplash hydrokinetics]] to StarScraper was the best option (it still wasn't nearly enough).
** Inverted by the Gem Homeworld: They tried to colonize Earth for its minerals, physically consuming the planet's mass, but water seems to be the only thing they ''don't'' want. Homeworld has no rain and a graphic shows a [[HostileTerraforming fully colonized Earth]] would have no oceans, as it's not needed for their [[SiliconBasedLife biology]] or technology. They even created Lapis Lazuli's [[HiveCasteSystem caste]] apparently just for removing all that water.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The gem Homeworld tried to colonize Earth for its minerals, physically consuming the planet's mass, but water seems to be the only thing they ''don't'' want. Homeworld has no rain and a graphic shows a [[HostileTerraforming fully colonized Earth]] would have no oceans, as it's not needed for their [[SiliconBasedLife biology]] or technology. They even have a [[HiveCasteSystem caste]] of [[PersonOfMassDestruction super-powerful]] [[MakingASplash hydrokinetics]] apparently just for removing all that water.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The gem Homeworld tried to colonize Earth for its minerals, physically consuming the planet's mass, but water seems to be the only thing they ''don't'' want. Homeworld has no rain and a graphic shows a [[HostileTerraforming fully colonized Earth]] would have no oceans. They even have a [[HiveCasteSystem caste]] of [[PersonOfMassDestruction super-powerful]] [[MakingASplash hydrokinetics]] apparently just for removing all that water.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The gem Homeworld tried to colonize Earth for its minerals, physically consuming the planet's mass, but water seems to be the only thing they ''don't'' want. Homeworld has no rain and a graphic shows a [[HostileTerraforming fully colonized Earth]] would have no oceans. They even have a [[HiveCasteSystem caste]] with [[PersonOfMassDestruction super-powerful]] [[MakingASplash hydrokinetics]] apparently just for removing all that water.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* The BackStory of the anime ''Anime/GreenLegendRan'' tells how alien "Holy Mothers" - giant wooden monoliths - landed on Earth and drew all of Earth's natural resources into themselves - not just all the water but most of the ''breathable air.'' Travel between "Holy Greens" is essentially space travel, with [[BaseOnWheels airtight ships]] and suits. As one would expect, those who control the Greens control the water, and thus the population.

* In ''Series/{{V 1983}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that [[ToServeMan humans are delicious]] too doesn't hurt. The {{Novelization}} has a good [[JustifiedTrope justification]]; in this {{Verse}}, the industrial effort of interstellar space development [[GreenAesop irreversibly destroys biospheres]], and they have been unable to develop water purification technologies capable of efficiently supporting millions, let alone billions of people. Thus, the resulting empires are not only constantly fighting over whatever ''relatively pure'' water remains, but ''food'' as well; maybe they could harvest water from undefended comets(after filtering out twenty percent of their weight in [[{{Squick}} ammonia]]), but a life-sustaining world which not only has over a quadrillion tons of fresh water but four and a half billion two-hundred-pound food animals too stupid to colonize space themselves? The planet looks like a buffet table guarded by illiterate street punks. And they have FrickinLaserBeams.
-->'''Martin''': Pure liquid H-2-0 is the rarest and most valuable commodity you can imagine. It's one of the first resources any industrial society destroys and pollutes. You've already started here, so you should know. Unlike most planets, ours included, your world has a lot more water than it has land area. We need water desperately--for sustenance, industry... everything.