History Main / MarsNeedsWater

* 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 recycling and food production 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 animal protein 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.

* In ''Series/{{V 1983}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that humans are delicious too doesn't hurt. The {{Novelization}} has a good excuse; in this {{Verse}}, the industrial effort of full-blown space development [[GreenAesop trashes biospheres]], and the resulting empires are constantly fighting over whatever ''relatively pure'' water and ''meat'' remains, implying that ''every'' spacefaring race is willing to kill other intelligent races for food.

->"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."
-->--''Martin'', '''Series/{{V 1983}}'''

-->'''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.''

[[AC: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

[[AC: Literature]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

-->'''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.''

[[AC: NewspaperComics]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC: WebComics]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

-->--''Martin'', '''Series/{{V}}'''

* In ''Series/{{V}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that humans are delicious too doesn't hurt. The {{Novelization}} has a good excuse; in this {{Verse}}, the industrial effort of full-blown space development [[GreenAesop trashes biospheres]], and the resulting empires are constantly fighting over whatever ''relatively pure'' water and ''meat'' remains, implying that ''every'' spacefaring race is willing to kill other intelligent races for food.

* The BackStory of the anime ''Anime/GreenLegendRan'' tells how aliens approached Earth, and while in the process of essentially taking over through religious means, sucked away most of Earth's natural resources, including lots of oxygen and about 99% of the water.

* In the 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 [[RedScare 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.

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 and moons have water in great abundance and are much easier to land a spacecraft on than Earth, as well as lacking those pesky hairless apes. Hence it rarely appears outside of Hollywood.

* In the IsaacAsimov novella ''Literature/TheMartianWay'' 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 [[RedScare 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.

* In the pilot episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' the Kazon-Ogla seek water because they're in a region of space without it, thanks to the environmental disaster inadvertently caused by the Caretaker. The crew of Voyager agree to trade water for information on the region, but unwisely explain that they can create water with their amazing replicator technology that the Kazon spend the next two years trying to get their hands on.

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' the Kazon will kill, steal, or trade hostages for water. Note that they're also the only species so far that the Borg have refused to assimilate because [[AssimilationBackfire it would weaken the Collective]].

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeamGalaxy'' called "H2-Oh No!" featured an aquatic race stealing water from various planets due to the fact that the planet is in a system that has six suns, which constantly evaporate the planet's water supply.

* The BackStory of the anime ''Green Legend Ran'' tells how aliens approached Earth, and while in the process of essentially taking over through religious means, sucked away most of Earth's natural resources, including lots of oxygen and about 99% of the water.

* In the film adaptation of ''Film/EndersGame'' Graff suggests that the Formics wanted to invade Earth for water, which their desert-like homeworld doesn't appear to have much of. Though they do attack a fleet of Formic ships harvesting ice from a gas cloud at one point. Note that this was not even discussed in the book, the theory there was that they were trying to colonize.

-->"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."

* In ''Series/{{V}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that humans are delicious too doesn't hurt. The {{Novelization}} has a good excuse; in this '{{Verse}}, the industrial effort of full-blown space development [[GreenAesop trashes biospheres]], and the resulting empires are constantly fighting over whatever ''relatively pure'' water and ''meat'' remains, implying that ''every'' spacefaring race is willing to kill other intelligent races for food.

* In the IsaacAsimov novella ''Literature/TheMartianWay'' human settlers on Mars use water from Earth to power the nuclear reactors in their spaceships. To stir up anti-Martian sentiment an Earth politician says that Mars is using too much of Earth's water so they're being cut off. 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.

* In ''Series/{{V}}'' the Visitors are after Earth's water, and the fact that humans are delicious too doesn't hurt.

[[ScienceMarchesOn Ironically, using Mars itself as a setting for this Trope has become averted (barring specific details, such as potential toxicity levels)]] 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]]).

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

* The second season episode "When Strikes Mutilor" from Creator/HannaBarbera's ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' has a huge alien craft sucking huge columns of ocean water within sight of Megakat City. The aliens that normally man this craft are TechnicalPacifists and are being held prisoner by the SpacePirate Mutilor, who has no qualms about disrupting Megakat City's ecosystem.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats,'' a SpacePirate named Mutilor tries to steal all the water on their planet so he can sell it to another world.

* Seemingly inverted in ''Film/{{Oblivion2013}}'' where humanity is trying to drain the Earth's water as fuel for fusion in preparation for a HomeworldEvacuation. [[spoiler: Until it turns out that the protagonist is a cloned slave unwittingly helping an alien machine drain the oceans and kill what's left of humanity.]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeamGalaxy'' called "H2-Oh No!" featured an aquatic race stealing water from various planets due to the fact that the planet is in a system that has six suns, which constantly evaporate the planet's water supply.