Star in a Jar

https://www.space.com/34960-star-in-a-jar-fusion-reactor-works.html


For several decades now, scientists from around the world have been pursuing a ridiculously ambitious goal: They hope to develop a nuclear fusion reactor that would generate energy in the same manner as the sun and other stars, but down here on Earth.
...researchers confirmed that Germany's Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device is on track and working as planned. The space-age system, known as a stellerator, generated its first batch of hydrogen plasma when it was first fired up earlier this year. The new tests basically give scientists the green light to proceed to the next stage of the process.

That's all neat and exciting. Maybe practical application is years or decades off and many of us may never see. But there was one little snippet that is foreboding for future generations:

The "fuel" used in a fusion reactor is simple hydrogen, which can be extracted from water.

Don't we say time and again that water is one of the basic ingredients for life?
And now we're just going to suck it all up to produce energy. If our future generations are as blind as we are today this planet could become as dry and barren as Mars.

Maybe all those sci-fi stories about aliens coming to Earth for our water aren't so far off. Wouldn't we do the same? Find some meaningless undeveloped area and suck it dry of any useful resources?

Maybe all those conspiracy theories about reverse engineering alien technology aren't so far fetched.

Maybe the two are related.

But no worry, as long as they don't invent mortality, it won't affect me none.