If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Globe Climate and all Globe newsletters here.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

War is never environmentally sustainable. The bombing of oil refineries, the disruption of energy production and the emissions created by militaries are just some of the havoc wreaked on the earth.

But today, we’re looking at another life-giving resource severely affected by fighting in the Middle East: water.

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.

1. Geology: Powerful Yukon earthquake sheds light on changing seismic risk
2. Science: Genetic sequence promises new window into beloved ‘camp robber’ Canada jay
3. Oil and gas: South Bow approaches Saskatchewan landowners in bid to revive Keystone XL pipeline
4. Sustainable finance: Calgary startup joins the hunt for natural hydrogen
5. Agriculture: French snail farmers weather unpredictability to preserve the tradition of escargot

For this week’s deeper dive, how war affects the environment and why access to drinking water is a concern across the Middle East.

The conflict engulfing the Middle East should serve as a dose of old-world reality, writes investment reporter Tim Shufelt.

“Evidence of our hopeless oil dependency is there in the financial markets’ latest disturbance,” he writes, drawing comparison to the oil-crisis days of the 1970s. “But how much has really changed? In 1973, fossil fuels accounted for about 87 per cent of total global energy supply. That number today: 81 per cent.”

After half a century of technological progress, climate commitments, emissions reductions and the buildout of renewable energy sources, this can be frustrating.

Other numbers that matter in the current context? In 1973, the Persian Gulf was responsible for supplying 34 per cent of global crude oil. Today, it’s 31 per cent.

But as missiles and drones affect energy production across the region, analysts warn that water, not oil, may be the resource most at risk.

Hundreds of desalination plants sit along the Persian Gulf coast, putting individual systems that supply water to millions within range of missile or drone strikes. And many Gulf desalination plants are physically integrated with power stations as co‑generation facilities, meaning attacks on electrical infrastructure could also hinder water production.

Desalination technology removes salt from seawater – most commonly by pushing it through ultrafine membranes in a process known as reverse osmosis – to produce the freshwater that sustains cities, industry and some agriculture across one of the world’s driest regions.

In Kuwait, about 90 per cent of drinking water comes from desalination. In Oman, that number is roughly 86 per cent; in Saudi Arabia it’s about 70 per cent. The war that began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran has already brought fighting close to key desalination infrastructure.

As climate change intensifies droughts, disrupts rainfall patterns and fuels wildfires, desalination is expected to expand in many parts of the world.

• Ottawa’s deal with Musqueam First Nation raises alarm about property rights in Vancouver area
• Canada and Alberta reach prospective deal to streamline major project approvals
• Ontario says it will