Surfacing

by Margaret Atwood

They’re running out of water, clean water, they’re dirtying up all of theirs, right? Which is what we have a lot of, this country is almost all water if you look at a map. So in a while, I give it ten years, they’ll be up against the wall. They’ll try to swing a deal with the government, get us to give them the water cheap or for nothing in exchange for more soapflakes or something, and the government will give in, they’ll be a bunch of puppets as usual. But by that time the Nationalist Movement will be strong enough so they’ll force the government to back down; riots or kidnappings or something. Then the Yank pigs will send in the Marines, they’ll have to; people in New York and Chicago will be dropping like flies, industry will be stalled, there’ll be a black market in water, they’ll be shipping it in tankers from Alaska. They’ll come in through Quebec, it will have separated by then; the Pepsis will even help them, they’ll be having a good old laugh. They’ll hit the big cities and knock out communications and take over, maybe shoot a few kids, and the Movement guerrillas will go into the bush and start blowing up the water pipelines the Yanks will be building in places like this, to get the water down there.”