Leto Atreides mentions in a meeting he has with his trusted associates about how power has been acquired through using both air and sea, and now need to establish desert power, or specifically referred to as, “Desert Botanical Testing Station.” Interesting that author Frank Herbert would include alternative sources of power in a book about a barren planet with limited water supply. Can using alternative sources of power have any benefits to preserving and conserving water? The answer to that question is yes! Alternative sources of power have excellent benefits to preserve and conserve water. Alternative sources of power being solar electricity, wind electricity, Geothermal electricity, hydroelectric electricity, biomass that are being used nationwide. An example of how our current mode of obtaining electricity is tainting our water includes using fossil fuels to generate electricity because it creates air and water pollution. Not only does this pollution contaminate our water, our drinking source, but by drinking contaminated water it can cause series health problems. Alternative sources do not require water to operate. The consequences of this is two-fold in regards to benefits. Power sources that do not rely on water to operate means less water pollution, and reduced strain of competing for water sources with agriculture or livestock.
Alternative sources of power is a topic mentioned in Dune and limited resources such as water is a theme throughout Book I, but the ability to replenish what has been lost like water is not a theme throughout the book. It is so far beyond the point of being able to replenish water on the Akkris barren planet, that primary character Lady Jessica made several observations. Her frank and practical observations regarding a death of a character insinuate what a waste of all that moisture. Lady Jessica’s cold acceptance of death by a human being is the reality of how she and Fremen people view their dead, as a water source. It could be argued that water is viewed as more important than other people’s lives. This is how water is replenished, recycled or in the case of Leto Atreides death, seen by other characters as a waste of the precious water because of the harsh climate on planet Arrakis.