Is William Shatner crazy, or did he just make a bad joke? You might start asking yourself that question after hearing the latest idea from the 84-year-old star: a Kickstarter-funded, $30 billion water pipeline to save California from its devastating drought.
In an interview with Yahoo Tech's David Pogue, Shatner says, "I’m starting a Kickstarter campaign. I want $30 billion ... to build a pipeline ... Say, from Seattle. A place where there’s a lot of water. There’s too much water." He adds, "How bad would it be to get a large, 4-foot pipeline, keep it above ground — because if it leaks, you’re irrigating!"
You heard it here first: Seattle has too much water.
Shatner says Seattle has too much water anyways
It's not clear if Shatner was just playing around and Pogue is taking this whole thing a bit too seriously. But we sure hope so, because the idea is crazy. Forget about raising that much cash on Kickstarter ($30 billion probably isn't enough, anyways). Building such a pipeline would require the cooperation of communities up and down the West Coast, the purchase of land, and innumerable environmental roadblocks. And you'd have to find a place that would let you take their water. Oh, and by the time all that water got down to California, it'd probably be far too expensive for anyone to use it — even more expensive than desalinating ocean water.
So what happens if this Kickstarter actually gets online and raises some cash? According to Shatner, "If I don’t make 30 billion, I’ll give the money to a politician who says, ‘I’ll build it.’ Obviously, it’s to raise awareness … so why not a pipeline?" For all the silliness, then, Shatner does get some credit for at least paying attention to an issue that so few seem to care about.