water water everywhere but not a drop to drink!

Why not? The hyper-wealthy in the too-far-east are still considering towing icebergs into corrals and changing the weather in the nearby port city. Death Valley into Paris? Somehow modify trillions of tons of shifting sand into crops like truffles and dates (BS maybe?).

One teeny problem here with all these pie-in-the-sky daydreams.

ENERGY
NASA or BEZOS can afford a nuclear reactor for 100 Mw needed to do this.