The Sahara Rainforest

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-09/scientists-concoct-2-trillion-year-plan-geoengineer-sahara-desert

Now that scientists agree that humans have profoundly changed the Earth's climate, many have begun asking if we can use our globe-altering power to simply change it back. Geoengineering, essentially terraforming on Earth, has been floated as a cure for global warming a number of times over the past year, but now some scientists have published a plan to transform a part of the Sahara desert into a lush forest, and in the process, absorb enough carbon to offset the world's current fossil fuel use. The catch: it will cost $2 trillion a year, and possibly destroy the Amazon jungle while unleashing giant swarms of locusts across Africa.

Writing in next month's issue of the journal Climatic Change, Leonard Ornstein, a cell biologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and David Rind and Igor Aleinov, researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, lay out a plan to pump desalinated seawater from the coast to the desert. The pipes, buried underground to avoid loss to evaporation, would irrigate fields of Eucalyptus grandis. As the trees take root, they will replenish the soil and cause more rainfall, allowing for even more growth. The researchers estimate that as the forest grows, it will fix 8 million tons of atmospheric carbon, equivalent to the total emissions of the planet today.

Of course, there might be a few side effects. For one, sand from the Sahara is carried into the air, across the Atlantic, and deposited in South America. The rich dust that falls from the sky, and the rain storms caused by that dust picking up moisture during it's transoceanic journey both fertilize the Amazon rain forest. No desert, no dust. No dust, no rain forest. During that journey, the dust also feeds a variety of sea life.

Plus, the rain could cause massive swarms of locusts. Currently, wet years in the Sahara trigger serious population spikes of the destructive insects. With a permanent forest and heavy rain every year, Exodus-level clouds of locusts could spread across the entire continent.

And did I mention this would cost $2 trillion a year?

There is no doubt that global warming is a clear and present danger, and geoengineering may be part of the solution to that problem. But I think this is one case where I have to agree with the inevitable comments and say this cure sounds worse than the disease.

[via ScienceNow]

omg lets do it

full steam ahead

Worst idea ever.

Edit: seriously though, have humans learned nothing? Every time we've fucked with the environment it makes things worse. People need to stop being wasteful bastards and they need to stop polluting the fucking planet in the first place.

SELL YOUR FUCKING CAR THEN, SEE HOW YOU FEEL.

Save Earth, kill yourself.

  On 9/17/2009 at 4:56 AM, Lascaille said:

Save Earth, kill yourself.

Kill the Earth, Save Yourself.

  On 9/17/2009 at 3:26 AM, Capsaicin said:

http://www.popsci.co...r-sahara-desert

 

Now that scientists agree that humans have profoundly changed the Earth's climate, many have begun asking if we can use our globe-altering power to simply change it back. Geoengineering, essentially terraforming on Earth, has been floated as a cure for global warming a number of times over the past year, but now some scientists have published a plan to transform a part of the Sahara desert into a lush forest, and in the process, absorb enough carbon to offset the world's current fossil fuel use. The catch: it will cost $2 trillion a year, and possibly destroy the Amazon jungle while unleashing giant swarms of locusts across Africa.

 

Writing in next month's issue of the journal Climatic Change, Leonard Ornstein, a cell biologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and David Rind and Igor Aleinov, researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, lay out a plan to pump desalinated seawater from the coast to the desert. The pipes, buried underground to avoid loss to evaporation, would irrigate fields of Eucalyptus grandis. As the trees take root, they will replenish the soil and cause more rainfall, allowing for even more growth. The researchers estimate that as the forest grows, it will fix 8 million tons of atmospheric carbon, equivalent to the total emissions of the planet today.

 

Of course, there might be a few side effects. For one, sand from the Sahara is carried into the air, across the Atlantic, and deposited in South America. The rich dust that falls from the sky, and the rain storms caused by that dust picking up moisture during it's transoceanic journey both fertilize the Amazon rain forest. No desert, no dust. No dust, no rain forest. During that journey, the dust also feeds a variety of sea life.

 

Plus, the rain could cause massive swarms of locusts. Currently, wet years in the Sahara trigger serious population spikes of the destructive insects. With a permanent forest and heavy rain every year, Exodus-level clouds of locusts could spread across the entire continent.

 

And did I mention this would cost $2 trillion a year?

 

There is no doubt that global warming is a clear and present danger, and geoengineering may be part of the solution to that problem. But I think this is one case where I have to agree with the inevitable comments and say this cure sounds worse than the disease.

 

[via ScienceNow]

 

 

When you think about it, this science is really interesting! but how does it work ? considering that all of the volcanoes in the world produce more co2 then ALL of the vehicles and other co2 producing inventions....are they planning to extiguish them all ??

  On 9/17/2009 at 5:12 AM, yek said:

  On 9/17/2009 at 4:56 AM, Lascaille said:

Save Earth, kill yourself.

Kill the Earth, Save Yourself.

Kill Earth, Kill Yourself

  On 9/17/2009 at 5:26 AM, jubes said:

 

When you think about it, this science is really interesting! but how does it work ? considering that all of the volcanoes in the world produce more co2 then ALL of the vehicles and other co2 producing inventions....are they planning to extiguish them all ??

since volcanoes have always been here, they aren't the problem. our extra produced co2 and destroying of forests are what messed up the balance.

  On 9/17/2009 at 7:01 AM, azatoth said:

  On 9/17/2009 at 5:12 AM, yek said:

  On 9/17/2009 at 4:56 AM, Lascaille said:

Save Earth, kill yourself.

Kill the Earth, Save Yourself.

 

Kill Earth, Kill Yourself

 

  On 9/17/2009 at 5:26 AM, jubes said:

When you think about it, this science is really interesting! but how does it work ? considering that all of the volcanoes in the world produce more co2 then ALL of the vehicles and other co2 producing inventions....are they planning to extiguish them all ??

 

since volcanoes have always been here, they aren't the problem. our extra produced co2 and destroying of forests are what messed up the balance.

i don't understand your logic on co2and cars, but the forrest is a major contributor in co2 conversion i give you that!

thats for sure

nevertheless, one has to understand with veryfiable facts that this imbalance is really ocuring and just how much co2 quantity is necessairy to create it!!

instead of terraforming existing deserts into viable land, how about preventing desertification from occurring any further? lots of subsistence farmers in africa are contributing hugely to erosion because of their farming methods. how about helping them so we can prevent the formation of these deserts in the first place?

BUT NO MAKING THE SAHARA INTO A RAIN FOREST WOULD BE SO FUCKING COOL RIGHT GUYS!?!

  On 9/17/2009 at 12:29 PM, Hoodie said:

instead of terraforming existing deserts into viable land, how about preventing desertification from occurring any further? lots of subsistence farmers in africa are contributing hugely to erosion because of their farming methods. how about helping them so we can prevent the formation of these deserts in the first place?

 

BUT NO MAKING THE SAHARA INTO A RAIN FOREST WOULD BE SO FUCKING COOL RIGHT GUYS!?!

TELL ME YOU HAVE A BRAIN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

that's one of carlin's more misanthropic rants, he's clearly missing the point.

lol humans, we can't even begin to imagine the complications that would arise from such a huge geologic change.

  On 9/17/2009 at 7:01 AM, azatoth said:

since volcanoes have always been here, they aren't the problem. our extra produced co2 and destroying of forests are what messed up the balance.

Earth's balance is a myth

  On 9/17/2009 at 3:26 AM, Capsaicin said:

Now that scientists agree that humans have profoundly changed the Earth's climate

  On 9/17/2009 at 5:49 PM, Super lurker ultra V12 said:

  On 9/17/2009 at 7:01 AM, azatoth said:

since volcanoes have always been here, they aren't the problem. our extra produced co2 and destroying of forests are what messed up the balance.

Earth's balance is a myth

most people don't think on the time scale necessary to perceive natural environment changes. it's like evolution, where small changes could take thousands or millions of generations.

and yet another example of negligence from turkey

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e10_1253113488

all that pollution from an oil leak ... and im sure the only thing the turkish ppl are thinking is profit from those fossil fuels

  On 9/17/2009 at 4:01 AM, abusivegeorge said:

SELL YOUR FUCKING CAR THEN, SEE HOW YOU FEEL.

Don't own one, don't plan on owning one.

it was forested mere tens of thousands of years ago. some chaps reckon it was the initial desertification that pushed people together into tighter spaces around the nile, forcing organised society and beginning the egyptian civilisation and shit

  On 9/17/2009 at 5:26 AM, jubes said:

considering that all of the volcanoes in the world produce more co2 then ALL of the vehicles and other co2 producing inventions....[/size]

lol did you get that from Great Global Warming Swindle? that statement is a bare-faced lie.

honestly, i am a bit skeptical when it comes to these doomsday scenarios related to global warming. still i am all for trying to move away from fossil fuels and towards a sustainable future. if we continue as we do now, we are just going to fuck ourselves over.

  On 9/20/2009 at 4:44 PM, Rabid said:

  On 9/17/2009 at 4:01 AM, abusivegeorge said:

SELL YOUR FUCKING CAR THEN, SEE HOW YOU FEEL.

Don't own one, don't plan on owning one.

Oh, well then, shit.

Been reading a lot into theoretical science regarding colonization of space recently, shit's well interesting.

I say this because I wonder if we should focus more on reversing issues on Earth (and all the while population keeps increasing) or begin to seriously think about getting off this planet and speading ourselves out. Although with the amount of money it would cost to do that and the money needed for wars being more important right now... Nasa are struggling to receive their annual $53 million budget... Hmmm.

Expect a nerdy thread about this sometime in the future.

i say we start constructing giant transparent pyramids and sacrifice people en masse. the blood running down their sides will bask the world in a red glow, instill dread and fear into the populace, and hopefully appease gaia.

We should just enslave the blacks. Why hasn't anyone thought of this yet?

  On 9/20/2009 at 11:01 PM, idrn said:

i say we start constructing giant transparent pyramids and sacrifice people en masse. the blood running down their sides will bask the world in a red glow, instill dread and fear into the populace, and hopefully appease gaia.

I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.

  On 9/20/2009 at 10:52 PM, Obel said:

Been reading a lot into theoretical science regarding colonization of space recently, shit's well interesting.

 

I say this because I wonder if we should focus more on reversing issues on Earth (and all the while population keeps increasing) or begin to seriously think about getting off this planet and speading ourselves out. Although with the amount of money it would cost to do that and the money needed for wars being more important right now... Nasa are struggling to receive their annual $53 million budget... Hmmm.

 

 

Expect a nerdy thread about this sometime in the future.

Let's all stop fighting and live in space!

YEAH!