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[Duuvian]

Hi. Things are starting to flood in places around here that haven't flooded before.

I figure if someone can fund a little corporate city in Africa with building a huge desalination plant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebel_Ali

Perhaps with our new friends in Libya we can make a deal where we try terraforming a desert (namely the Sahara). I mean, we've built canals in the past with shovels and picks, and it's the year 2000 man.

I bet there are people willing to invest in such a thing. It would be quite an accomplishment. Governments might be best to lead the way.

It would be cool to continue America's tradition of agricultural products; in this form fertilizer for the desert people.

[breadbocks]

Rising sea levels != Rising freshwater levels.

You'd end up making the sahara a saltwater swamp.

[Duuvian]

1: It depends on where you live.

2:  they have a desalination plant

[Duuvian]

You know, someone/government/company/everyone could make a whole lot of money if this was successful. If corporates stepped in and claimed the desert. I'd expect that while it would change life in the desert,  I'm saying that in a worst case scenario even; not many people could argue with going from desert to usable land anyways.

All it would take is a government/company forming a long term plan and presenting it to the public for debate. If the Libyans win their revolution, then perhaps governments and companies could buy into a section of the plan.

[FearfulJesuit]

Make a cistern out of plastic, and pump seawater into it. Then cart it in buckets all over the Sahara.

[Duuvian]

Hmm, no, I think you aren't thinking about this as you've been taught to.

Imagine: Land. No one is using it. Who knows what you could do with it? Now, not much because there are no people. However, there are lots of oceans waiting to meet Mr. Desalinator to create a great big Nile 2 flowing the opposite way.

Does this make sense to you?

[FearfulJesuit]

Could work, I s'pose, if you used the endless solar power of the Sahara to distill fresh water and use it as irrigation. It'd work, but the startup costs would be astronomical.

[Duuvian]

Could work, I s'pose, if you used the endless solar power of the Sahara to distill fresh water and use it as irrigation. It'd work, but the startup costs would be astronomical.

There we go, another innovator

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Just flooding the Sahara, even if we could get enough freshwater, wouldn't give us farmland. It'd give us either a wet desert, or a freshwater sea. Trust me, we shouldn't bother with the Sahara for now. Few places on this planet are less friendly to human life.

[Duuvian]

Just flooding the Sahara, even if we could get enough freshwater, wouldn't give us farmland. It'd give us either a wet desert, or a freshwater sea. Trust me, we shouldn't bother with the Sahara for now. Few places on this planet are less friendly to human life.

Wait, you're saying they would have to.. trade... oil.. for.... fertilizer?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Are you feeling alright, Duuvian? Your posts are somwhat erratic right now.

[Duuvian]

I'm fine, I was just excited because I had put the pieces together in my mind.

This is where private business can stagnate or jump ahead and start drawing up plans for something like this. If they can ship oil in pipes, and if they can do electrical dams for energy, why can't you get water to the desert to make it livable? The oil pipes are going to dry up while the water pipes would be priceless.

[Sensei]

I don't think rising water levels actually make desalination plants cheaper or more effective.

[Duuvian]

Well, yeah, of course not; but if global warming were to be true, and it's sneaking up on us, it wouldn't hurt to know how to make at least a little water go where you want it to go for a time. It's useful knowledge either way.

[thobal]

I don't think rising water levels actually make desalination plants cheaper or more effective.

If anything, they would threaten the plant!

But seriously, one place that could seriously use this sort of effort would be the Nile basin. As we should all know by now, more and more of the Nile is being diverted upstream and Egypt is getting less and less of that water. Within a few years it'll start to seriously effect the Egyptian economy. It's actually debatable whether or not there is enough time to prevent looming war between Egypt and Everyone else in the Nile basin, but it would be nice to try.

Plus, you know, it's easier than reforestation.

A brief perusal of wikipedia tells me that the real problem isn't how to make the desert smaller, it's how to keep it from getting bigger.