Terraforming the Sahara

Introduction * Sunlight * Water * Energy * Habitats * Discussion

Introduction

Look at the map of the earth from space, and one of the features you can't help but notice is the large, barren land at the center of the map - the Sahara Desert. With a land area significantly larger than the continental U.S., making something of the Sahara is one of those challenges which will be on mankind's plate near the end of the 21st century.

The easiest of the three terrestrial scenarios has to be Greater Las Vegas (Phoenix, San Diego, and even Los Angeles might also be good candidates). Terraforming the desert, though challenging, is something America has been practicing for several decades. I like to say that it requires water, people, and jobs. And in a desert the hardest of these to find is obviously water.

A case study of the growth of Los Angeles must fundementally focus on its water supply. Were it not for the brillant theft of water from another section of California, Los Angeles would never have grown to a critical size. Further acquisition of water from the Colorado river and other sources have allowed Los Angeles to become one of America's largest (sub)urban sprawls.

A survey of arid regions of the US reveals vast tracts of otherwise useless land in much of the West, including virtually the entire state of Nevada. Other states, have tens if not hundreds of thousands of square miles of empty, arid land. In Texas, for example, between El Paso and San Antonio, there is 550 miles of emptiness.

If the formula for settling these areas is worked out, world-wide there is the Sahara, the Arabian desert, much of Central Asia, much of southern Africa and almost all of the continent of Australia. The critical problem is the availability or possible production of fresh water and its transport. Secondary problems are that of efficient water use, availability of power and capital to make it happen, and the political evolution of the affected regions.

One of the odd things about the Sahara in particular is that if you look at its history, you will find that there have been periods (one about 8000 years ago) when the weather there has been less harsh. During those periods, the land was a savanah, lush with grasses and large mammals. It is weather, and primarily rainfall, that has changed the land from lush to barren.

One of mankind's challenges over the next century or two will be one of overcoming the climate which global weather patterns impose upon the land. This can be done in many ways; the simplest of these is the construction of greenhouses and pipelines. On a small scale we control the climate of the dwellings we construct, regulating temperature and moisture, blocking and creating light. On larger scales we affect the paths of rivers, pipe water from deep underground, and water the fields for our crops. Efficient use of the fresh water available for agriculture often requires the use of drip distribution systems and plastic barriers to retain moisture in the soil.

Introduction * Sunlight * Water * Energy * Habitats * Discussion

Terraforming the Sahara

Introduction

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