Turning
the Tide:
Greening the Sahara Desert:
Click here for the Technical Overview’.
Global
Biosphere: World’s Deserts:
Dry Arid Deserts
cover about ¼ (25%) of the planets land surface.
If we include Antarctica as a desert, this represent about
1/3 (33%) of
the planets land surface.
The Sahara Desert is the single largest desert on the planet.
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002900/a002914/index.html
Please give credit
for this visualization to
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye,
Scientific Visualization Studio.
NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for
research and educational use only.
All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye
(http://www.geoeye.com).
Map by courtesy of: www.africamaps.com
Most
people’s initial response to this proposal is to laugh, Ha! Ha!
After a
few seconds it dawns on them that the proposal might not be such a bad
idea after all, and a possible solution to a serious problem.
Most people do not seem to realise, especially in the USA, that if the world’s
oceans levels increase by about 20ft, large sections of the
USA will be permanently under water.
Flooding or irrigating the world’s
deserts might just prevent this.
The Day it Rained in the Sahara.
Between 1972 and 1975 I had the good fortune (some of the time) to work as a Geophysicist over a large area of the Sahara Desert, including Algeria, Chad, Mali and Niger.
Whilst
moving a Seismic crew from Chad to Mali, a journey of about 2000 miles, it
started to rain.
Light seasonal rain is not unusual in the Sahara, but this can normally be
measured in millimeters per year. On this occasion, the skies suddenly
opened and a Monsoon like deluge fell over large areas of the Sahara.
At the
time the crew with all its heavy equipment, was traveling across a large
flat expanse of sand, which within an hour turned into a very large lake.
We managed to get most of the equipment up onto a nearby rocky outcrop
without too much trouble. Night came and we had only one 12ft (4m) High by
30ft (10m) Long accommodation trailer left stuck in the ‘lake’, which
we decided to pull out the following morning.
Come the morning, much to everyone’s surprise, the trailer had sunk
without trace overnight. It was fortunate that we had removed all the
personal effects and any removable equipment the night before.
Although it only rained for one day, the crew and equipment were stuck on the rocky ground for about a week before we could continue our journey. Luckily we were close to ‘Timbuktu’, which we were able to visit using light vehicles and the company’s light aircraft.
What no one expected was the sudden and amazingly rapid growth of grass virtually across the entire Sahara, as depicted in the photographs, which transformed the ‘Sands of the Sahara’ into scenes more reminiscent of ‘Salisbury Plain’, England. About 2 weeks after the rain, where before you could simply walk across the flat barren sand, it was difficult to walk even 1 meter through the thick, waist high green grass.
Years
later, when I started working on this project to 'Green the Sahara
desert', it was fortuitous that I still had these photographs, partly to
prove that this story is not a figment of my imagination, but also to
demonstrate what happens to any desert when a relatively small amount of
water is poured onto the sands of the desert.
Click the
Photos below to Enlarge
Rock drawing of animals in the Sahara
circa 5,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Courtesy of www.calacademy.org
Just
Another Crazy Idea?!?
As the song says: “They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother, when they
said man could fly”, and “Christopher Columbus when he said the Earth
was round”. Whilst this may not be historically true, it does emphasise
the fact the NOTHING will be done about Global Warming, unless someone is
prepared to make a ‘Song and Dance’ about it
Can
we Control Nature?
Global
Unity would like to present the Ultimate Environmental Publicity Stunt,
the Hyper-Hype, Turning the Tide. The last person who reputedly
tried anything as silly as this was the English - Danish King Canute
(another Knut) who tried to stop the sea rolling up the beach, just to
prove he could control the sea, a bit of a power freak I guess, or just
another famous English failure. Turning the Tide will probably be
seen by many, to be a bit of similar madness, tinged with a bit of
gladness, with possibly something worthwhile at the end.
The
only Practical Solution!
The Sahara & the Arabian deserts cover an area of about 5 Million
square miles, roughly the same area as USA and India together. Irrigating
the deserts with desalinised seawater from the Atlantic, will produce an
immediate reverse affect to Global Warming. Greening the deserts of
the world is not a new idea but as far as we are aware, this is the first
proposal that combines the physical means and the practical reasons to
actually do it.
If the world’s deserts were ‘greened’, in a matter of 2 to 5 years
the Global Warming affect could be halted or even reversed.
Food
for Africa:
Social & Ecological Benefits:
Even
for those that dismiss Global Warming, this project is a fantastic
opportunity to regenerate the North African quality of life and famine
driven chaos.
One obvious,
almost immediate effect would be in food production. As shown in the
photos, within days grass sprouts out of every square inch of the desert
touched by rainwater.
Original
African Blues:
The Power of Music.
In the photos, top left, the girls
apparently started singing what can only be described as: an 'African Blues
number':
“Allha don’t love me no more”, presumably due to years with no rain.
They then changed to a much more up-tempo: “Allha loves me again, cause sent me the Rain”; well that's what Abu my Touareg guide (the guy in the white turban) thought they were singing, that’s when the guys of our African crew and some locals joined the dance.
Public
or Government Responsibility?
The
grander Global Unity projects are as PR tools, to
attract attention and raise the awareness of the Global Public to the
possibilities of environmental technology.
The vast majority of the global
public assume that addressing and solving Socio-Environmental problems is
the responsibility of government and the 'scientists’.
The fact is
that, whilst most national & local government bodies ‘pay lip
service to’ and fund social-environmental projects, very few, if any
support or fund environmental technology projects.
’Scientists’ are equally bound to the treadmill of economic
technology, "Hi-tech" i.e. space, aviation, arms & computer
technologies are very trendy, and attracts vast amounts of money.
Environmental, ergo, low technology is not nearly so trendy or exciting,
and therefore attracts small amounts of funding.
By recruiting millions of fee paying members (Shareholders) to Global
Unity, in a very short space of time (1 year), at £100 ($150) each per
year, individual members will come to realise that it is
they have sponsored and caused the Environmental Tide to Turn. People will
come to realise, by this example and by combining in Global Unity, that
they are not dependant on the Politicians & Governments or the Global
Conglomerate, the GLUCC; to affect major changes and improvements to the
global environment, and their children’s future, ‘Quality of Life’
and survival.
Global
Unity’s reason is not to gain power over the waves or countries, but to
attempt to bring together millions of people around the world, in one
common cause and the ultimate challenge, to Turn the Tide of Global
Warming.
Rising Temperature.
Due to mankind’s abuse and misuse
of fossil fuels and some serious ‘scientific misconceptions’, a very
serious situation has been created that we now know as Global Warming.
The Earth's surface temperature has risen by about 2 degree Fahrenheit in the past century, with accelerated warming (about 1 degree F) during the past 20 years. This is causing the Polar Ice Caps, especially the Arctic ice to melt at an ever-increasing rate.
Rising Water Levels.
The
water level in the seas and oceans is rising by about 1.5cm (1/2 inch) a
year. The water level is increased again to somewhere between 7 to 12cm.
(3 to 6 inches) per year when we take into account the tidal action and
equatorial tidal accumulation.
There is also the recent realisation that ‘El Nino’ effect is causing
most of the world’s recent natural disasters and freak weather
conditions.
Greenhouse
Gases.
There
is strong evidence that most of the warming is caused by human activities.
Human activities have altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere
by the build up of greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide, methane,
and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed
although some uncertainty exists about exactly how earth’s climate
responds to them. It is generally accepted that the vast majority of this
pollution is caused by the Internal Combustion Engine, in particular the
private automobile. Who’s fault it is or who’s to blame is immaterial, urgent
and drastic action is needed to halt this process, if not, mankind could
be in for a very dramatic shock.
Cooling
Action.
There
will be several immediate physical climatic interactions that will tend to
counteract the Global Warming process. The initial interaction will
be, the land and atmosphere above the desert will immediately become
considerably colder due to condensation.
The cooler air will immediately
create a massive change in the weather patterns over the Sahara. Due to
the cooling air, the barometric pressure will drop, tending to cause a
low-pressure weather pattern; this will draw in vast amount of water-laden
air from the surrounding seas and land.
CO2
Absorption.
The next obvious thing to happen is that plants will start to grow, plants
absorb carbon dioxide CO2, which is supposedly the main
greenhouse gas causing global warming. As the plant growth increases and
larger plants and trees are established, the CO2 uptake will
increase, which will tend to stabilise the world’s weather pattern.
Conspiracy Theory:
Many
people believe that their government will actually be able to sort out
these serious environmental problems, before the world sinks into oblivion
or an apocalyptic catastrophe destroys mankind. There is a lot of
theoretical evidence that Science, governments and the GLUCC
(GLobal Un-Environmental Corporate Conglomerate) are conspiring NOT to take action and therefore consciously worsen the
situation, mainly to maintain global control. This 'Political Attitude' is better
known as, "Divide and Rule".
he following images of the Sahara desert are by courtesy of: www.OneWorld Magazine Deserts.htm
Global
Warning:
Our Responsibility!
It seems to be fairly obvious to most
Political-Environmental observers, that Politics and Governments have
absolutely no intention of addressing many serious Socio-Environmental
problems.
It is Global Unity’s contention that it is the Global Public’s
responsibility, for their own sake and for the sake of their children and
society.
Two
Solutions.
Global Unity is not claiming that flooding the world's
deserts is the ultimate solution but it will make the world population
realise that there are practical, if extreme solutions that can be carried
out, rather than talking about a solution. The other practical
solution is to persuade the entire world population to stop using oil and
fossil fuel, this would be a Million times more difficult than irrigating
the Sahara desert. Irrigating
the desert with desalinated sea water
is the only practical and immediate solution available.
Global
Warming or Global Unity???
Turning
the Tide,
is a concept and project that, with the Global
Public’s
support,
promotion and sponsorship
could go someway to uniting the world. This is especially
applicable to the supposed 'third world' from which most of the world’s
strife emanates. We have all seen the enumerable films about the
apocalyptic asteroid strike, how they portray the heroes and global unity
under duress.
Opportunity of our Life-Time.
Global Warming is no less a cause, only a little more insidious, the final
results could very well be the same as a large asteroid strike. We have
the resources and we have the technology to correct what we have caused.
If the world governments sit around in interminable meetings, talking
(producing more hot air and CO2) we may
literally miss literally the ‘Opportunity of our Life-Time’ to address this most
serious crisis, and potentially ‘Life Threatening Situation’.
How
to Irrigate and Green the Sahara & Arabian Deserts?
Click here for the Technical Overview’.
We would like to hear your views. Send us an email.
Copyright © 2002 Global Unity. All rights reserved.
e-mail. globalunity2000@aol.com
