11 ms·

You have to make relative impact judgement eventually. Pure relativism will just paralyze you. No reasonable person is going to think that replacing 1km^2 of

You have to make relative impact judgement eventually. Pure relativism will just paralyze you. No reasonable person is going to think that replacing 1km^2 of the central Sahara is equivalent to bulldozing 1km^2 of the Amazon. "More life" might be simplistic, so call it more life*biodiversity for total impact or whatever you want. And in this specific example, the fact is that you are impacting almost no desert species in the dry parts of the Sahara. I suspect you are conflating low-moisture "deserts" like the Sonoran desert, where there is in fact life to impact: http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTQQZ0DZRlKp1Ht0B-4W44wuL5yThNZ8jzk1lDbzp4zahQJjG6Aqw http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTQQZ0DZRlKp1Ht0B-4W... with the central sahara: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/09/550x366x152309-004-B86402CF.jpg.pagespeed.ic.7rrq8YOutu.webp http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/09/550x366x152309... Where no, there is really nothing to impact.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Nobody is building anything on sand dunes. That's a straw man, right? Its the rocky places that have life, and are also useful for construction projects.
- Retric 11y ago
  Huge chunks of the Sahara are man made. Protecting that is a really arbitrary choice. Your basically suggesting to protect the 'dust bowl' because you happen to be born after the disaster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
  - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    The Sahara has been there for centuries now. Its not a local disturbed weather pattern by now. So as an ecological issue, its significant. It should be considered when proposing megaprojects that alter square miles of ground. Yet it hardly gets mentioned. I take this as evidence we are not serious about ecological impact issues.
    - Retric 11y ago
      Sure, it's ~5-15,000 years old. The snowball started a feedback loop when people cut down local forests and over grazing killed off a lot of grass land. Altering local wind patterns etc. But, that's still an eye blink in terms of ecology.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

Nobody is building anything on sand dunes. That's a straw man, right? Its the rocky places that have life, and are also useful for construction projects.

Retric 11y ago
Huge chunks of the Sahara are man made. Protecting that is a really arbitrary choice. Your basically suggesting to protect the 'dust bowl' because you happen to be born after the disaster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  The Sahara has been there for centuries now. Its not a local disturbed weather pattern by now. So as an ecological issue, its significant. It should be considered when proposing megaprojects that alter square miles of ground. Yet it hardly gets mentioned. I take this as evidence we are not serious about ecological impact issues.
  - Retric 11y ago
    Sure, it's ~5-15,000 years old. The snowball started a feedback loop when people cut down local forests and over grazing killed off a lot of grass land. Altering local wind patterns etc. But, that's still an eye blink in terms of ecology.