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I live near a desert and i know that there is some life in deserts, and some deserts even look lush for a couple of weeks after rain. But the amount of life in
by chr1 7y ago
I live near a desert and i know that there is some life in deserts, and some deserts even look lush for a couple of weeks after rain. But the amount of life in a desert is orders of magnitude smaller than life in more lucky places that get more water.
I agree that deserts are fascinating ecosystems, but at the same time they are very sparse and very miserable places. And it's hard to find a better place for a mine other than ocean floor (for which we do not have a good technologies yet, unfortunately).
- the_watcher 7y agoWould you support mining in the Antarctic or Arctic regions? They're very similar to Death Valley in terms of total amount of life, and fewer people live anywhere near them.
- chr1 7y agoYes, if it means one less mine in tropical regions or near the places where people live, that is a net benefit. Arctic region is not even in its natural state, but is a result of human intervention from 10K years ago, when by eliminating mammoths we converted highly productive savanna-like arctic steppe into mosquito infested empty place it is now. Of course any mine anywhere must be controlled to produce as little pollution as possible, and rare species must be protected, or their genomes must be digitized. But if it was technologically feasible, i would even support terraforming both of this regions to make them habitable.