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First we should turn the Sahara into a lush green forest as an exercise. Terraforming a remote planet will be a million times more difficult. Oh, wait, we can'

First we should turn the Sahara into a lush green forest as an exercise. Terraforming a remote planet will be a million times more difficult. Oh, wait, we can't even work together as humanity to contain a virus.

thysultan 6y ago
Better to experiment off earth than on it in such planet changing endeavors. You can afford less attention to (safety)detail in that scenario.
- russler23 6y ago
  Potentially habitable planets close enough to colonize are rare enough that we can’t afford mistakes either way.
- funnybeam 6y ago
  Or maybe not. Turning the Sahara into a forest would have a massive climate impact. I am not a climate scientist but I’d imagine there would be significant changes to rainfall patterns over most of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East Edit - sorry, reply was meant to be to parent
  - pinkfoot 6y ago
    A fair amount of the phosphorus in the Amazon comes from dust storms originating in the Sahara. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazon-s-plants https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-...
    - arcadeparade 6y ago
      given that the Sahara is only a couple thousand years old does that mean the amazon is just as young?
      - pinkfoot 6y ago
        Very good question.
      - macintux 6y ago
        An interesting article on how people shaped the Amazon. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/its-now-clear-that-ancient-humans-helped-enrich-the-amazon/518439/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/its-now-...
      - thaumasiotes 6y ago
        The Amazon is much younger; much of what is jungle today wasn't before the Columbian Exchange. There is a theory that American reforestation was responsible for the Little Ice Age.
  - ptsneves 6y ago
    There is a nice article about some paper modeling the climate if all the Sahara was covered with solar panels and wind turbines.The temperature on the Sahara would actually increase on average.rain would also https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/carpeting-sahara-with-wind-and-solar-farms-could-make-it-rain/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/carpeting-sahara-wit...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
FriendlyNormie 6y ago
Oh wait, humans created the virus in a lab. Oh wait, the only people smart enough to so much as fleetingly think about what steps would be required to terraform Venus are also too stupid to realize that the virus was made in a lab. Oh wait, the only people smart enough to push any sort of technological advancements ever are also always too stupid to realize that the mentally ill satanic pedophiles who run the world and implicitly sit atop the hierarchy of whoever they work for will use the inventions for their own evil purposes and deny everyone else access to the tech. We’re much more fucked than you think we are.
garmaine 6y ago
Those are not exclusive options.
itronitron 6y ago
fewer dissenting voices to deal with on another planet, for the time being
- ben_w 6y ago
  If you have the industrial capacity to handle metallic lead precipitation and strip away 92 times as much atmosphere as the total on planet Earth, dissenting voices are of less relevance than the contents of your spam folder.
mLuby 6y ago
There's a theory that the Sahara alternates between desert and green every X thousand years, dramatically altering the Mediterranean, European, and African climates. And BTW our species is conducting its largest peaceful "mobilization" ever to deal with this virus; it's actually quite inspiring.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > a theory that the Sahara alternates between desert and green every X thousand years, dramatically altering the Mediterranean, European, and African climates. This is a funny way to phrase the causation. The state of the Sahara is surely not exogenous -- the transition must be caused by the climate. (It can then contribute further, but why attribute the changes to an intermediary effect?)
chris_va 6y ago
(disclaimer: I work in a climate group) Please do not do this :). Deserts are great for shedding heat into space (highly reflective in the visible, highly emissive in the infrared, low moisture in the atmosphere). We had a theory (not yet published, so take it with a grain of salt) that desertification might buffer the radiative forcing effects of CO2. Unfortunately, when we analyzed the last 20 years of satellite data, the opposite is happening--people have been watering the desert like crazy, leading to a net reduction on the order of ~100-200,000km^2.

thysultan 6y ago

Better to experiment off earth than on it in such planet changing endeavors. You can afford less attention to (safety)detail in that scenario.

russler23 6y ago
Potentially habitable planets close enough to colonize are rare enough that we can’t afford mistakes either way.
funnybeam 6y ago
Or maybe not. Turning the Sahara into a forest would have a massive climate impact. I am not a climate scientist but I’d imagine there would be significant changes to rainfall patterns over most of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East Edit - sorry, reply was meant to be to parent
- pinkfoot 6y ago
  A fair amount of the phosphorus in the Amazon comes from dust storms originating in the Sahara. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazon-s-plants https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-...
  - arcadeparade 6y ago
    given that the Sahara is only a couple thousand years old does that mean the amazon is just as young?
    - pinkfoot 6y ago
      Very good question.
    - macintux 6y ago
      An interesting article on how people shaped the Amazon. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/its-now-clear-that-ancient-humans-helped-enrich-the-amazon/518439/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/its-now-...
    - thaumasiotes 6y ago
      The Amazon is much younger; much of what is jungle today wasn't before the Columbian Exchange. There is a theory that American reforestation was responsible for the Little Ice Age.
- ptsneves 6y ago
  There is a nice article about some paper modeling the climate if all the Sahara was covered with solar panels and wind turbines.The temperature on the Sahara would actually increase on average.rain would also https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/carpeting-sahara-with-wind-and-solar-farms-could-make-it-rain/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/carpeting-sahara-wit...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

FriendlyNormie 6y ago

Oh wait, humans created the virus in a lab. Oh wait, the only people smart enough to so much as fleetingly think about what steps would be required to terraform Venus are also too stupid to realize that the virus was made in a lab. Oh wait, the only people smart enough to push any sort of technological advancements ever are also always too stupid to realize that the mentally ill satanic pedophiles who run the world and implicitly sit atop the hierarchy of whoever they work for will use the inventions for their own evil purposes and deny everyone else access to the tech. We’re much more fucked than you think we are.

garmaine 6y ago

Those are not exclusive options.

itronitron 6y ago

fewer dissenting voices to deal with on another planet, for the time being

ben_w 6y ago
If you have the industrial capacity to handle metallic lead precipitation and strip away 92 times as much atmosphere as the total on planet Earth, dissenting voices are of less relevance than the contents of your spam folder.

mLuby 6y ago

There's a theory that the Sahara alternates between desert and green every X thousand years, dramatically altering the Mediterranean, European, and African climates. And BTW our species is conducting its largest peaceful "mobilization" ever to deal with this virus; it's actually quite inspiring.

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> a theory that the Sahara alternates between desert and green every X thousand years, dramatically altering the Mediterranean, European, and African climates. This is a funny way to phrase the causation. The state of the Sahara is surely not exogenous -- the transition must be caused by the climate. (It can then contribute further, but why attribute the changes to an intermediary effect?)

chris_va 6y ago

(disclaimer: I work in a climate group) Please do not do this :). Deserts are great for shedding heat into space (highly reflective in the visible, highly emissive in the infrared, low moisture in the atmosphere). We had a theory (not yet published, so take it with a grain of salt) that desertification might buffer the radiative forcing effects of CO2. Unfortunately, when we analyzed the last 20 years of satellite data, the opposite is happening--people have been watering the desert like crazy, leading to a net reduction on the order of ~100-200,000km^2.