Water power

[Thinking Aloud]

Not true.

Oh. That's OK then. I feel so much wiser now.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Tell you what, go tell the thousands of people who lose their crop- and grazing land every year to the dunes that those three lizards are more important than their family's food supply.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

we know, everything happened at Purdue.

Well, I did pay attention while I was there.

[Thinking Aloud]

Tell you what, go tell the thousands of people who lose their crop- and grazing land every year to the dunes that those three lizards are more important than their family's food supply.

I'm on my way.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Tell you what, go tell the thousands of people who lose their crop- and grazing land every year to the dunes that those three lizards are more important than their family's food supply.

I'm on my way.

Good on you. I'm sure they'll understand that First World concerns trump dinner.

[Rum]

Thing is the Sahara is spreading..and fairly fast..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Thing is the Sahara is spreading..and fairly fast..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara

Yep, and irrigation would keep that in check. Of course if the lizards needed more room the elephants would have to go.

[Svartalf]

I have little sympathy for three lizards and a beetle in a furnace.

Is that different from having little sympathy for big wild dogs in hilly woodland?

In terms of life forms living there, yes. If those three lizards were displaced by a herd of deer I'd be fine with that.

Yum, venison burger > lizard meat.

[Svartalf]

No, it actually has less life per acre than a parking lot.

So what? Volume of life per m3 has nothing to do with an area's ecological value.

People want to terraform Mars. Irrigating a desert is trivial by comparison.

Terraforming Mars is the conversion of a (probably) dead planet to one suitable for living on. Converting the Sahara would not be an insignificant alteration to the biosphere of the only planet we currently can live on.

You realize that the Sahara is a drain on the global environment, right?

Water used to green a desert won't contribute to fertility in more hospitable areas... that balance enough for you, or do you intend to exploit the antarctic ice cap for your sahara project?

[Svartalf]

Thing is the Sahara is spreading..and fairly fast..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara

fault of the morons who insist on living there and enhance the desertification process with silly "agricultural" practices.

[rainbow]

[Cormac]

Yuck. Look at that example of desert vermin, taking up space where we could have solar panels and soya fields.

[Jason]

It wouldn't even make a worthwhile appetizer.

[JimC]

In any case, it's not all or nothing. A certain amount of arid land in various parts of the world could be used for a combination of solar power generation and irrigated food production, as long as substantial areas were kept as desert national parks. Also, as I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of already degraded and cleared land at the edges of deserts that is marginal for farming, certainly in Oz. Perfect for large scale solar production, without ruining more pristine areas.

In many parts of Australia, arid landscapes are not the barren sand dunes people associate with deserts, but regions of diverse, arid-adapted vegetation and wild life whose conservation value is immense.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Oh, but taking the contrarian viewpoint requires it be black and white!

And please tell me the little lizards wouldn't like to have more water, more prey and something to walk on that isn't 150F at noon.