STORM2K

As you know, the Sahara Desert is a massive desert that spans almost the entirety of northern Africa. We are VERY UNLIKELY going to see this in our lifetimes, but I, along with some other people, have thought about a hypothetical scenario in which the Sahara Desert were turned into a forest.

If there were no Saharan Desert, there would likely be no Saharan Dust Storms, meaning people who live the Gulf would likely not experience those dust clouds. This would likely have some other impacts as well. As one could imagine, terraforming an entire desert would have... some major implications. Of course this is not gospel; we would not 100% know the impacts unless we actually terraformed the desert.

What do you think?

I'm far from an expert on the subject, but considering the major impact the Sahara Desert has on fertilizing the Amazon rainforest I can imagine that removing the desert could lead to a total collapse of the Amazon ecosystem. I didn't do any modelling research on this or anything like that so I have no idea how big the true impact would be, but completely changing one of the biggest single environments in the world must have major destabalizing effects. On the up side, even terraforming a tiny part of the desert would result in tons of more livible land for people in northern Africa. It would also lead to more trees -> more oxygen and less CO2, even though that might be countered by the disappearance of the Amazon. As you probably realize this is a massive situation with so many moving parts that an extensive modelling study would be the only way to get an idea of the impact, and even that might be very preliminary.

AlphaToOmega wrote:As you know, the Sahara Desert is a massive desert that spans almost the entirety of northern Africa. We are VERY UNLIKELY going to see this in our lifetimes, but I, along with some other people, have thought about a hypothetical scenario in which the Sahara Desert were turned into a forest.

If there were no Saharan Desert, there would likely be no Saharan Dust Storms, meaning people who live the Gulf would likely not experience those dust clouds. This would likely have some other impacts as well. As one could imagine, terraforming an entire desert would have... some major implications. Of course this is not gospel; we would not 100% know the impacts unless we actually terraformed the desert.

What do you think?

More people are going to be able to live there, but in the Atlantic, there is less dust to suppress Hurricanes . . .

The Sahara has been green before and not too long ago in geological terms. Here is an article that touches on this ... was it us and goats that made this desert we see today?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science- ... 180962668/

kevin wrote:I'm far from an expert on the subject, but considering the major impact the Sahara Desert has on fertilizing the Amazon rainforest I can imagine that removing the desert could lead to a total collapse of the Amazon ecosystem. I didn't do any modelling research on this or anything like that so I have no idea how big the true impact would be, but completely changing one of the biggest single environments in the world must have major destabalizing effects. On the up side, even terraforming a tiny part of the desert would result in tons of more livible land for people in northern Africa. It would also lead to more trees -> more oxygen and less CO2, even though that might be countered by the disappearance of the Amazon. As you probably realize this is a massive situation with so many moving parts that an extensive modelling study would be the only way to get an idea of the impact, and even that might be very preliminary.

I agree. Transforming a desert into a forest could have serious negative implications. Every ecosystem has its purpose here. I think it might be a better idea to try to preserve the current ecosystems to prevent them from shrinking or growing. The Sahara may seem like a negative ecosystem with all the sand, but it is rich in minerals which are carried to the Americas. I think we would discover many new problems if we tried to change it.

captainbarbossa19 wrote:

kevin wrote:I'm far from an expert on the subject, but considering the major impact the Sahara Desert has on fertilizing the Amazon rainforest I can imagine that removing the desert could lead to a total collapse of the Amazon ecosystem. I didn't do any modelling research on this or anything like that so I have no idea how big the true impact would be, but completely changing one of the biggest single environments in the world must have major destabalizing effects. On the up side, even terraforming a tiny part of the desert would result in tons of more livible land for people in northern Africa. It would also lead to more trees -> more oxygen and less CO2, even though that might be countered by the disappearance of the Amazon. As you probably realize this is a massive situation with so many moving parts that an extensive modelling study would be the only way to get an idea of the impact, and even that might be very preliminary.

I agree. Transforming a desert into a forest could have serious negative implications. Every ecosystem has its purpose here. I think it might be a better idea to try to preserve the current ecosystems to prevent them from shrinking or growing. The Sahara may seem like a negative ecosystem with all the sand, but it is rich in minerals which are carried to the Americas. I think we would discover many new problems if we tried to change it.

The Desert also inhibits the Atlantic basin from out-of-control Hurricanes, what would hurricane season look like without the SAL even existing?

AlphaToOmega wrote:As you know, the Sahara Desert is a massive desert that spans almost the entirety of northern Africa. We are VERY UNLIKELY going to see this in our lifetimes, but I, along with some other people, have thought about a hypothetical scenario in which the Sahara Desert were turned into a forest.

If there were no Saharan Desert, there would likely be no Saharan Dust Storms, meaning people who live the Gulf would likely not experience those dust clouds. This would likely have some other impacts as well. As one could imagine, terraforming an entire desert would have... some major implications. Of course this is not gospel; we would not 100% know the impacts unless we actually terraformed the desert.

What do you think?

I dunno bout all that....Imo..the Sahara is there for a reason, it's cool with me if it stays a desert...I mean...it may upset the balance of nature....if it ain't broke...don't fix it....but that's me....