In the 1950s there was consideration given to flooding inland Australia with sea water via a huge canal formed by using nuclear charges.
The idea came to nothing.
"The Menzies government of the 1950s actually did a feasibility study of this very idea. The proposal was to use nuclear charges to dig a canal from Spencer Gulf near Port Augusta to Lake Eyre"
EDIT: I think part of the idea of having an inland sea was so that there would be evaporation leading to precipitation of obviously fresh water into Australia's arid inland.
EDIT @ Kano: I assume the huge canal envisaged was just that, massive, think Straits of Gibraltar. I can't seem to find much about it on internet. Was it also to be used by ships?
Just found this:
http://jbmoore61.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/...
Actually, in reality, most of our CO2 in the air is offset by the OCEAN, not land plant life. The ocean absorbs 90% of the CO2 in the air and turns it into O2, and this is because algae in large bodies of water can have a lot of photosynthetic activity. Even turning all deserts into forests would not offset this. Also, it takes a lot more than just flooding and planting to make deserts into forests. You'd have to establish good black earth there and make it so the land can hold nutrients and water, then transport good water there, which the world is running out of BTW, and then plant a lot of plantlife and then make sure the place gets productive enough to be a rainforest, then there'd be rainforests, and then you'd have spent a lot more CO2 than you can absorb in this millennium. It'd be a lot better to spend those billions on renewable research or renewable energy implementation, which would actually offset carbon emissions.
Just flooding a desert would not necessarily stop it from being a desert. Deserts are deserts due to things that can't be changed, like the location of mountain ranges and the subtropical high pressure systems. For example, it would not be that difficult to flood the Salton Sink area of Southern California's Colorado desert. It's already several hundred feet below sea level, and the Gulf of California could be extended northward. But it would still be a desert, just one with an inland sea.
More than that has been spent on worthless scientists proclaiming AGW. That is a total waste. It takes more than just water to make the change you are seeking. But it would be a start. However, let us say you were successful, what are the political consequences? If a process like that was started, fast buck artists would siphon off most of it even before they got it started.
Well South Australia has a huge big desalination plant built in anticipation of the droughts. But the resulting rainfall has made it virtually obsolete. Not quite as useless as their current government, which is thankfully coming to an end.
The question is not if it can be done. The problem is that that there will be no agreement on starting a project like this anymore.
Only take a look at the doggedness with which climate change skeptics deny what meanwhile everybody can see looking out his window I have no hope anymore that things will change for the better during my life time or that the tide will be turned at all anymore.
Never mind space, the money used on climate science research would have planted millions of trees and reduced CO2,
Actually CO2 is helping, and deserts are receding http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/24/th...
Yes we should be looking at techniques for improving land use, and desalination is not only an answer, seawater will grow mangrove trees if a little fertilizer is used.
Hmm interesting Flossie, I heard of a similar proposal for the Sahara, but why a canal surely it could be done with a pipeline using siphonic action.
Nice idea, but unfortunately we need deserts. It helps to dry out our atmosphere. Too much water vapor will cause more clouds which in turn cause more cooling (clouds reflect solar radiation back to space). The Earth will maintain its own equilibrium just as it always has.
Remember 1 thing : The Little Ice Age ended in the mid 1800s. It lasted around 500 years. The entire Planet has warmed 0.8C since 1880. Alarmists tend to omit this fact in their tall tales of Global Catastrophes happening.
well they have been working on this , The weather modification program has been doing this for years , but even with moving the jet streams and seeding with com trails , we just can't make it rain were we wont it to.
please dont do that let a desert be a desert i think you an turn an empty space itno one
Should the 8 so called super powers be making a huge joint effort to turn baron deserts into lush rain forest's. why could we not flood a desert and plant thousands of trees until it starts it own weather system. There has been ￡150 Billion spent on the International space station, why not put efforts on saving the earth.
We could even use Sea water if desalination (http://www.lenntech.com/processes/desalination/general/desalination-key-issue.htm?gclid=CMrKxpLT8rgCFU_MtAod7ngAUg )
If you think its far fetched look what one man done.
http://www.webpronews.com/man-plants-1360-acre-forest-single-handedly-2012-05
feel free to make any comments you wish, saracstic, witty, insulting, and funny answers all welcome.
Simple..lets not destroy another ecosystem.
