PLanetologists? The ultimate in arrogant job titlesFollow

What do you all think of this? I really don't think anyone, or any group of anyones on the planet has a firm enough grasp of planetary dynamics to be able to difinitivly say "yes, x is better for the whole ******* planet than status quo". Someday, maybe we might get to that point, but we aren't there yet.

General consensus has always been that if the human race destroys itself, it will be in the fire of a global nuclear holocaust. I'm not so sure though. I've seen people give serious consideration to massive climate change projects like dumping millions of tons of chemicals into the ocean to alter co2 levels on the planet, etc, without any form of scientific concensus on the issue. Even those who agree that climate change is an issue cannot agree on magnitude or scope of the problem, and there are 0 accurate climate change models on the planet right now. Nothing we have produced has been accurate to this point, so who are we to undertake something like introducing thousands of tons of bacteria into a desert to see what happens?

I dunno, what do you think? Is humanity ready to start ******** with things like this yet? Or do we really have no choice?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8166929.stm

Wall 'could stop desert spread'
By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News, Oxford

Desert sands, and the dunes that they form, are constantly on the move

A plan to build a 6,000km-long wall across the Sahara Desert to stop the spread of the desert has been outlined.

The barrier - formed by solidifying sand dunes - would stretch from Mauritania in the west of Africa to Djibouti in the east.

The plan was put forward by architect Magnus Larsson at the TED Global conference in Oxford.

A 2007 UN study described desertification as "the greatest environmental challenge of our times".

"The threat is desertification. My response is a sandstone wall made from solidified sand," said Mr Larsson, who describes himself as a dune architect.

The sand would be stabilised by flooding it with bacteria that can set it like concrete in a matter of hours.

North African nations have promoted the idea of planting trees to form a Great Green Belt to prevent the spread of the sand.

A similar proposal - known as the Green Wall of China - has also been proposed to stop the spread of the Gobi Desert.

Ballooning idea

In 2007, the UN issued a report that said that one third of the Earth's population - about two billion people - are potential victims of desertification.

The idea is to stop the desert using the desert itself

Magnus Larsson
It is concerned that the slow creep of the sands will displace people and put new strains on natural resources and societies.

Problem areas include the former Soviet republics in central Asia, China and sub-Saharan Africa.

"It affects about 140 countries," Mr Larsson told BBC News.

Mr Larsson showed pictures of a village called Gidan-Kara in Nigeria which had had to be moved because of the creep of the dunes. He said it was one of many examples.

The architect's proposed wall across the desert would be a complement to, rather than a replacement, of the Great Green Belt proposal.

"It would provide physical support for the trees," he said.

Crucially, he said, it would leave a barrier even if the trees were removed.

"People are so poor in these countries and these regions that they chop them down for firewood."

The wall would effectively be made by "freezing" the shifting sand dunes, turning them into sandstone.

"The idea is to stop the desert using the desert itself," he said.

The sand grains would be bound together using a bacterium called Bacillus pasteurii commonly found in wetlands.


Moving dunes displace both people and crops
"It is a microorganism which chemically produces calcite - a kind of natural cement."

Mr Larsson got the idea for using the bacteria from a team at the University of California Davis, which had been investigating its use for solidifying the ground in earthquake prone areas.

Mr Larsson envisages injecting the dunes with the bacteria on a massive scale or using a barrage of giant bacteria-filled balloons.

"We allow the dune to wash over this structure then we would pop the balloon," he told BBC News.

The scheme would also have advantages for nearby populations, he said. For example, it could be excavated he said to provide shade, shelter or as a structure to collect water.

However, Mr Larsson admitted that the scheme faced numerous practical problems.

"There are many details left to explore in this story: political, practical, ethical, financial. My design is fraught with many challenges," he said.

"However, it's a beginning, it's a vision; if nothing else I would like this scheme to initiate a discussion," he added.

TED Global is a conference dedicated to "ideas worth spreading". It runs from the 21 to 24 July in Oxford, UK.

We already have, ever since we stopped living in caves.

But then instead of using all of the hardened sand to build ****, they'd have to make them out of glass, and people who live in glass houses can't change clothes.

You mean SyFy channel

I'm going to assume that Planetologists are just grown up Planeteers.

Live in a place prone to molestation? Move. It ain't always that simple darlin'.

It's not, but this brings up the conversation of people rebuilding in New Orleans. Want to go back to their homes, back to faulty levees and an area of the country that is going to be more prone to the same devastating weather now.

We should realize by now that the planet has it's own patterns, everything changes. Roll with the punches or be another fatality. Trying to stop mother nature is unnatural(STFUBD) and in the end it's pointless. They have no idea what kind of ramifications in the long term any of these "fixes" will cause.

So basically the entire region of The Netherlands should be evacuated and resettled. Got it.

Yeah, much of the SE coast of the US has been face-lifted more than MJ. A wall seems like something the ACoE would come up with - but a wall made with bacteria? Walls are pretty easy to build with inanimate materials.

We inject bugs into the ground, though, to clean up aquifers of nasty chemicals. - Enhanced Bioremediation FTW!

Would a wall actually stop the spread of a desert? Wouldn't the other side of the wall just become...desert?

Isn't that was desertification is?

I always thought that deserts were caused by climate changes and not, you know, evil sand dunes.

Yeah, but their bacteria plan basically turns a desert into a big rock, as long as the bacteria would continue to spread and multiply, unless they plan to kill off the bacteria before that.

If the bacteria will die before that would occur, answer's to A&B:

A) Less sand would blow over it, thus successfully slowing or stopping the desertification.

B) The idea is for the weathering to be done by plant life thus making soil rather than sand. Even if it was worn away by wind, it would likely take quite a long time to do so.

Everytime I see that name, I think of an STD =/