Sounds like they need a little Permaculture…
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2009/12/11/greening-the-des...
The video above is a followup (6 years later) to greening a section of the desert in 2003.
Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
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Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#12This says the humidity of the Sahara desert is 25%. I wonder if you could devise some kind of system to collect water from the air? (Taking advantage of the big difference in day and night temperatures) https://saharadesertinfo.weebly.com/humidity.html
Gonna need some Freman to operate it....
Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#13My idea would be to flood lower than sea level deserts with ocean water and then start a mangrove forest. (They thrive in salt water) Of course the evaporation might raise the salinity above what they could handle. Perhaps a monthly flush out somehow?
It has been proposed in the past - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_Sea.
Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#14My idea would be to flood lower than sea level deserts with ocean water and then start a mangrove forest. (They thrive in salt water) Of course the evaporation might raise the salinity above what they could handle. Perhaps a monthly flush out somehow?
Wasn't there even a plan that involved using up the nuclear stockpile to 'dig' a channel and drain the Mediterranean Sea? Of course there might be some opposition to that currently.
Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#15Seed Balls Kenya is another reforestation initiative that looks impressive. They recycle charcoal dust to not only form a protective shell around seeds embed within it but also provide necessary nutrition when those are planted in degenerate areas.
Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#16Less than 500 acres planted using sewege water from cities. The rest (planting millions of acres of forest) is just a wishlist and the article is short on details.
Seems like a nice use of otherwise problematic expensive-to-treat waste.
Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the current forest that was started in 98. The one that they're starting now is 100 million hectares (1 million sq km).
That is 380 times larger. Unless they are massively underutilizing the current wastewater stream, they need to multiply the irrigation water use efficiency that much, unless they think of forest is going to alter weather systems in such a way that brings rain to the area.
> unless they think of forest is going to alter weather systems in such a way that brings rain to the area.
I am not an expert, but based on books and articles I've read[1], forests tend to do that. I think you don't even need a large patch of forest for it to attract rain, anecdotally.
[1] Get an old copy of The Forest and The Sea by Marston Bates, if you can.
"In 1960, he published the ecological science book The Forest and the Sea, an introduction to how ecosystems work. He compares a rain forest and a tropical sea, their similarities and differences, and through it demonstrates how to understand biological systems."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marston_Bates
Influential book, I believe.
Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#18Sounds like they need a little Permaculture… https://www.permaculturenews.org/2009/12/11/greening-the-des... The video above is a followup (6 years later) to greening a section of the desert in 2003.
More like a lot, but the right idea ...
Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#19Less than 500 acres planted using sewege water from cities. The rest (planting millions of acres of forest) is just a wishlist and the article is short on details.
Israel already gets the majority of its water, including for irrigation, from desalination.[1] They achieve this through a combination of conserving and recycling water as well as very targeted irrigation of crops, along with new technology such as the Sorek desal plant. The second generation may be up and running by 2023 [2]. There's an interesting paper [3] about building 40,000 Sorek style plants to sequester exce…
Evaporate the brine and sell it as artisanal sea salts?
Re: Egypt has managed to plant trees in the desert using wastewater
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the current forest that was started in 98. The one that they're starting now is 100 million hectares (1 million sq km).
That is 380 times larger. Unless they are massively underutilizing the current wastewater stream, they need to multiply the irrigation water use efficiency that much, unless they think of forest is going to alter weather systems in such a way that brings rain to the area.
Something worth reading into are the Nile Water Treaties put into place under British rule of the area, which strongly favour Egypt.
This has come up due to Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the plans being made on how quickly to fill up its reservoir.
I mention this as making forests in the desert is going to end up being a political issue and will likely be used in arguments over water rights in the region, even if its total draw is inconsequential.