Many countries propose to put seawater in the desert, but this will return the Earth to an ice age!

Dream of turning the Sahara into a sea

Sabah Al Ahmed is a large desert region located between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Until 2002, the entire desert area was still only white sand, but everything changed starting in 2003. More than 2,000 workers from 20 different countries, 29 bulldozers, 70 excavators and 113 heavy trucks were mobilized to Sabah Al Ahmed to implement a super project. That is to create a 200km long canal system to bring seawater into the desert.

A system of 200km long canals in the desert of Sabah Al Ahmed to bring seawater into the desert.

Before that, the idea of ​​digging a 600km long canal and detonating more than 200 atomic bombs in the Sahara desert to turn this place into a vast sea was almost realized in the 1980s. This idea has been studied by scientists for 140 years.

This plan was first proposed by British engineer Donald McKenzie in 1877. According to this engineer, if they could build a canal more than 600 km long from Cape Juby in Morocco southeast into Mauritania. would create an inland sea the size of Ireland. The purpose of the plan is to create more fertile land as well as help improve a wetter climate.

Some countries around the world also offer the option to channel sea water into the desert to improve climate and water supply.

They plan to use dynamite to dig the river from northwest Africa to the heart of the Sahara. In the center of the desert, explosives were also used to create deep and wide holes to lead a lot of sea water into the desert.

The only scientific basis on which scientists believe this project can succeed is the fact that areas of the Sahara desert such as Mauritania's El Djouf basin; the dry salt lakes of Tunisia; The Qattara basin in northwestern Egypt is located below sea level.

In 2012, the Iranian government decided to spend $ 1.25 billion to pump seawater into the city of Semnan in the vast desert. According to the plan, water from the Caspian Sea, after being desalinated, will be pumped to the city of Semnan. This water will be used for irrigation, industry and domestic use.

The water brought back from the sea will be used for irrigation, industry and daily life.

Not long ago, the Egyptian government intended to flood the Qattara lowland with the aim of reaping the benefits of hydroelectric projects. Hired German scientists proposed detonating 213 atomic bombs in the desert to dig the canal. This nuclear solution was opposed by the government and the Qattara lake project was forgotten.

A farm in South Australia, supported by agro-technology company Sund-rop Farms, has invested $150 million to bring seawater from Spencer Bay into the desert to grow vegetables here. They used solar energy to dewater the sea and grow high-yielding potatoes. As a result, the farm harvested eight trucks of potatoes a day, and a full year yield of 15,000 tonnes was achieved when the system was operating at full capacity.

Bringing sea water into the desert, good or bad?

From the stories mentioned above, it can be seen that the seemingly odd idea of ​​bringing seawater into the desert has both achieved success but also met with failures. However, in fact, many scientists have voiced opposition to this idea. Henry Sun, a microbiologist and research professor at the Center for Desert Research, and Katherine Mackey, a climate scientist at the University of California, Irvine, offer the following arguments in opposition.

First, the introduction of seawater into the desert can destroy the ecological conditions of the locality. Contrary to popular belief that seawater will bring abundant water and rain to the areas surrounding the desert, this has serious consequences. Because seawater will quickly evaporate and turn a large area of ​​land into alkaline-rich saline soil. The soil quality of the areas in the desert and around it would all be altered to the point where grass would not even be able to grow. As such, this idea brings us more loss than gain.

The idea of ​​bringing seawater into the desert has met with some opposition from scientists.

Second, draining almost half of the water of the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara desert will lead to unpredictable consequences. This will cause the tilt of the Earth to change accordingly. It even made the entire European continent fall into a colder state and could lead to the birth of a new ice age.

Third, the use of large quantities of explosives in the desert to dig canals can cause large earthquakes and submerge the desert in a sea of ​​water.

However, the successes achieved by some projects have raised hopes for a future ahead if scientists can find truly effective solutions to address the risk of change. climate of the planet when bringing the sea into the desert.