what's the future of the middle east desert

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by Shadow1, Feb 21, 2010.

  1. Shadow1 Valued Senior Member

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    so, what do you think, do you think that this is teh future of the most parts of the deserts?
     
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  3. Pinwheel Banned Banned

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    I thought desalination was very energy intesive.
     
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  5. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    Generally not so much in deserts - solar power is good like that (not talking about converting it to electricity first either, you can use solar energy to provide the heat for desalinization directly).
     
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  7. Shadow1 Valued Senior Member

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    yes, like that water boiler, you know, that one, that use solar power, to make water hot, so you can use it at the shower, or anyother place at the house,

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    all houses here use it,
     
  8. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    My wife is very interested in the economics of water because she insists that it will take the place of petroleum in the world economy before too long. She told me that modern geological technology has discovered that there are huge undergound reservoirs of water but they are very deep, i.e. the depth is measured in kilometers. There is one beneath Iraq so large that it could satisfy the entire world's need for water for the rest of this century. (Just what the poor Iraqis need: another natural resource for everyone to fight over.)

    So one way or another, I suspect that bringing water in bulk to arid regions will become a reality before long.

    On a personal scope, small economical solar stills have been invented that can convert one liter of polluted water or even wastewater into pure drinkable water, per day. They could be manufactured in a place like Vietnam or Bangladesh and sold at a profit for $5 each. Someone like Bill Gates could buy enough to give one to every citizen of the Third World who currently has no fresh water supply. If it takes ten years, that would probably be equivalent to his family's charity budget.
     
  9. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    It certainly is a good time to aim for greening the deserts


     
  10. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Wouldn't it be ironic if that turns out to have unintended consquences that cause gigantic problems of their own? Remember: "You can never do just one thing."
     
  11. jmpet Valued Senior Member

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    I have been working on the desert problem for almost a year and see no unintended consequences if it's done properly, which requires vast amounts of either lime and water or prison labor.
     
  12. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Depends on what infrastructure is available and how surrounding areas deal with their waste
    Its important to educate the people about the changes and what the consequences will be to their lifestyle

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    source
     
  13. jmpet Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, but foresting the desert is still a doable thing.
     
  14. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Of course it is. I'm just saying that Fraggle is also not wrong about unintended consequences. The two are not mutually exclusive.
     
  15. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Solar desalination is very simple and effective application of solar power. The best approach would be a combined solar-electric desalination system. I would imagine the best most efficient solution would be to use a power tower in which mirror focus sunlight unto a boiler tower, like below

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    The boilers is covered with high efficiency GaAs photo-voltaic cells, these cells are extremely expensive but because the boiler has ver small surface area and the mirrors multiple the effect surface area x1000 the price of the photo-voltaic cells per watt produces is reduced to economic levels. But with that much sunlight focused on the PV panel the panel would melt if not kept cool, that is what the boiler is for, salt water is pumped through the boilers and keeps the panels below or at 100C. That hot water that is produced undergoes desalination as in below.

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    Such a combined application would have great efficiency: 30-40% of the light converted to electricity, the other 70-60% utilized to make fresh water. Also the salt brine waste can be converted to salt without spending much more energy, making sea salt a 3rd product.
     
  16. Shadow1 Valued Senior Member

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    Turning the deserts into green zones, and small forests, will make a great positif affect on the global weather, and may improve the invirement, and send more oxygene and other gases into the air, and the atmosphere,
    so, turning deserts into green, that would be awesom, not forgtting to mention the other postifs that it will bring,
     
  17. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Let's not forget tourism!!!
     
  18. Shadow1 Valued Senior Member

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    effcorse, don't also forget, the desert tourism, the desert is beautifull also, i wish if they are goign to turn in all green, they should leave some zones and places, walled, so the desert don't expand, and they let it be, a beautifull desert, the desert also have it's charm
     
  19. superstring01 Moderator

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    I think that that assessment will only be true on a regional basis. Water rich places like Western Europe, South America and North America have merely to build a few pipe-lines to get the job done internally. Moreover, as necessity is the mother of invention, as fresh water becomes scarce, technology will undoubtedly be found to easily convert sea water into fresh water. Most of the world's population exists within a few hundred miles of the ocean where potentially unlimited hydration exists.

    ~String
     
  20. ripleofdeath Registered Senior Member

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    sandy says the forecast is a little gritty with a high chance of chaffing
     
  21. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    There is no future for the driest areas of the Middle East. Energy intensive projects like greening the desert are doomed to fail unless there is a readily accessible source of water nearby. When peak oil hits, we are likely to see these areas return to their former state, a land unable to support a large population.
     
  22. ripleofdeath Registered Senior Member

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    they could always build super highways with salt and desalinate water using a nuclear power plant.
     
  23. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Nuclear power plants take massive inputs of fossil fuels to construct.
     

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