Irrigated Afforestation of Deserts to Thermostat the Earth, End Global Warming and Provide Enormous Sustainable Sources of Wood to Replace Non-renewable Fossil Fuels
Leonard Ornstein Abstract Large-scale irrigated afforestation of sub-tropical deserts and, separately, reduced-impact logging (RIL) of fallen trees in ‘virgin’ tropical forests, have been proposed [1,2] as techniques to sequester more CO2 than has been dumped into the atmosphere, by the burning of fossil fuels and by deforestation, since the beginning of the industrial revolution (~1850). These two techniques could also provide a sustainable, low-CO2-foot-print1 replacement for the (non-renewable) fossil fuels that presently sustain world economies. Yet such opportunities have been almost totally neglected in discussions of mitigation of anthropogenic global warming (AGW). This essay reviews this problem and argues that such techniques, that can be accomplished mainly with well-established, (rather than new) technologies, provide an affordable way to thermostat the earth and preserve and improve quality of life (QOL). http://www.pipeline.com/~lenornst/ThermostattingTheEarth.pdf -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/geoengineering/-/k5mFuJ3G-B0J. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en.
