RE: how to solve the fresh water problem, clean energy rising seas all by digging a ditch
December 7, 2015 at 9:30 am
(December 4, 2015 at 6:55 pm)Cato Wrote: The Qattara Depression idea has been around for a long time. Digging the canal is prohibitively expensive ($5 billion won't scratch the surface), so much so that nuclear explosions were proposed to carve it out.
Filling the Qattara Depression (area = 19,600 square km) to a level of 60m would have an imperceptible effect on global sea level (area = 361,900,000 square km).
The hope of viable farmland hinges on the promise of local climate/weather changes in the immediate area caused by the 'new' lake. Even if this panned out, salt is the big enemy. I'm not sure how you think this solves a fresh water problem since the obvious salination will contaminate any existing ground water supplies in the area.
It's certainly a creative idea and the 4400Mw or so of clean hydroelectricity is upside, but I don't think this overcomes the challenges.
The quattara depression is only one of several possible man made salt seas purposed. That particular one simply had a paper already written about how it is suggested to impact that region.
How does nature turn salt water into fresh?
Evaporation/rain. The quattra depression contains that regions largest salt deposit. Why? Because it was the basin of an inland salt sea that evaporated. So re filling a proven fresh water solar generator will put humidity back into the air which will (given enough time) create rain in that region. The salt lake and the area around it is screwed, (but then again it has been before man set foot outside the garden) but the rest of the region would benfit from rain fall and power generated by the hydroelectric dams, and 5 hour energy guy's DC power generators.
As far as building the canal I'm not suggesting this guy do it alone. Because your right 5 billion is not enough to build the canal and dam, however it is enough to research and promote the idea if valid. If it works it maybe the key to using 'global warming' and rising sea levels to our advantage in reclaiming the worlds deserts.
