Some of these principles have been successfully implemented in ecological design, the approach that applies nature's principles to food production, generation of fuels, conversion of wastes, and repairing environments (8, 9). Eco-parks (floating wind turbines with specially cultivated microorganisms) were successfully used to revitalize the dead waters polluted by toxic waste from a local landfill and septage water dump in Cape Cod and decompose high-strength industrial food wastes in Brazil, Australia, China, Central Europe, and United States.
Let us examine how the proposed recommendations can be applied to deserts. The major problem with desert environment is water deficit. This problem can be solved if we remember that up to 90% (depending on the interplay between temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration) of the water that entered the soil is given off by plant transpiration and soil evaporation back to the atmosphere. Greenhouses in which the transpired and evaporated moisture is collected and condensed, much like it is done in Russian and American ground-based biomodules for future space stations (for example, by using special moisture-absorbing sponges) instead of letting it go to the atmosphere, can be used to grow vegetables and fruits for food and crops and biomass for biofuel.
One of the critical wastes in many industrial processes is carbon dioxide. But at the same time, the increased concentration of carbon dioxide enhances the growth of plants. For example, a group of scientists at Weizmann Institute's Environmental Sciences and Energy Department found that the increased concentration of carbon dioxide led to the expansion of the Yatir forest, planted at the edge of the Negev Desert 40 years ago, into arid lands (10). This is attributed to the fact that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide make it easier for plants to consume carbon dioxide without giving off a considerable amount of water vapor through their pores.
In order to develop deserts and slow down desertification, we can build wasteless eco-industrial parks integrated with solar- and wind-powered generators of electrical power and greenhouses with closed water loop producing biomass and food. In these parks, the capacity of industrial plants should be limited by the capacity of greenhouses to consume their wastes as nutrients and/or catalysts (phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc.) and the total capacity of power-storage facilities for the operation in dark periods. Carbon dioxide can be used for enhancing the growth of plants and the production of additional amounts of water needed for operating needs (Sabatier reactors, Bosch reaction). Consequently, the parks can reduce the emission of harmful gases into atmosphere. In addition to nature-like water treatment operations such as electrostatic ionization and percolation, the water can be treated in solar stills, which are powered by free solar energy. The industrial plants involved in the parks should be located as close as possible to the sources of electric power and the consumers of their wastes, such as greenhouses, Sabatier reactors, etc., and should not produce any substances that can poison the living organisms and plants in the greenhouses. Biofuel can be one of the products of these parks, which can be used to produce power for their operation in dark periods. A part of the absorbed sunlight should be used for the metabolic processes in the plants and the rest for the production of electric power and heating thermal accumulators. The high efficiency of such parks can be provided by their wasteless operation, the efficient allocation of their subsystems and units, the use of natural nutrients available in the desert and those contained in industrial wastes and produced in the greenhouses, the use of free solar and wind energy and the natural mechanisms of photosynthesis and respiration in plants.
Specific interdisciplinary scientific and engineering studies have to be performed to determine the feasibility and cost benefits of this approach to the development of hot deserts for different parts of the world. In particular, computer scientists should develop efficient monitoring systems to watch and control material balances and flows throughout the park; operations research specialists should develop the procedures for optimal allocation of facilities and efficient use of resources; biologists and ecologists should study and catalog various biological processes to determine inputs, outputs, and process rates; space technology specialists should apply their experience in life-support systems design to build closed-loop systems; engineers should apply structural thinking and their experience in chemical technology, alternative energy, and agricultural fields. The studies can be started with the Mojave Desert in California, the Great Basin Desert in Nevada and Utah, the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts in the US Southwest and Mexican North, the Arabian desert, and the Negev desert in Israel. Then, the results of these studies can be extended to the Sahara and other African deserts.
Some of the potential benefits brought about by the proposed approach are the slowdown and eventual reversal of the desertification trend; the migration of many industrial production facilities from mild-climate regions, where most people live, to deserts; the generation of biofuel for both industrial facilities and transportation devices in deserts; the increased availability of potable water and food in deserts. From the humanitarian viewpoint, billions of dollars spent by UN on desertification consequences and poverty in Africa may be used to develop infrastructures that will make poor African countries self-sustainable. The economic benefits may be the potential boom of investments in desert lands, which would help minimize the risks of economic crises such as the recent collapse of the housing market that contributed to the turmoil on Wall Street.
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References and Notes
1.           N. Middleton, D. Thomas, Eds., World Atlas of Desertification (United Nations Environment Programme, ed. 2, 1997).
2.           "Media Brief for the World Day against Desertification and Drought" (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, June 14, 2004); http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/mediabrief/mediabrief-eng.pdf.
3.           G. Knies, "Global Energy and Climate Security through Solar Power from Deserts" (Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation in cooperation with The Club of Rome, July 2006); http://www.desertec.org/downloads/deserts_en.pdf.
4.           "International Energy Annual 2005" (U.S. Information Energy Administration, June-October 2007); http://www.eia.doe.gov/iea/overview.html.
5.           S. V. Chizhov, Y. Y. Sinyak, The Water Supply of Spacecraft Crews (Nauka, Moscow, 1973) [In Russian].
6.           F. M. Sulzman, A. M. Genin, Life Support and Habitability (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Reston, VA, 1994).
7.           T. Appenzeller, Science 263, 1368-1369 (1994).
8.           N. Todd, J. Todd, From Eco-Cities to Living Machines: Principles of Ecological Design (North Atlantic Books, Berkley, CA, ed. 2, 1994).
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