Africa

[Gary Oak]

Robert Mugabe lost the last election but wouldn't step down. He destroyed Zimbabwe. It's great that he is finally ousted.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/ecstatic- ... 61160.html

[Blue Frost]

Good to see him go, I hope they got someone better not worse.

[Gary Oak]

There are some nations in Africa with decent leadership. There must be a special place in hell for this old tyrant.

[Gary Oak]

This may transform north Africa.

Turning the Sahara Green: Scientists Announce Plan to Bring Vegetation to Desert With Mega Wind and Solar Farms

[video][/video]

https://www.newsweek.com/sahara-desert- ... rm-1113453

Switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy is an important and necessary step towards averting climate change. However, in our efforts to go green, we also need to be mindful of other consequences, both intended and unintended—and that includes how a mass deployment of renewable technology might affect its surrounding climate.

What if the Sahara desert was turned into a giant solar and wind farm, for instance? This is the topic of new research published in Science by Yan Li and colleagues. They found that all those hypothetical wind turbines and solar panels would make their immediate surroundings both warmer and rainier, and could turn parts of the Sahara green for the first time in at least 4,500 years.

The scientists behind the research looked at the maximum amount of solar and wind energy that could be generated in the Sahara desert and the transition region to its south, the Sahel. The two regions were picked as they are relatively plausible sites for such an enormous roll-out of renewable energy, being fairly near to substantial demand from Europe and the Middle East, while having limited other demands on the land. Both have substantial potential resources of wind and solar energy. Li and colleagues also suggest that The Sahel, in particular, could also benefit from economic development and more energy for desalination, providing water for cities and agriculture.

As the two regions are so large, the solar and wind farms that were simulated in this study are the size of entire countries—38 times larger than the UK. They would be vastly bigger than any existing solar and wind farms, and could provide up to four times as much energy as is currently consumed globally.


Mega wind and solar farms could turn the Sahara Desert green for the first time in 4,500 years. iStock

This would prompt quite significant changes in the local environment—massive wind farms would raise temperatures by around 2℃ for instance, similar to the amount of global warming we are concerned about. Solar would cause a smaller temperature change, around 1℃.

Precipitation increases of 0.25 mm per day associated with wind farms sound more modest, yet this would be almost double the previous amount of rainfall. Again, the effect associated with solar parks was smaller—an increase of 0.13 mm/day—but still significant when added up over a year.

Why turbines and panels mean warmth and rain

Wind farms largely cause temperature increases because their turbine blades bring warmer air down to the surface, especially at night. This has been observed in field studies and using remote sensing. They have also been shown to increase moisture in the air.



Solar panels mean more solar radiation is absorbed and less of the sun’s energy is reflected back into space. This causes the land surface to warm up. Several studies have shown this, including one which showed that the effect of warming caused by fossil fuels, via carbon emissions, was 30 times greater than the warming caused by solar photovoltaics absorbing more solar radiation. However, temperature effects may vary within the solar park and with season.

In the Sahara simulation, extra rainfall happens because wind turbines represent an obstacle to free-flowing air, slowing it down and reducing the effect of the Earth spinning on air flow. This lowers the air pressure, and the difference in pressure between the Sahara and surrounding areas causes wind to flow there. When the air meets, or converges, in the Sahara it has nowhere else to go but up. As the air rises, water vapor in it condenses and rain drops form.

For solar, the process is slightly different: warmer air, heated by the panels, simply rises. However, this also promotes low pressure, causing air to flow there, converge and rise.

More rainfall also means more vegetation. This increases surface roughness, as with wind turbines, and causes more solar radiation to be absorbed, as with solar panels. This reinforcing cycle is known as a “climate feedback” and incorporating these vegetation feedbacks is a novel aspect of the research by Li and colleagues.
Time to make it a reality?


Creating huge solar and wind farms would be very difficult in reality. iStock

Not quite. Decisions aren’t made in response to environmental impacts alone—if this was the case we’d have already ditched fossil fuels. It’s certainly true that developing a mega renewable energy site across the Sahara and the Sahel would be a game-changer, but there are lots of other factors to consider first.

These areas may be sparsely populated but people do live there, their livelihoods are there, and the landscapes are of cultural value to them. Can the land really be “grabbed” to supply energy to Europe and the Middle East?

Coherent and stable energy policies are challenging enough within an individual nation, let alone between nations with all the potential political implications and energy security issues. Though mass amounts of cheap Saharan energy sounds like a great thing, it is not clear it would be a secure enough investment for the economics to add up.

It’s also hard to tell what this would mean for desertification, which is caused by poor land management, such as overgrazing, as well as by the climate. The changes to rainfall looked at in this study are regional, not global, and once the wind and solar farms were taken away their effects would disappear and the land could revert back to its previous state.

Overall, this is an interesting and important piece of research, highlighting the need to be mindful of unintended consequences, be these positive or negative, of the energy transition. Integrating these findings with other social, economic, environmental and technical considerations is essential to ensure we don’t leap from the frying pan into the fire.

Alona Armstrong is a senior lecturer at Lancaster University, U.K.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

[Blue Frost]

Bringing rain to one area takes it from another, not such a good idea to mess with natural weather cycles.
The Sahara used to have a great river running through it is why it was green, the Ice age dried it up, and it filled in.

[Gary Oak]

If this is true then there must have been civilizations there with their own cultures, languages, history etc.... I wonder what they were.

[Blue Frost]

Putting blame wont help you, never has helped, you have to help yourself.
Blame is the liberals excuse to make you pay more, get the drift.
This black woman has it down, I like her.

[Gary Oak]

Perhaps what Africa needs are some economic advisors. I suspect that there are other issues as well that keep Africa third world.

[Blue Frost]

Corruption is the biggest part, there is no growing if the money to build is being plundered by so many hands.
They pointed to it a little in the video, but it's been rampant in most African countries, South Africa is worse than ever with it.

[Gary Oak]

Virtually all blacks in a black run country would feel like they had won the lottery if they could live in a white run country yet so many in white run countries believe that they are victims of white people. These same victims never go on about the any of the many benefits that they have like quality medical, quality policing, quality infrastructure etc.... I agree with Donald Trump that if they hate America, hate Americans and don’t like living in America then they can leave.

[Blue Frost]

They should leave, and are hypocrites when they say they hate this country, and stay.
i was thinking earlier all the liberal Hollywood bunch that said we are out of here, but seems they lie as always as in leaving, and politics.

As for Africa, they where better off when under the European empires, even with the exploitation they where better off.
Cities where built, there was rule of law to an extent better than today, and people had jobs.
Villages where moderately safe, and people could leave them for the city for goods if they wanted, or stay to make it there.
I read some on the subject years back, one black tour guide, and hunter made it well till the Brits gave up the country he was in.
When he grew old people came in, and took what he had, and almost killed him while government knew, and did nothing. I think it was in Gambia, I forget .

[Gary Oak]

As I hav said many times in many posts that it seems to me that the Hollywood stars are used to promote views that the puppet masters want in efforts to influence the masses and if they don’t then the puppet masters will easily replace them with people who others who want the fame and fortune. This may well be I believe why sometimes some stars stop getting any roles. If this is the case then Donald Trump no doubt knows.

[Gary Oak]

I wonder what these hominids faces looked like ? What colour was their skin ? How intelligent were they ? A whole clan of them all died together. Perhaps a cloud of poisonous air breezed into the cave that they died in.

[Gary Oak]

The high class Tanzanians appear to not be all that classy. Is there really any purity in being albino ? I think I’d prefer being poor to murdering kids to get rich.

[Blue Frost]

They do that in much of Africa now, they know it's money just like Elephant tusk, or Rhino horn.
It's a really sick practice.
Just wait till they go after White people which they will eventually.

Gotta appreciate those Massi, I have not in my life seen anything bad about them.
There may be, but the real Massi you have to respect their culture.

[Gary Oak]

One of the points that I found interesting is that it is the elite rich of Tanzania trying to have these albinos abducted for human sacrifice.

[Blue Frost]

This has been going on a long time now, ans the prices has skyrocketed.
I remember one family that was looking for a safe place, but the whole family was slaughtered, and ate I later found out.
It would have been nice if some politicians would have stepped in from outside, and put pressure on their government, or at least offered them a place in their country.

[Gary Oak]

A giant underground river system kept the Sahara green.

[Blue Frost]

If people lived there they would put pumps in, and drain it like they are doing ours in the western part of the country like Texas, Arizona, to California.

[Gary Oak]

I knew nothing about Djibouti until I watched this short video.