Bacteria Could Help Stop Desertification

Bridgette Steffen writes "In attempt to slow down desertification, a student at London's Architectural Association has proposed a 6000 km sandstone wall that will not only act as a break across the Sahara Desert, but also serve as refugee shelter. Last fall it won first prize in the Holcim Foundation's Awards for Sustainable Construction, and will use bacteria to solidify the sandstone."

Comments

Re:Specifics

[rolfwind]

I read a while ago about a German guy who invented a way to make farmable land out of desert:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,551152,00.html
(He moved on to make a radar camoflaging paint):

"The project seemed promising at first, as cucumbers, radishes and beans thrived on Nickel's test fields on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. But the project also consumed vast numbers of worms -- 3,000 per square meter, to be exact -- which eventually made the project too costly for its sponsors."

I wonder what the costs between the two projects are or if they could be used in conjuction with each other (to lower costs) somehow.

Re:How will a wall help ?

[MichaelSmith]

Years ago I read about a plan to build a huge wall (for want of a better name) in central Australia. The wall would be thousands of metres high with a triangular cross section. In effect, an artificial north-south mountain range. The idea is that a lot of water vapour crosses Australia without precipitating because it never gets pushed to high enough altitudes to cool and condense. The article also suggested that the interior of the mountain could be used to store grains. I suppose these days we would put Afghan refugees in there as well.

Re:I for one

[robthebloke]

because they are idiots. I tried some once (my housemate got some for Christmas), it tastes exactly the same as weak coffee. Utterly pointless.