Slashdot Mirror
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."
why exactly are we to interfer with this process?
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
So basically, Bacillus Pasteurii will be used to actually turn the sand into sandstone instead of waiting for thousands of years or using other kinds of walls.
To be honest, the part which is more interesting is the fact that desertification will be stopped by using a wall. Sure, the Slashdot summary used bacteria as a hook, but in all honesty, the wall is more important than the bacteria anyway, which is why there's only a small mention of the bacteria in the source article.
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
A main part of the problem is that sand storms blow so much sand on surrounding grasslands, it kills the plants and spreads the desert. I don't see how a wall could help, unless it was kilometers high. It would need to stop this ?
No word on your mortar yet, but you can keep your overlords kthxbye.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
The most information I could find is here (the full-size images are pretty large) and here.
It's hard to pick through the information, but is this scientifically viable? Or is this the random musings of an architecture student focusing only on the architecture side, and ignoring the biology side?
If our overlords are shitting out dung, no matter how useful, I'd prefer then to be underlords, or over-to-one-side-lords, or not-over-my-head-at-least-lords.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Nonsense. You can't use atomics on shields, you can only use them on geological features. Otherwise the other great houses will obliterate you.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
As I understand the dune-grass in Northern Canada up through Oregon and Washington is invasive and a foreign species. It was originally planted as a way to stop erosion of some beaches and spread out of control almost overnight. What's to prevent something like this happening / getting out of control and wrecking the natural ecosystem of our planet's deserts?
If our overlords are shitting out dung, no matter how useful, I'd prefer then to be underlords, or over-to-one-side-lords, or not-over-my-head-at-least-lords.
Some aborigines consider dung a delicacy, you insensitive clod!!! Consider it a "desert" if you will...
Little googling revealed that bacteria could actually do it.
Bacterial cement However bacteria need nutrient (urine base btw) to do it. It may happens simple concrete could actually be cheaper.
...by artists so full of themselves that they think can understand and harness something like stone-making bacteria. I know many of these types. They want to discuss ad nauseum every single scientific advancement and it's cultural implications, thinking that they can make some important contribution to the field. It's obvious these guys don't have a clue, as they think that an ice-nine scenario is something that, first nobody thought of, and second is even possible. These are the same people who hear about the LHC and think that there's a good chance that the universe might implode when they turn it on. As if the world works like it does in the politically motivated somewhat-sci-fi books that are all the rage in these circles.
Please, stay in the coffee shops in the village, discussing the importance of your latest pathetic attempt at relevance through putting mannequin arms in toilets bowls and calling it art.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
I propose genetically engineering bacteria that turn sand into chocolate in an attempt to speed up dessertification, with a side effect of feeding starving refugees.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
If our overlords are shitting out dung
Actually, we should start to worry if they start shitting out anything other than that. At the very least I'd say a trip to the doctor is in order.
I would love to see that bacteria stop my CCNA from expiration.
Where that is defined as deserts which are advancing, and whose advance is not containable by substitution of sustainable farming practices for unsustainable ones...
Kind of a trivial semantic argument right there. Whatever the cause, whatever you call it, it's not good for people who are going to be living in sand soon.
There is no such evidence. All that is needed is sensible traditional mixed farming. And a lot less journalistic blather about desertification that is not happening, global warming that is not happening, and how the one imaginary event is a consequence of the other imaginary event. And for well meaning idiots to stop subsidizing goats.
It would be nice if they practiced responsible farming, yes. Why isn't that happening already? Is there another problem upstream of unsustainable farming practices that's causing everyone to farm stupidly? Like maybe dumb economic systems that make it such that anyone who farms anything besides goats is quickly going to lose the farm and be replaced by someone who only raises goats?
I don't know if that's the case or not, but I do know that simple answers, like the one you just gave, never work on complex problems, like the one being discussed.
Where do they expect to get enough sand to build a wall 6000 km long?
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TFA also has a blurb about "sustainable" bricks... made out of cow dung.
That's just bullshit
because they are idiots. I tried some once (my housemate got some for Christmas), it tastes exactly the same as weak coffee. Utterly pointless.