Sahara Forest Project shows promise

Arnold Schwarzenegger stole the show for a while as a star speaker at COP15 (and confirmed that California is the best state in the world), but the Sahara Forest Project remains by far the most original initiative to combat climate change.

The concept of the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) is to use sea water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to provide fresh water, electricity and food. The four partners behind SFP claim that the world is not short of water, but rather that the vast quantities are too salty. They propose using sea water to counter the challenge of desertification and assert that hundreds of thousands of clean, green jobs will be created in the process.

The SFP project may remind some of scenes from Frank Herbert's Dune novels, in which attempts are made to revegetate the fictional planet Arrakis. Others will ask, what about the desert ecosystem? Certainly, the Sahara was fertile when Caesar campaigned in North Africa in 70BC to supply Rome with grain, but there is still life in the growing desert today.

SFP experts say the that biomimicry holds the key to success. There are plenty of examples of resilient creatures living in the desert, such as the thorny devil that drinks through pores in its feet and the camel, which stores fat in its humps and also recovers moisture from its nostrils when it exhales. The SFP, however, mimics a Namibian desert beetle.

Learning from nature

At night, this beetle releases heat accumulated during the day to regulate its body temperature. The cooler nighttime breeze causes droplets to form on its wings, which run down and the beetle drinks them. In the morning, it retires for the day, sheltering from the sun beneath the sand. As one of the project partners, Michael Pawlyn from Exploration Architecture explains, the idea is "to learn from nature" and "to transform aridity into abundance."

The problem with agriculture in dry climates is that there is too little water and too much heat. Charles Paton from Seawater Greenhouse, another partner, said that although irrigation was a pillar of the green revolution, it lowers water levels in the soil over time, thus actually causing droughts in the long run.

The SFP proposes confronting these challenges by building greenhouses that use photovoltaic panels to capture the sun's energy, and then using this to evaporate sea water. The left-over salt is caught in cardboard filters and can be used as table salt. The sea water is thus turned into fresh water. The humidity created within the greenhouse not only creates an environment conducive for the growth of algae and other produce, but also creates a fertile zone around it. The greenhouses would be placed around 40-50 metres apart to allow for the growth of pioneer vegetation in the soil between them.

This sounds great, and it gets better. Feasibility studies presented on the sidelines of COP15 conclude that it works. A pilot greenhouse in Tenerife, Spain, grew lettuce (which is very difficult to grow in high heat) and French beans (which are very salt intolerant). A second pilot greenhouse produced tomatoes in Abu Dhabi this summer. Ongoing tests in Oman are producing cucumbers.

Not only is the potential for agricultural yields tremendous, but green jobs are also created, responding to needs from Morocco to Syria and beyond. SFP claims the project could be replicated in India, Mexico, China and Egypt. Next year, SFP greenhouses will be trialled in Australia.

Green and black

As defined by another partner, Friedrich Hauge from the Bellona Foundation, SFP can "go green and produce black numbers". Profitable for everyone, from workers to investors, this is a feasible green business. Other ambitious energy projects, such as Desertec, are criticised for using fresh water in Africa to export electricity to Europe.

For the SFP, one major preoccupation is how to get sea water to the greenhouses. The easy answer is to explore depressions below sea level so as not to have to pump the water at a high cost. Areas of interest are the Araba Valley in Jordan and the Qattara Depression in Egypt, which is exponentially larger and has the potential to create more jobs.

We're not there yet — it needs to be determined that this project does not further disrupt nature. For now, visit www.saharaforestproject.com.

Stuart Reigeluth is editor of Revolve magazine.