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Comment by thysultan | Hacker News Reader

Better to experiment off earth than on it in such planet changing endeavors. You can afford less attention to (safety)detail in that scenario.

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Or maybe not. Turning the Sahara into a forest would have a massive climate impact.

I am not a climate scientist but I’d imagine there would be significant changes to rainfall patterns over most of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East

Edit - sorry, reply was meant to be to parent

A fair amount of the phosphorus in the Amazon comes from dust storms originating in the Sahara.

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-...

given that the Sahara is only a couple thousand years old does that mean the amazon is just as young?

Very good question.

An interesting article on how people shaped the Amazon.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/its-now-...

The Amazon is much younger; much of what is jungle today wasn't before the Columbian Exchange.

There is a theory that American reforestation was responsible for the Little Ice Age.

There is a nice article about some paper modeling the climate if all the Sahara was covered with solar panels and wind turbines.The temperature on the Sahara would actually increase on average.rain would also

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/carpeting-sahara-wit...

Potentially habitable planets close enough to colonize are rare enough that we can’t afford mistakes either way.

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