Tropical Wastelands to Croplands with Biotech

Imagine Africa feeding itself comfortably, instead of being overwhelmed by its own expanding population. Imagine millions of tropical consumers being fed without clearing more forests, thus protecting the wildlife in the very regions where most of the species of the world live and are critically threatened by population pressure. Suddenly, high-yield conservation for the tropics may not be a pipedream.

Half of the world's tropic croplands suffer from aluminum toxicity that forces crop plants to shut down their growth. Grains and oilseeds produce meager yields-and scientists haven't even known why. The resulting low yields and food scarcity have stifled the tropics' efforts in health care, technology, and economic growth. At the same time, tropical farmers have been forced to clear more forest to grow enough food for their families displacing the wild species that make the forests their home.

Set up a line of atomic reactors along the West coast of Africa, in Morocco, and use them to distill sea water into fresh water and extract the salt and other minerals from the residue. Pipe the water over the Atlas mountains to the interior of the Sahara, along the old water courses (detectable from satellite photos of the terrain), and use the water thus produced to make the desert bloom. With a sufficient amount of water thus produced, the very weather patterns of the tropics may be altered, thus actually causing at least a localized change in the climate.

The atomic reactors, out on the coast, could be producing a sizable amount of electricity as well, which could be used to industrialize the Moroccan coast, bring new prosperity to a region that has been only marginal since before Roman times. At one time, the Sahara was green, probably less than 6,000 years ago, and close to being an Eden on earth as the glaciers were retreating.

With a green Sahara, now become the breadbasket of northern Africa, the way is opened for a much greater standard of living for vastly more people than now exist there today, relieving the keen competion for the few places in Africa that are lush and green.

Something similar could be done to the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, thus providing that part of Africa with a new prosperity as well, and sort of diversifying from diamond smuggling.

Probably not. According to one researcher the problem is aluminum inhibits uptake of calcium.

“”We found aluminum inhibits calcium uptake almost immediately in aluminum-sensitive plants,” Kochian notes. “But we saw a much smaller effect on calcium uptake in aluminum tolerant plants.”

Calcium is an essential plant nutrient and plays an important role in regulating many diverse cell functions, Kochian adds.

It may be that the genetic modification changes the way the root tips take up calcium. The above writer said they covered roots in aluminum solution but only the tips were sensitive to aluminum concentrations.

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