Magnus Larsson: Turning Sand Dunes into Architecture

Applying microbiology to saving the world from desertification.  A project of this size (building a sand wall across Africa) is full of challenges but I find his proposal to be scientifically and economically sound.  In Oryx and Crake (Atwood), I read about microorganisms modified to destroy asphalt and thus were weapons of bioterrorism as they destroyed highways and infrastructure.  Here, microorganisms are employed in a beneficent fashion that has far-reaching and widespread consequences from geography to politics.

Loss of arable land is a major concern as we struggle to feed the world population.  Loss of greenery can only lead to more greenhouse gases staying up in the air, which leads to climate change.  Starving refugees from these areas become concentrated within refugee camps, becoming a prime breeding ground for new diseases and viruses (higher opportunity for mutations with less healthy people in close proximity).  Politically, famine brings about civil unrest, political conflict, scapegoating and genocide, and war.  I could ramble on about the ramifications and the interacting forces at work here but the "big picture" forming in my mind could fill a novel.

This project has a lot of hurdles to overcome but it certainly has an aspect of "set it and forget it".  Once you culture the bacteria, nature will take care of the rest.  Now it's up to the nations to band together to allow this project to go forward.

I personally believe that throwing money at Africa in the form of foreign aid and food is doing absolutely nothing, to say the least, or is merely a band-aid fix, to say the most.  With so much corruption prevalent in so many African governments, much of the aid provided never reaches those who need it most.  We must solve the rampant corruption so we can help them help themselves.  In other words, we must teach them to fish.