It's nice being green.

September 20, 2002 9:59 AM

It's nice being green. The south Sahara's getting its groove back, after 4,000 years.
posted by DenOfSizer (9 comments total)

...Wow, no comments yet? I, for one, think this is great news - I wonder how long it'll be before we can actually green the entire Sahara?
posted by wanderingmind at 11:19 AM on September 20, 2002

"The driving force behind the retreat of the deserts is believed to be increased rainfall."

Woah... and I thought I was smart.
posted by dawiz at 12:39 PM on September 20, 2002

I wonder what archelogical goodies are under all that sand; if the saraha was prime real estate 4,000 years ago, there could be entire lost civilizations under there! maybe? i don't know.
posted by condour75 at 1:10 PM on September 20, 2002

You're mixing two different things up. One is the gradual movement of the Sahara back and forth, which happens over moderate time, but still within several lifespans, and is greatly affected by human use. The other is the existence of the Sahara as a whole, which will not disappear over anything less than geologic time. Human intervention has little if anything to do with it.

Vaca
posted by vaca at 2:06 PM on September 20, 2002

Surely that should be "getting its grove back"?
posted by BinkyF at 2:44 PM on September 20, 2002

You're killing me, BlinkyF! Now I'm a copse! Just deserts, I spose.
posted by DenOfSizer at 3:22 PM on September 20, 2002

Or maybe it has something to do with the river flowing under the Sahara.
posted by yonderboy at 9:46 PM on September 20, 2002

"I'm the Sahara Desert ... and lemme tell ya, I don't get no respect! {applause} The other day my cousin the Amazon Rainforest was over. Every time we start to talk she gets a call on her cell -- from some celebrity! Of course, she takes the call! They're all trying to stop her from being farmed, if yanowhadimean. I said, Cousin Ammy! Gimme some respect, here! She puts Gwyneth Paltrow on hold and says maybe I need to go out and get myself farmed. {silence} I said, maybe I need to go OUT and get MYSELF farmed. {laughter} Lemme know if my humor's too dry here. Too DRY, I said. {chuckles}"

One thing I'm glad about is that they're proving that it wasn't "overuse" of the Sahara that created it -- that bursts a myth that was taught as holy gospel back when I was in school. (Deserts were chic, then, so to speak -- because of the African famine.)

And if we could dig under the Sahara, we might find something a little like Ubar.
posted by dhartung at 12:26 AM on September 21, 2002

Years ago I heard of using radar like this to find things beneath the sands, sounds cool. Here is one the field leaders. The article I remember did a desert scan, found a river conflunce & then got digging, finding arrowheads, potsherds and so on, 'till today I've never thought of it.
posted by Psyclo at 2:26 AM on September 21, 2002