Can desert to forest be a good way to deal with climate change?

A recent scientific paper claims that planting trees in the desert is the best measure to deal with climate change. In view of the current climate change, scientists have their own magical powers. Some people suggest setting a big mirror on the earth to reflect sunlight into space, while others consider spraying hundreds of tons of shiny sulfide in the sky to form clouds and block sunlight. Nowadays, scientists can imagine the most magnificent geo-engineering to deal with climate change, that is, planting trees in the Sahara desert and turning the desert into a dense forest. Scientists say this move can "completely eliminate global warming". Leonard Ornstein, a molecular biologist at Mount Sinai Medical College in new york, and Igor Aleinov and David Raiend, two climate modelers from the National Oceanic and Meteorological Administration of the United States, put forward this idea. The three men recently published the outline of their plan in Climate Change magazine, and cautiously pointed out that this plan "is the best and fastest way to end various measures to control greenhouse gas emissions at present". According to the plan, the fastest growing eucalyptus will be planted in the Sahara and the Australian inland, and the seawater will be purified by desalting plants and then reach the desert through a series of complicated irrigation systems. These newly planted trees will form their own weather system and rainfall system, and at the same time absorb carbon dioxide from the global atmosphere. The team's calculations show that the desert turned into a forest absorbs 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year, which is as much as the carbon dioxide released by global fossil fuels and deforestation. However, this plan sounds very expensive, and several people said that it is far more economical than global investment in carbon capture and storage technology (CCS). "The cost is of course amazing, but the problem solved is very serious." Austin said that he is famous for his avant-garde molecular technology-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, which was put forward in the 1960s. "This proposal is not a joke. I believe that with today's technology, this is the most promising and realistic way to solve this problem. " The plan costs $654.38+$0.9 trillion annually. CCS plans to spend $800 billion a year, compared with our huge expenditure, but CCS can only solve 20% of the problems, and our plan can be done once and for all. At the same time, CCS plans to build a high-pressure pipeline system in the most prosperous residential area, which is very risky, while our plan is to build a canal in an uninhabited desert. There has been a great controversy about planting trees to combat the increase of carbon dioxide, because places like Canada and Siberia are located in the northern hemisphere, where planting trees will cause the color of the ground to change from light color dominated by snow and stones to dark tree color, thus absorbing more sunlight and offsetting the benefits brought by cold air to the local area. Austin said that this problem does not exist in subtropical areas such as the Sahara Desert and the Australian outback. These areas are sparsely populated, and there are "human settlements, agricultural and natural biological communities that produce food", the research team said. "We must grit our teeth and deal with all this. Global warming will not disappear naturally ... solar energy, geothermal energy and wind energy can play a very small role. The sooner we plant trees to form forests, the more time we have to make adjustments, and perhaps we will have time to develop more effective alternative technologies. " Austin said that several countries with serious desertification, such as Saudi Arabia and western Egypt, are very suitable for this project. The plan can provide job opportunities and investment opportunities, and at the same time, it will provide sustainable wood raw materials as biofuels instead of fossil fuels for a long time. Other related projects that can be implemented in desert areas, such as installing giant mirrors and installing solar panels to generate electricity, will not be affected. Since this paper was published a few weeks ago, Austin has tried to discuss it on a special website, but with little success. Critics point out that the desert is not completely barren, but has a rich and diverse ecosystem. If trees are planted in a large area, the original ecosystem will be destroyed. Austin retorted: "If sacrifice is inevitable in order to eliminate global warming, then compared with others, the almost nonexistent ecosystems in the Sahara Desert and the Australian outback should be expendable." However, this plan also has followers: "We should take this matter very seriously. Although greening in these areas will encounter many practical and political obstacles, its benefits are unpredictable and much more effective than carbon sequestration. (non-shellfish)