io9 
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 2:56 AM
Thu Nov 26
21 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors: tips@io9.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz | Email
News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders | Email
Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner | Email
Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis | Email
Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan | Email
Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier | Email
Ed Grabianowski | Email
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan | Email
Lauren Davis | Email
Chris Hsiang | Email
Lynn Peril | Email
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins | Email
Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox | Email
Interns:
Tim Barribeau | Email
Julia Carusillo | Email
Alex Eichler | Email
Cyriaque Lamar | Email
Caitlin Petrakovitz | Email
Mary Ratliff | Email
Josh Snyder | Email
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/18/09
You know what it's going to a be
a hundred years from now?
It's going to be a ------- desert!
We have deserts in America
we just don't live in them!"
09/16/09
Today, we have the power to change the climate, for good or ill. Abdicating this responsibility is a choice with consequences, just as trying to use this ability for good is a choice with consequences. Pretending that somehow, the blind forces of nature "know best" is just a way of running away from our responsibilities, and of ignoring the power we now have, which is a dangerous way of thinking.
09/16/09
If the climate does it, fate, well, then the results may be tragic, but there's no one to get mad at, no one to hate--it's just the way things turned out.
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
(I was seriously going to pitch a fit if the first comment wasn't a Dune joke, and now it's a random Harvey Birdman joke.)
09/16/09
09/16/09
Given that a desert's borders are always in flux, I'm in principle opposed to reclaiming land from it. I am opposed to whiping it out entirely, since the desert also serves its purposes. My biggest concern is over what they plan on using to reclaim it. Introducing species just makes bigger problems in the end.
09/16/09
Really, Is there a specific reason that there have been so many "Dune"-related posts lately? Apparently, you just know I was re-reading it, and decided to contribute.
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
Minimizing our impact: I'm all for it. But let's not screw up the climate trying to air-condition places that have very real reasons to exist.
Dear scientist guys, please repair what we break. Don't redecorate to suit your own tastes.
Thanks.
09/16/09
How about planting forests in places that need them.
09/16/09
Also, adding stuff like trees might make that land arable again...after a few centuries, perhaps, but it would still be massively worth it.
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
And then subjugate them.
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
My understanding is that like many of the large mammals of the Americas & Europe, that humanity is responsible for it disappearing.
Replanting it is actually a great idea, in my book.
09/16/09
Like others in this thread have said, it used to be a forest, but humanity destroyed it. By building cities, by farming, whatever. Maybe if it's returned to natural grassland or forest, the cities will experience storms, or disasters, due to the terraforming of the desert.
09/16/09
Were there any major population centers there before it turned into the big sandy? I would think it it would take a hell of a lot of people to have such a major impact and that there would be substantial evidence of their passing.
03/27/09
"Terraforming.
To transform (a landscape) on another planet into one having the characteristics of landscapes on Earth."
"Terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth to make it habitable by humans."
By definition terraforming isn't something done on earth, it's done on other planets. So no, humans have not been terraforming since the early days, and in fact never have.
03/27/09