In next month's issue of Climate Change, cell biologist Leonard Ornstein of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and David Rind and Igor Aleinov of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies outline their plan to plant a forest in the Sahara Desert. They propose desalinating seawater from the desert's nearby oceans, and using aquaducts and pumps to bring it inland. The idea is to plant Eucalyptus Grandis, which survives well in heat, which would be watered using drip irrigation. The trio claim the trees would lower the Sahara's temperature by up to 8°C Celsius in some areas, bring clouds to reflect the sun's rays back into space, and capture eight billion tons of carbon each year.

But the plan is not without its downsides. Aside from the $2 trillion a year price tag, the forest would also likely prevent iron-rich dust from the sands from blowing into the Atlantic Ocean, iron that nourishes marine life. And the increased moisture could bring a plague of locusts down on not just the Sahara, but the rest of Africa as well.

Forest a Desert, Cool the World [ScienceNOW via Popular Science]

Additional reporting by Alyssa Johnson.

In these photos, taken today, you can see visitors strolling the grounds of the biodomes that look like giant soap bubbles on the grounds of the Eden Project near St Austell, England. The biodomes have been around since 2001, and are designed to simulate a variety of climate conditions inside, creating vast enclosed gardens that you might one day see as the first phase of a terraforming project on another planet. For now, they are simply futuristic greenhouses on Earth.

Learn more about the Eden Project.

Photos by Matt Cardy/Getty Images.

Here is a view inside one of the recently-completed greenhouses.

Says the UK Guardian:

Growing hydroponically, in nutrient-enriched water rather than soil, allows the suspension of the crops at waist height rather than ground level, for ease of picking . . . The site's developers say they have taken steps to ensure the environmental impact, considering the scale of the operation, will be minimised. The huge reservoirs, which will capture rainwater and recycle the water in which the crops grow, will allow the site to be self-sufficient from May to September, draining nothing from the local utilities. The 32MW generated by the combined heat and power system, uploaded to the National Grid, will offset significant costs from the site, while some of the CO2 produced by the burning gas will used to enrich the glasshouse atmosphere.

Here's the layout.

It's like the first domed environment, where residents are creating their own (warmer) atmosphere in order to make food production possible. Locals estimate that doming the land has created over 500 jobs, and will make farming in the region far more lucrative. After all, tomatoes and other vegetables can be harvested year round.

The giant greenhouse complex isn't finished yet, but UK residents will be able to buy Thanet Earth veggies starting in October of this year.

Welcome to Thanet Earth [UK Guardian via Jaunted]

Part of what I like about the Virgle prank is that it's so well thought-out, including a detailed discussion of choosing the correct site for a Mars base, with protective lava tubes, sources of water and climate. And then it dips into total science fiction, predicting "a glistening blue bay" within a couple of generations of terraforming. And here's the funniest part:

Here's the Virgle Pioneer pitch: Things will get better. Eventually. Sure, the work will be hard, the broadband rates low, the commodes decidedly open source, and yes, your life might be extinguished in a fiery instant of catastrophic technological malfunction. But your enriched descendants will appreciate your sacrifice, which should render worthwhile your choice to spend the rest of your (perhaps radically foreshortened) life in deprivation and uncertainty.

After several failed attempts, scientists now believe that by withdrawing water from deep within the moon's inner core of newly discovered ice caverns, their terraforming operation will at last prove successful. Once the water is brought up to the surface and pumped through the eight mile wide transforming spheres, it will then be dispersed as new oxygen-rich compounds, which eventually will create a livable lunar atmosphere. The surrounding city has grown twofold in the last several months and its inhabitants anxiously await the momentous outcome.

Halo Wars takes place before the first game in the series, Halo: Combat Evolved, when the war with the alien Covenant was just beginning to break out. Set in the year 2531, the United Nations Space Command has colonies spread throughout the galaxy, turning previously barren planets into thriving communities. However, once the war breaks out people start fleeing in terror from the onslaught of the Covenant. Artist Jason Merck from Ensemble Studios makes it clear in this concept art of a group of people with bags packed and sporting warning signs in the background that it might be high time for a change of scenery. Either they've just arrived, are waiting on some sort of a hovertrain to take them away, or maybe they're watching a battle unfold in the sky.

Sadly, by the beginning of the gaming series 21 year later, most of these colonies have been lost, which means these poor painted people probably didn't survive. Check out more concept art from this upcoming game in the gallery and keep your bags packed for a quick exit.