Water is both essential and hazardous to life. We tend to populate nearer to rivers and lakes contrary to arid and semi-arid environments. However, flooding also results in the destruction of property and loss of life. Although there have been attempts to control the weather, as by filling the atmosphere with chemicals to cause more rain, flooding from one hurricane can be enough to fill billions of swimming pools. Simply put, the atmosphere is too large for us to control its natural effects. It is also chemically complex. Although hydrogen and oxygen combine as fuel whereby water becomes a byproduct, the procedure is of a high temperature energy that can also result in hydrogen bonding with nitrogen in the atmosphere for more greenhouse effect, and with oxygen of the upper ozone layer that shields us from too much ultraviolet light from the sun in preventing sunburn and cancer instead of our bodies using it only to produce vitamin D.
What has been more successful is beaver-engineering. The Romans built a huge empire along with an elaborate structure of miles and miles of mostly underground aqueducts and reservoirs. The construction of the Grand Coulee dam in the state of Washington provides electricity along with a prosperous farming community. Countless dams and reservoirs are likewise beneficial here and there. Extracting water from more humid air to allow more natural flow along with water usage in arid regions could also be effective.
More beaver-engineering could indeed be beneficial. Dust from the Sahara Desert of Africa reaching Florida since the 1970s has attributed to the destruction of corral reefs. The Sahara Desert is more than three thousand miles from near the Red Sea to near the Atlantic Ocean. It is the most arid region of Earth's surface, but there are underground flows of water from the Atlas Mountains, and other mountainous areas, that provide flourishing oasis here and there.
The main population of Egypt has flourished beside the Nile River, but the Nile Valley could become flooded by the rise of sea levels from global warming. Storing water in the Sahara Desert part of Egypt, similar to the Roman aqueducts and underground reservoirs, could be an effective counter. Moreover, although the desert is hot and dry, sunlight and dry trade winds blowing southwest towards the equator are plentiful for the developmental use of solar energy. They could be used to tunnel into the desert whereby water could be collected, transported and stored with more efficiently with productive use, as for underground-greenhouse-gardens protected from the sandy wind of the desert. Sturdy dome structures atop the soil could also counter the destructiveness of the wind.
Algeria, with its populated area bordering the Mediterranean Sea, has invested in solar energy of sunlight and wind. It also supplies Europe with a large amount of natural gas. Although the natural gas can pollute the atmosphere with both too much hydrogen and carbon, it would not be a pollutant if used in a confined manner. If controlled with underground use, the hydrogen and carbon of the natural gas combined with nitrogen and oxygen of air could be converted to water and a fertilized form of nitrogen for plant growth. The plant growth, in turn, would resupply the atmosphere with oxygen and nitrogen. Moreover, although excess hydrogen in the atmosphere can contribute to global warming, hydrogen can also be converted to helium, which is already done for commercial purposes. Helium used for solar-powered-blimps could transport water to desert greenhouses and transport products from those greenhouses to wherever needed.
Such investments in the future could pay for themselves in the present. Economic wealth is essentially product; money is merely a means of credit to facilitate such investment. More food, water and livable environment could result in a fair distribution of wealth for the promotion of peace and prosperity. The investment could be shared, as in analogy to a stock exchange, whereby the elderly could receive a retirement income. If there are fewer products in the future, then inflation reduces retirement income whereby our grandchildren become more in debt instead of having products aplenty to spend their money on. Prosperity is thus achieved by investing in the future, whether by free enterprise or by government. The latter could be more effective for environmental concern in the sense water along with air is essential to life but too plentiful for economic value, and is thus an economic burden to industrial pollution. Politically, there is the need to overcome "me first".
About Author / Additional Info:
I had many thoughts and ideas. Writing and research has enabled me to formulate them constructively. They include physics, economics and climate change.
