National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Publication Abstracts

Ornstein et al. 2009

Ornstein, L., I. Aleinov, and D. Rind, 2009: Irrigated afforestation of the Sahara and Australian Outback to end global warming. Climatic Change, 97, 409-437, doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9626-y.

Each year, irrigated Saharan- and Australian-desert forests could sequester amounts of atmospheric CO₂ at least equal to that from burning fossil fuels. Without any rain, to capture CO₂ produced from gasoline requires adding about $1 to the per-gallon pump-price to cover irrigation costs, using reverse osmosis (RO), desalinated, sea water. Such mature technology is economically competitive with the currently favored, untested, power-plant Carbon Capture (and deep underground, or under-ocean) Sequestration (CCS). Afforestation sequesters CO₂, mostly as easily stored wood, both from distributed sources (automotive, aviation, etc., that CCS can not address) and from power plants. Climatological feasibility and sustainability of such irrigated forests, and their potential global impacts are explored using a general circulation model (GCM). Biogeophysical feedback is shown to stimulate considerable rainfall over these forests, reducing desalination and irrigation costs; economic value of marketed, renewable, forest biomass, further reduces costs; and separately, energy conservation also reduces the size of the required forests and therefore their total capital and operating costs. The few negative climate impacts outside of the forests are discussed, with caveats. If confirmed with other GCMs, such irrigated, subtropical afforestation probably provides the best, near-term route to complete control of green-house-gas-induced, global warming.

• Get PDF (1.4 MB)
• PDF documents require the free Adobe Reader or compatible viewing software to be viewed.
• Go to journal webpage
• Go to supplementary material

Export citation: [ BibTeX ] [ RIS ]

@article{or02000x,
  author={Ornstein, L. and Aleinov, I. and Rind, D.},
  title={Irrigated afforestation of the Sahara and Australian Outback to end global warming},
  year={2009},
  journal={Climatic Change},
  volume={97},
  pages={409--437},
  doi={10.1007/s10584-009-9626-y},
}

TY  - JOUR
ID  - or02000x
AU  - Ornstein, L.
AU  - Aleinov, I.
AU  - Rind, D.
PY  - 2009
TI  - Irrigated afforestation of the Sahara and Australian Outback to end global warming
JA  - Climatic Change
VL  - 97
SP  - 409
EP  - 437
DO  - 10.1007/s10584-009-9626-y
ER  -

• Return to 2009 Publications

• Return to Publications Homepage