Green Options » sahara desert http://greenoptions.com/tag/sahara-desert Posts tagged 'sahara desert' Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:02:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en When the Sahara Was Green http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/04/when-the-sahara-was-green/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/04/when-the-sahara-was-green/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:02:57 +0000 Michael Ricciardi http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/04/when-the-sahara-was-green/ A satellite image of the Sahara by NASA World Wind

A satellite image of the Sahara by NASA World Wind

The discovery of ancient human burial site in Niger, Africa last Summer (by Paleontologist Paul Sereno, Univ. of Chicago) with graves possessing numerous artifacts and and even plant fibers and seeds, was indirect confirmation of what scientists have long known: that the Sahara region was once a lush, lake-strewn region hospitable to many early human groups. In addition, many other larger fauna, like hippos, populated the area.

How this transition to a most inhospitable, arid desert (known as desertification) occurred, and how long ago, has remained an open question. But a recent analysis of the sediments (published in Science, May 2008) from one of the only permanent lakes still existing in the Sahara region, Lake Yoa, in northern Chad, has begun to offer some answers.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/04/when-the-sahara-was-green/feed/ Will the Sahara Desert’s Elephants Vanish or Survive? http://ecoworldly.com/2009/03/14/will-the-sahara-deserts-elephants-vanish-or-survive/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/03/14/will-the-sahara-deserts-elephants-vanish-or-survive/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:04:44 +0000 Gavin Hudson http://ecoworldly.com/2009/03/14/will-the-sahara-deserts-elephants-vanish-or-survive/ The desert elephants of Mali

In the Sahara, life hangs in the balance. As nomadic lifestyles vanish, urbanization threatens one of the desert’s last elephant populations. Conservationists must work fast to quell human-elephant conflict in the most arid habitat on Earth.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/03/14/will-the-sahara-deserts-elephants-vanish-or-survive/feed/ A Project to Build Greenhouses in the Sahara http://ecoscraps.com/2008/09/15/a-project-to-build-greenhouses-in-the-sahara/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/09/15/a-project-to-build-greenhouses-in-the-sahara/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:23:02 +0000 Adam Williams http://ecoscraps.com/2008/09/15/a-project-to-build-greenhouses-in-the-sahara/

Of all places to start a greenhouse, the Sahara Desert would likely rank pretty low for many. But someone is working on a plan to make food growing happen there. The Sahara Forest Project aims to use massive greenhouses to direct the sun’s rays for heat and energy, which is planned to regulate the air, filter water and create an environment for plant growth.

Via: greenpacks.org

]]> http://ecoscraps.com/2008/09/15/a-project-to-build-greenhouses-in-the-sahara/feed/ Two African ‘Lost Tribes’ Discovered Deep in the Sahara http://ecoworldly.com/2008/08/29/two-african-lost-tribes-discovered-deep-in-the-sahara/ http://ecoworldly.com/2008/08/29/two-african-lost-tribes-discovered-deep-in-the-sahara/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:13:01 +0000 Sam Aola Ooko http://ecoworldly.com/2008/08/29/two-african-lost-tribes-discovered-deep-in-the-sahara/ Archaeologist Elena Garcea of the University of Cassino in Italy brushes sand from a skeleton at Gobero. Garcea, who has spent nearly three decades excavating Stone Ages sites in northern Africa, used pot sherds and other artifacts to help identify Kiffian and Tenerian cultures at Gobero. Photo © Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration.The two tribes lived there in a plum lakeside community when the Sahara Desert, as we know it, was a lush, green country, but were separated by effects of climate change over a time line of 1,000 years.

The mystery of the lost tribes of the green Sahara has been unraveled by a joint team of archaeologists and palaeontologists who were out on a dinosaur-hunting expedition in the Ténéré Desert in present-day Niger but instead stumbled on a large, Stone Age graveyard.

Now whatever little may be known about the Kiffian and Tenerian tribes, thought to have lived in the Sahara between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago are bone harpoons, earthen pots, among other artifacts.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2008/08/29/two-african-lost-tribes-discovered-deep-in-the-sahara/feed/ Chocolate Fuels Truck Across Sahara Desert http://gas2.org/2007/12/23/chocolate-fuels-truck-across-sahara-desert/ http://gas2.org/2007/12/23/chocolate-fuels-truck-across-sahara-desert/#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2007 15:09:12 +0000 Max Lindberg http://gas2.org/2007/12/23/chocolate-fuels-truck-across-sahara-desert/ chocolate-truck.jpgWhat do they do with chocolate products they can’t sell? Off to the landfill to decompose and create methane. Wish they could just send it to me. Two young Britons, Andy Pag and John Grimshaw, have traveled more than 4,000 miles across the Sahara using such chocolate as fuel.

The two decided to prove the viability of different kinds of feedstock to produce biofuels, especially biodiesel and ethanol. They’ve done that, traveling from Poole, England to Timbuktu, Mali, 4,473 miles, using 396 gallons of fuel made from three tons of discarded chocolate.

The truck was salvaged from a scrap yard, repaired and fitted for the long trip. It will remain in Timbuktu, a donation to a local charity. The crew will also set up a small processing unit to convert waste oil products into fuel.

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