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more and more. Regions taken for
granted as waste lands a few years ago
are now rec¡uiring development. Arte–
sian wells, lakes, rescrvoirs :tnd even
oceanside salt-removal plants are pro–
viding a little - ver}' little - water for
the thirsty Jand.
Even then, desert irrigation is full of
pitfalls. Reservoirs may fill up with silt.
Unless irrigated land is properly
drained by underground tiles, salts car–
ried in solution by desert irrigation
waters can ruin soil. Three fourths of
lraq's formerly irrigated land is now
ruined for that very reason.
Modern irrigation is not making
appreciable gains. Deserts in many areas
are growing much faster than modern
technology can reclaim them.
Look at Africa for a moment.
"The agricultura! outlook for the arid
zones of North Africa is rather grim,''
warned H. N. LeHouerou of the
Expanded Program of Technical Assist–
ance, at a recent international coofer–
eoce on
Arid Lands in a Changing
W
or/d.
He pointed out: "The pasture
lands are rapidly becoming depleted
and the desert gains more than 100,000
hectares (247,000 acres) per year on
the average."
In places, the desert in North Africa
is advancing up to 30 miles per year!
This is the same North Africa that
once constituted the breadbasket of the
ancient Roman Empire.
The Deserts Reclaimed
!
Any real and permanent solution to
the problems of arid lands must include
a source of usable water, an equitable
government, a sound economic system
and an educated populace - all on a
global basis.
The most basic problems of all are
the lack of
water
and the Jack of top–
soil. Al! other problems in arid regions
in sorne way relate to these major needs.
Any hope for the future developmcnt of
arid lands rests on finding an adeguate
supply of usable water. The humus lost
in semiarid areas through the centuries
by wrong farming practices, overgrazing
and erosion cannot be rebuilt without
adeguate water to produce a ground
cover.
To have thick forests, verdant plants
and lush crops, we must have water -
The
PlAIN TRUTH
and bave it in the oeecled amounts at
the proper time and in the right place.
Controlling the Weather
These considerations, in turn, involve
the critica! problem of CHANGING
worldwide weather patterns.
Many fantastic schemes have been
proposecl to "get rain in clue season," to
turn uninhabitable lands - with either
too much or oot enough rainfall - into
temperate, Jivable areas. Here are sorne
of them:
*US.E CARBON TO BLACKEN ARCTIC
ICE. Loss of solar energy by reflection
would be recluced. Northern wastelands
would become more habitable.
*DAM THE BERING STRAIT. By doing
this - and pumping icy Arctic waters
into the Pacific Ocean, the year-round
weather of the Arctic region would be
improved.
*(REATE A FNE·MJLE·THJCK ICE
CLOUD OVER THE ARCTIC. This would be
clone by exploding 10 so-called "clean"
hydrogen bombs beneath Arctic Ocean
waters. The steam cloud generated by
the blast would condense into water
droplets and freeze. The end result is
said to be a change in dynamics for
general circulation, thereby improving
world climate.
*BLAST HOLES THROUGH SIERRA
NEVADA MOUNTAINS. This would per–
mit the passage of moist Pacific air into
the barren Nevada desert, making it
bloom as a rose. This principie would
apply wherever mountain barriers are
responsible for creating deserts.
Other plans are: Reverse flow of
rivers, melt polar ice caps, join and
sep–
arate continenls
-
one consequence of
which would be to get moist air to
ioland deserts - create and eliminate
islands, increase rate of water evapora·
tion to put more water into the atmo–
sphere for rainmakers to manipulate.
More grandiose schemes involve con–
trolling storms such as hurricanes.
Perhaps even more astounding is the
visiooary plan for altering the atmo–
sphere of Mars and the climate of
Venus to make them habitable for man .
Mars is currently a desert-likc wasteland
similar to the surface of the moon.
The ambition of man in this regard
koows no bounds. As early as 1957 one
scientist told the U. S. Government's
Advisory Committee on Weather Con-
April 1971
trol that: "were he wise enougb, man
could produce favorable effects ...
transformiog his environment to rencler
it more salutary for his purposes."
With great gusto, he told his col–
leagues:
"By
al/ means let us get at it."
Now, suppose the immense com–
plexities of these and other projects
were worked out. Would the results of
altering such basic cycles as the hydrol–
ogy of earth - the cycle of this most
important element WATER- really be a
blessing or a curse? There is great dis–
agreement even among scientists as to
the conseguences of these gacgaotuan
projects. Many admit there is simply no
way of knowing all the dísastrous
conseguenccs of major meteorological
tampcr ing.
Scientists acknowledge TH.EY DO NOT
KNO\XI the consequeoces of their plans
to remold our planet. As in so many of
his activities, man comes to a bünd
alley. He understands what the prob–
Jems are; he may even dímly see what
needs to be done in a general way.
But then he is limited by his inability
to - as it were - step out of himself
to see the totality of the cooseguences of
his doings.
Y
et, in order to make the deserts blos–
som, to make tundra inhabitable, to
alter climate - our earth MUST BE
restructured.
The hopes of men, the clreams of sci–
entists, the prophecies of ancient meo
about a lush world of greenery, cannot
occur until the earth is physically altered.
Only theo, as one ancient prophet
worded it, will mankind enjoy Utopía:
"Even thc wilderness and desert will
rejoice in those days; the desert will
blossom with flowers ... springs will
burst forth in the wilderness, and
streams in the desert.
"The parched ground will become a
pool, with springs of water in the
thirsty land. Where desert jackals
lived, there will be reeds and rushes"
( lsaiah 3'>: l, 6, 7,
Lit·ing Prophecies
version). That is the promise of one
who calls himself God.
Could there, after al!, be a God –
one who made al! there is?
If
so, cer–
tainly He would understand what should
be done to alter the climatic patterns of
this earth to achieve what man is des–
peratcly attempting to achieve. O