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Description

     On May 15, 2085, Humanity conquered the Climate Crisis. While not wholly devastated, the world’s climate system had been badly damaged, with sea levels rising approximately 1.1 meters and global mean temperatures settling 1.5 degrees Celsius above their pre-Anthropocene levels. Overwhelming international efforts in transitioning away from fossil fuels, sustainable economic and industrial development, and ending environmental degradation succeeded in holding back the worst of scientific projections for the state of the planet, causing the United Nations to declare the crisis “under control.” Africa, particularly the continent's northern half, is perhaps one of the best microcosms of the Climate Crisis’ effects on human civilization. Rising sea levels and accelerated desertification squeezed millions across the region, forcing them away from their homes as some of the continent’s largest and oldest cities were abandoned to the climate and forcing large-scale migration either southward, to the Sahel and West African Coast; or north, towards the Atlas Mountains. While a smaller population continued to live in the Sahara, the majority had fled to select parts of the coast or into the already-crowded cities of the Sahel.

  Concepts for localized geoengineering projects in the Sahara date back to well before the foundation of the African Federation and even before the old United African States system preceding it. Proposals from the late-1800s and early-1900s explored the idea of building canals to fill low-lying basins of the Maghreb with seawater both as a boon to regional development and to improve the local climate. Plans continued to be put forward through the 20th century into the First Cold War, although bans on peaceful nuclear explosions put an end to most of them. Modern proposals for Saharan geoengineering from within the UAS date to the late-2050s, as terraforming practices recently begun on Mars drew attention to the possibility of large-scale environmental projects on Earth. In the 2060s, as the Fossil Crisis halted terraforming efforts on Mars, large climate and engineering firms published studies detailing the feasibility of not only returning Northern Africa to its pre-Climate Crisis environment but terraforming the region into a more habitable form, building off both Martian techniques and smaller afforestation projects from the 2030s.

  These studies were at the forefront of the neo-environmentalism movement that gained popularity across the planet through the 2060s and 2070s. Neo-environmentalism argues that human activity has severely altered and left its mark on every corner of the earth, pointing to the Climate Crisis and developments of the Anthropocene and more historical events, such as the eradication of megafauna in the Western Hemisphere and the Agricultural Revolution as examples. Therefore, there is no inherent value in seeking to preserve these damaged ecosystems since there are none left in their original, pre-Human, “pristine” conditions. Instead, given the technological progression that Humanity has seen since the beginning of the Anthropocene, it's possible - and Humanity’s duty, as the only intelligent species on the planet - to actively intervene and restore damaged ecosystems to their original state. Neo-environmentalism strongly favors using macro-engineering and geoengineering practices as effective means to pursue that goal.

  Neo-environmentalist ideas found popularity among academics, business leaders, and politicians in the United African States, particularly those in the continent's northern half, whose homelands had been strangled between the growing sands and rising seas. It was only at the end of the UAS, however, that streamlined governmental practices and generational changes in leadership allowed these ideas to be put into action. In 2087, three years after the Second Addis Ababa Treaty formed the African Federation, a coalition of several northern constituent countries published a proposal for a large-scale Sahara geoengineering project. Using both new terraforming techniques discovered on Mars over the past four decades, alongside traditional macro-engineering ideas, the report detailed a comprehensive, multi-decade plan to create several freshwater lakes and over a million square kilometers of new savannah in the middle of the largest desert on Earth.

  The proposal was met with broadly positive reactions among both the Federation’s bureaucracy and general population, particularly those who had been pushed out by the Sahara in the preceding decades. Due to its exorbitant costs, which made it the single most expensive investment in the continent’s history, it was still the subject of fierce debate in the Federation’s legislature. However, as plans became more and more fleshed out and a detailed system for how the project would be paid for was slowly drafted (a mix of tax reforms and self-sustaining economic effects through reliance on domestic firms), opposition dwindled. Finally, in April 2090, a much more extensive and detailed version of the original 2087 plan was adopted as official policy of the African Federation, modified to be completed by the 200th anniversary of the first post-colonial states on the continent, and christened the African Bicentennial Geoengineering Project.

  The Project officially began six years later, with the opening of the Grand Ubangi Aqueduct in 2096. The 305-kilometer pipeline drew freshwater from the Ubangi River and delivered it to the Chari River, eventually collecting in the Chad Basin. This was combined with reinvigorated afforestation and oasification techniques to improve soil quality around the basin to help create a sustainable ecosystem. While based on the Sahel Green Wall project of the 2020s and 2030s, which planted hundreds of millions of trees in a semi-successful effort to combat desertification, techniques deployed during the ABGP made use of plant life that was genetically modified to be hardier than their unmodified counterparts, allowing them to take root in the arid regions much easier, thereby accelerating the increase in soil quality. The disappearance of Lake Chad in 2033 had been a significant cause of emigration from the surrounding region, and thus the first signs of the lake filling in 2099 became a sign that the geoengineering project could work.

Farther north, similar practices were deployed alongside an increased industrial presence to oasify other regions. In 2100, the completion of a 15.4-kilometer canal from the Gulf of Gabes would allow for the gradual filling of the Chott el Djerid and surrounding basins in Algeria and Tunisia. Despite the hypersaline marshlands and shallows which formed as a result, the slow rate of filling allowed for sustained evaporation of water vapor into the air, which, combined with mass cloud-seeding operations in the Grand Erg Oriental to the south, allowed for the first major rainstorms in thousands of years to hit the middle of the Sahara beginning in 2105. This brought much-needed water to the Ahaggar Mountains and surrounding highlands, rejuvenating natural oases and, in some cases, providing enough runoff to supply major river systems in the future, which would, in turn, supply other freshwater lakes. This cloud-seeding practice was replicated on the Algerian and Moroccan coasts, supplying rains supporting afforestation operations in the Atlas Mountains.

    To the east, similar basin-filling projects have started construction in Egypt and Cyrenaica. In Egypt, a canal from the Mediterranean to supply desalinated water to the Qattara Depression opened in 2105 and is expected to fill the 19,000 km² basin by 2115. This is combined with a series of freshwater canals and artificial rivers from the Nile to fill several large basins in the Western Desert as part of the New Valley Project, creating tens of thousands of square kilometers of arable land which the Egyptian government hopes it can use to coax climate refugees and other residents out of the overcrowded cities of the Nile Delta. In Cyrenaica, the pumping of water both from underground aquifers in the south and desalinated water from the Mediterranean in the north is expected to fill three large sabkhats (salt lakes) near the Gulf of Sirte through the 2110s, eventually becoming freshwater and creating a new system of farmland and rivers, one of which is expected to flow eastward towards Lake Qattara, growing a strip of fertile land across the Great Sand Sea.

    Alongside the planned freshwater lakes and hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of arable land, new industrial facilities and communities are planned as a part of the ABGP. To support the creation of new canals and the lakes they supply, new desalination centers and aquifer pumping facilities are planned across the desert, powered by new hydroelectric dams and expanded solar energy projects. To support the projected influx of climate refugees and new residents, 30 planned cities and dozens of new agricultural communities have been proposed to feed Africa’s 3.6 billion-strong population. Additionally, over 20,000 kilometers of rail and road transport are planned to connect the new population centers across the Sahara.

    In January 2110, the African Bicentennial Geoengineering Project is in its 14th year of operation. One of the most extensive organized engineering efforts in modern human history, the project has attracted support from all over the African Federation, firms from other countries, and the United Nations. Since its inception, it has moved steadily towards its goals with little interruption. There is, however, some debate from more socially-conservative members of African politics over the status of the native people of the Sahara in the wake of the ABGP. The Berber and Tuareg peoples, which had inhabited the desert for nearly 2 thousand years, had long voiced concern over how the oasification of the Sahara would impact their way of life. While economic concessions and promises of a retained desert environment in large parts of Azawad and Ahaggar have persuaded some, others have been forced to adapt to the changing times, taking up permanent residence in the new planned cities.

     Despite this, there appears to be no real obstacle to the Project’s completion, with the latest projections giving only 36 years until all major goals are met. Beyond the Sahara, other projects and proposals based on the ABGP have entered political debate, including projects for geoengineering in the Australian Outback, North American Great Basin, and Rub al Khali. With the Project inching closer and closer to completion with each passing year, it continues to exemplify the relationship between Humanity and the climate throughout the Anthropocene, from the driving force of the development of civilization to something that can be worked with and, ultimately, made peace with; molded for the better in pursuit of a more livable, more sustainable future.
--------------------
Thank you to JebediahKerman001 , NK-Ryzov , and manitobot for their help in everything from helping research, creating the map, and proofreading. Couldn't have done this without you. Thank you to YNot1989 for inspiration, from his Seas of the Sahara post.

Description

     On May 15, 2085, Humanity conquered the Climate Crisis. While not wholly devastated, the world’s climate system had been badly damaged, with sea levels rising approximately 1.1 meters and global mean temperatures settling 1.5 degrees Celsius above their pre-Anthropocene levels. Overwhelming international efforts in transitioning away from fossil fuels, sustainable economic and industrial development, and ending environmental degradation succeeded in holding back the worst of scientific projections for the state of the planet, causing the United Nations to declare the crisis “under control.” Africa, particularly the continent's northern half, is perhaps one of the best microcosms of the Climate Crisis’ effects on human civilization. Rising sea levels and accelerated desertification squeezed millions across the region, forcing them away from their homes as some of the continent’s largest and oldest cities were abandoned to the climate and forcing large-scale migration either southward, to the Sahel and West African Coast; or north, towards the Atlas Mountains. While a smaller population continued to live in the Sahara, the majority had fled to select parts of the coast or into the already-crowded cities of the Sahel.

  Concepts for localized geoengineering projects in the Sahara date back to well before the foundation of the African Federation and even before the old United African States system preceding it. Proposals from the late-1800s and early-1900s explored the idea of building canals to fill low-lying basins of the Maghreb with seawater both as a boon to regional development and to improve the local climate. Plans continued to be put forward through the 20th century into the First Cold War, although bans on peaceful nuclear explosions put an end to most of them. Modern proposals for Saharan geoengineering from within the UAS date to the late-2050s, as terraforming practices recently begun on Mars drew attention to the possibility of large-scale environmental projects on Earth. In the 2060s, as the Fossil Crisis halted terraforming efforts on Mars, large climate and engineering firms published studies detailing the feasibility of not only returning Northern Africa to its pre-Climate Crisis environment but terraforming the region into a more habitable form, building off both Martian techniques and smaller afforestation projects from the 2030s.

  These studies were at the forefront of the neo-environmentalism movement that gained popularity across the planet through the 2060s and 2070s. Neo-environmentalism argues that human activity has severely altered and left its mark on every corner of the earth, pointing to the Climate Crisis and developments of the Anthropocene and more historical events, such as the eradication of megafauna in the Western Hemisphere and the Agricultural Revolution as examples. Therefore, there is no inherent value in seeking to preserve these damaged ecosystems since there are none left in their original, pre-Human, “pristine” conditions. Instead, given the technological progression that Humanity has seen since the beginning of the Anthropocene, it's possible - and Humanity’s duty, as the only intelligent species on the planet - to actively intervene and restore damaged ecosystems to their original state. Neo-environmentalism strongly favors using macro-engineering and geoengineering practices as effective means to pursue that goal.

  Neo-environmentalist ideas found popularity among academics, business leaders, and politicians in the United African States, particularly those in the continent's northern half, whose homelands had been strangled between the growing sands and rising seas. It was only at the end of the UAS, however, that streamlined governmental practices and generational changes in leadership allowed these ideas to be put into action. In 2087, three years after the Second Addis Ababa Treaty formed the African Federation, a coalition of several northern constituent countries published a proposal for a large-scale Sahara geoengineering project. Using both new terraforming techniques discovered on Mars over the past four decades, alongside traditional macro-engineering ideas, the report detailed a comprehensive, multi-decade plan to create several freshwater lakes and over a million square kilometers of new savannah in the middle of the largest desert on Earth.

  The proposal was met with broadly positive reactions among both the Federation’s bureaucracy and general population, particularly those who had been pushed out by the Sahara in the preceding decades. Due to its exorbitant costs, which made it the single most expensive investment in the continent’s history, it was still the subject of fierce debate in the Federation’s legislature. However, as plans became more and more fleshed out and a detailed system for how the project would be paid for was slowly drafted (a mix of tax reforms and self-sustaining economic effects through reliance on domestic firms), opposition dwindled. Finally, in April 2090, a much more extensive and detailed version of the original 2087 plan was adopted as official policy of the African Federation, modified to be completed by the 200th anniversary of the first post-colonial states on the continent, and christened the African Bicentennial Geoengineering Project.

  The Project officially began six years later, with the opening of the Grand Ubangi Aqueduct in 2096. The 305-kilometer pipeline drew freshwater from the Ubangi River and delivered it to the Chari River, eventually collecting in the Chad Basin. This was combined with reinvigorated afforestation and oasification techniques to improve soil quality around the basin to help create a sustainable ecosystem. While based on the Sahel Green Wall project of the 2020s and 2030s, which planted hundreds of millions of trees in a semi-successful effort to combat desertification, techniques deployed during the ABGP made use of plant life that was genetically modified to be hardier than their unmodified counterparts, allowing them to take root in the arid regions much easier, thereby accelerating the increase in soil quality. The disappearance of Lake Chad in 2033 had been a significant cause of emigration from the surrounding region, and thus the first signs of the lake filling in 2099 became a sign that the geoengineering project could work.

Farther north, similar practices were deployed alongside an increased industrial presence to oasify other regions. In 2100, the completion of a 15.4-kilometer canal from the Gulf of Gabes would allow for the gradual filling of the Chott el Djerid and surrounding basins in Algeria and Tunisia. Despite the hypersaline marshlands and shallows which formed as a result, the slow rate of filling allowed for sustained evaporation of water vapor into the air, which, combined with mass cloud-seeding operations in the Grand Erg Oriental to the south, allowed for the first major rainstorms in thousands of years to hit the middle of the Sahara beginning in 2105. This brought much-needed water to the Ahaggar Mountains and surrounding highlands, rejuvenating natural oases and, in some cases, providing enough runoff to supply major river systems in the future, which would, in turn, supply other freshwater lakes. This cloud-seeding practice was replicated on the Algerian and Moroccan coasts, supplying rains supporting afforestation operations in the Atlas Mountains.

    To the east, similar basin-filling projects have started construction in Egypt and Cyrenaica. In Egypt, a canal from the Mediterranean to supply desalinated water to the Qattara Depression opened in 2105 and is expected to fill the 19,000 km² basin by 2115. This is combined with a series of freshwater canals and artificial rivers from the Nile to fill several large basins in the Western Desert as part of the New Valley Project, creating tens of thousands of square kilometers of arable land which the Egyptian government hopes it can use to coax climate refugees and other residents out of the overcrowded cities of the Nile Delta. In Cyrenaica, the pumping of water both from underground aquifers in the south and desalinated water from the Mediterranean in the north is expected to fill three large sabkhats (salt lakes) near the Gulf of Sirte through the 2110s, eventually becoming freshwater and creating a new system of farmland and rivers, one of which is expected to flow eastward towards Lake Qattara, growing a strip of fertile land across the Great Sand Sea.

    Alongside the planned freshwater lakes and hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of arable land, new industrial facilities and communities are planned as a part of the ABGP. To support the creation of new canals and the lakes they supply, new desalination centers and aquifer pumping facilities are planned across the desert, powered by new hydroelectric dams and expanded solar energy projects. To support the projected influx of climate refugees and new residents, 30 planned cities and dozens of new agricultural communities have been proposed to feed Africa’s 3.6 billion-strong population. Additionally, over 20,000 kilometers of rail and road transport are planned to connect the new population centers across the Sahara.

    In January 2110, the African Bicentennial Geoengineering Project is in its 14th year of operation. One of the most extensive organized engineering efforts in modern human history, the project has attracted support from all over the African Federation, firms from other countries, and the United Nations. Since its inception, it has moved steadily towards its goals with little interruption. There is, however, some debate from more socially-conservative members of African politics over the status of the native people of the Sahara in the wake of the ABGP. The Berber and Tuareg peoples, which had inhabited the desert for nearly 2 thousand years, had long voiced concern over how the oasification of the Sahara would impact their way of life. While economic concessions and promises of a retained desert environment in large parts of Azawad and Ahaggar have persuaded some, others have been forced to adapt to the changing times, taking up permanent residence in the new planned cities.

     Despite this, there appears to be no real obstacle to the Project’s completion, with the latest projections giving only 36 years until all major goals are met. Beyond the Sahara, other projects and proposals based on the ABGP have entered political debate, including projects for geoengineering in the Australian Outback, North American Great Basin, and Rub al Khali. With the Project inching closer and closer to completion with each passing year, it continues to exemplify the relationship between Humanity and the climate throughout the Anthropocene, from the driving force of the development of civilization to something that can be worked with and, ultimately, made peace with; molded for the better in pursuit of a more livable, more sustainable future.
--------------------
Thank you to JebediahKerman001 , NK-Ryzov , and manitobot for their help in everything from helping research, creating the map, and proofreading. Couldn't have done this without you. Thank you to YNot1989 for inspiration, from his Seas of the Sahara post.