The Green Sahara

Regaining Paradise in the Face of Climate Change

John Gaudet

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798881867485
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: Biological Sciences

A thoughtful exploration of how the Sahara Desert can be returned to its former glory as a green paradise while actively combating climate change.

A green Sahara is something the world has not seen since 10,000 BC when the Sahara was a wet, lush region. By 3,000 BC though the climate changed, the rains stopped, and the ancient green Sahara dried into today's desert. It was the victim of a phenomenon that reminds us today of global climate warming. But what if we could reverse the desertification of the Sahara, and bring back the green paradise of days passed?

In The Green Sahara: Regaining Paradise in the Face of Climate Change, John Gaudet explores the process by which climate change in ancient times converted a green paradise into an arid desert land, highlighting parallels to what is happening in our time. But he also illuminates how an intense effort to create green energy is being made by several Saharan countries to build and operate enormous solar and wind farms. As a result, a wave of green energy generated in the Sahara, the largest desert on earth, is about to swamp the world, and could lead to a regreening of the Sahara Desert. If a new green Sahara happens, how will the world benefit?

Covering just 20% of the Sahara Desert with wind turbines and solar panels would generate almost five times more energy than is currently needed worldwide. Gaudet highlights further benefits of deploying climate technology to the desert such as sequestering large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and eliminating negative health and ecosystem effects felt worldwide from desert dust. Gaudet's manifesto demonstrates how, in this fascinating case, climate change induced by man actually has the power to save the world and restore a beautiful piece of ancient history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Map
• Contents
• The Rabbit Fence
• Prologue
• Part I: A World Unto Itself
• Chapter 1: Paradise?
• Chapter 2: Living in the Green Sahara 10,000 BC
• Chapter 3: Paradise Lost 3,500 BC
• Chapter 4: The Last Hurrah: Lake Chad and the Nile Valley
• Part II: Innovations That May Help the Sahara Become Green Again
• Chapter 5: Can Paradise Be Regained by Re-Filling Lake Chad?
• Chapter 6: Water from the Deepest Aquifer
• Chapter 7: Water from the Sea: Desalinization
• Chapter 8: Wind and Solar Power: The Sahara’s Future
• Chapter 9: Hydropower and a New Lease on Life: The Qattara Depression
• Part III: Conservation of Water and Biodiversity en route to the Green Sahara
• Chapter 10: Blue Nile Water Loss, a Curse or a Blessing?
• Chapter 11: The White Nile Wetlands and the Sudd
• Chapter 12: Flushing Out the Delta
• Chapter 13: Atlas Mountains and the Mysterious Island of Atlantis
• Chapter 14: Would the Saharan Lakes and Swamps Live Again?
• Chapter 15: The Great Green Wall
• Chapter 16: Tapping Into the New Green Revolution in Africa
• Chapter 17: New Rains in a New Sahara
• Part IV: Paradise Regained
• Chapter 18: Cairo, the Elephant in the Room
• Chapter 19: How Would the Tipping Point Be Reached?
• Chapter 20: What Happens if the Tipping Point Is Not Reached?
• Chapter 21: Negative Effects of the New Green Sahara
• Chapter 22: Greening of the Sahel: Is This a Prelude?
• Chapter 23: Paradise Regained
• Chapter 24: What Can We Do?
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author