Desert Edens

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From the 1870s to the mid-twentieth century, European explorers, climatologists, and colonial officials were deeply engaged in large-scale projects aimed at altering the climate. Desert Edens explores how arid environments and growing anxiety about climate in the colonial world fueled ideas about climate engineering. It examines early debates on transforming deserts into forests and Nazi plans to manipulate climates in war-torn regions, placing these within their environmental, intellectual, and political contexts, and reflecting on their relevance to today's climate crisis. Lehmann highlights ambitious climate-engineering projects from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the 1870s, the French envisioned a flooding project to create a man-made Sahara Sea. In the 1920s, German architect Herman Soergel proposed damming the Mediterranean to create an Afro-European continent named "Atlantropa" for European settlers. Nazi designs aimed to combat desertification in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Despite varying ideologies and technical approaches, these projects shared a common language of climate change theories and reflected a blend of environmental pessimism and technological optimism that resonates today. By focusing on the intellectual origins, intended impacts, and consequences of early climate modification efforts, Desert Edens investigates how urgent environmental concerns can inspire technological imag