[jessriedel]

Additional land and power, shorter transit time, a closer connection between Europe and Africa. Maybe the latter slightly increases the immigration rate from Africa, lifting millions out of poverty over a few decades. Maybe it decreases the risk of war in these places you list. Maybe the carbon-free hydropower averts a catastrophic negative feedback loop from climate change.

Neither of us have any idea, and listing the first thing that comes to our head hardly gets us closer.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

As a Greek person who grew up in the region, this conversation has an eerie tone, like hearing two plastic surgeons discussing whether I'd be better with higher cheekbones or with an aquiline nose and how much such surgery would improve my chances to find a mate.

So, could we focus on the fact that this was designed by a man who never lived in the region he wanted to terraform? I have no business advising German people how to change their countryside and that goes the other way too.

I don't really care about a cost-benefit analysis, either. This is just an uncalled for intervention that, er, that nobody called for.

[jessriedel]

I specifically mentioned rejecting this proposal out of hand for rights-based reasons earlier. You don't have to read our further cost-benefit discussion if you don't care about it or it makes you feel uncomfortable. I prefer not to focus on the things you would like us all to focus on.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

>> I prefer not to focus on the things you would like us all to focus on.

You mean, like what the people who live in the Mediterrannean actually think of this plan?

But, there is no realistic prospect to initiate this project unless those very people agree to it. So what is the point of discussing cost-benefit analyses, if that agreement is almost guaranteed to not be forthcoming?

I mean, it's not even a rights issue. If the people who live in the Mediterrannean don't want it terraformed, then it's not getting terraformed. Realistically speaking.

[jessriedel]

It is obvious that no one in this thread has any real-world influence on this plan being carried out. The discussion is purely academic, and is driven by the questions that are interesting to the people doing the discussing.

Furthermore, if you look at my comments, you will see that I don't actually care about the plan, and I don't have a position on whether the costs of the plan outweigh the benefits. The only point I am making is that the outcome of a cost-benefit analysis cannot be reliably guessed by appealing to one's intrinsic wisdom and listing some possible negative consequences in a grave voice.

I don't have any interest in discussing this further with you.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

>> The discussion is purely academic, and is driven by the questions that are interesting to the people doing the discussing.

I think you're saying I butted in to the conversation you were having with the other poster. If so, that's very surprising, given the venue.

Anyway, yes, I understand that the discussion is "purely academic". But that doesn't change the fact that the plan is unrealistic. Why is that not of "purely academic" interest?

[jessriedel]

That is not what I'm saying.