Lot of deserts in this day and age...

Every time I hear someone say something like this I'm reminded of the fact that the Everglades in my back yard (what remains of it anyways) was at one time considered a swamp that just needed to be filled in and developed.Now we know better.

Don't get me wrong I certainly believe that sunlight falling on deserts can and should be harvested to provide people with energy. It's just that simplistic statements such as this just don't cut it anymore. There are deserts and then there are deserts, some of which are very complex and productive ecosystems. Just for the record I consider blacktop parking lots and shopping mall roofs to be more deserving of the desert moniker by the mere fact that they are rather lifeless unproductive barren devastated areas already...

You see Ive been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
cause there aint no one for to give you no pain
La, la ...

After nine days I let the horse run free
cause the desert had turned to sea
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with its life underground
And a perfect disguise above
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground
But the humans will give no love

You see Ive been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
cause there aint no one for to give you no pain