A brackish pond the size of New Mexico?? That'll take some finding - and a huge amount of environmental destruction to convert it from bird-rich nature reserves to industrial agriculture devoid of other biodiversity to maximise Nannochloropsis production. Yukk.
I don't think that is what anyone would propose. As always, there is no magic solution; any possibility has to be weighed against the alternatives. (e.g. There are many drawbacks to producing ethanol from corn.) Some challenges facing algae production have already been raised in this previous thread: Ethanol from Algae | UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Perhaps break-throughs in other steps in the process will one day to make it all viable.
Sure they wouldn't say so, but in practice, that's what is likely to happen. Converting a few million hectares of land to a new use inevitably means displacing the existing land use. And brackish wetland environments are rare, and of very high importance to biodiversity, while the sorts of people with money in their eyes (including almost all govenment decision-makers) are blind to that as biodiversity doesn't make money for them.
Agreed! There appears no end to some of the absurd asinine Eco solutions being pimped by corporations out there under the cloak of another green grab. The deserts southwest are hurting under the government gifting of raw land deemed worthless for Giant Energy companies creating Solar and Wind energy Farms which in reality are anything but sustainable. They've destroyed so many Joshua trees and Ocotillos and obliterated the Biological soil Crusts and caused some worse dust storms seen in decades.
