Loved this article.  It had all the elements, literally.

Yeah, first time I had heard of this:

There was a project the British were considering back in the early 1900's called the Qattara Depression project. The idea was to create canals to allow water to flow downhill into a huge area of the Sahara that is below sea level. They would create an inland saltwater lake, and generate hydroelectricity along the canals.

Fishing, transportation and water supply would be revolutionised and it would bring industry to some of the poorest parts of the world. Eventually the lake would turn hypersaline due to evaporation but it would last for a while. It was also believed it would improve the climate of Europe, and turn the surrounding areas into Savannah.

sounds like it would have uncounted unintended consequences. we could model and simulate it but that is only as effective as the quality and quantity of the data we input into the simulation.

So maybe we should just do it and see what happens?

sounds like a gamble

Sometimes the only way to know is to do.

says the first person who ate oysters...

Imagine how adventurous THAT person had to be.