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The paper proposes macro-engineering using tactical technologies that stabilize and vegetate barren near-coast sand dune fields with seawater. Seawater that would otherwise, as commonly postulated, increase the Earth-ocean volume. Anthropogenic saturation of the ground with pumped seawater should fix widespread active sand dune fields in deserts (such as the westernmost Sahara). Seawater extraction from the ocean, and its deposition on dune sand, is made via solar-powered pipeline. Stabilisation of one major erg in Mauritania is evaluated as a case study. The financial cost of the macroproject is estimated as a few billion US$-less than about 0.1 per cent of the USA’s 2007 gross domestic product. The initial investment may be between 0.6 and 1.1 billions US$. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.