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Countries build 9 mile wide tree wall across Africa to prevent Sahara advancing (2014)

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Re: Countries build 9 mile wide tree wall across Africa to prevent Sahara advancing (2014)

#11

Post by cbozeman »

lioeters wrote: post #6
irthomasthomas wrote: post #3

The world is turning into a desert. Run for the hills! "Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert," begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it's happening to about two-thirds of the world's grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI Back on planet Earth,…

Thanks for presenting this "contrarian" view about desertification. I was surprised to learn about global greening due to rising CO2. Carbon Dioxide Fertilization Greening Earth, Study Finds - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fer... While it sounds like good news for the ecology, I think the overall destructive effects of human activity on the global environment far outweighs any accidentally…

Well... plants breathe CO2, so. :)

I actually wonder if, in 100 years, how the oxygen content will increase if this greening continues?

It'd be wild to consider a 27% oxygen environment on Earth in the year 2100. Which would also cause problems of its own, as I imagine you might have a higher risk of fires, since you have more available oxygen.

Re: Countries build 9 mile wide tree wall across Africa to prevent Sahara advancing (2014)

#12

Post by Someone »

PicassoCTs wrote: post #9

So what does protect this wall from human nature on a economic downturn? Everyone can build a wildlife preserve from thrust-fund money, that will be a paradise/oasis, until the money runs out. What makes this project sustainable? As in, when the money runs out, the dessert will return because its human nature to turn all but the sturdiest surroundings into a war-torn desert. Where does this redirect/change human natu…

If you believe “its human nature to turn all but the sturdiest surroundings into a war-torn desert”, all hope is lost, indeed.

If, on the other hand, you believe people can learn, or if you believe people can’t learn, but are driven by money, this project has a chance. As the article says, this forest brings jobs. Also, stopping the Sahara from growing protects arable land. So, I think he idea is that profit will protect this wall.

The project has a site (https://www.greatgreenwall.org/), by the way. It has more (likely biased to some degree) information on the project.

Re: Countries build 9 mile wide tree wall across Africa to prevent Sahara advancing (2014)

#13

Post by Someone »

padraic7a wrote: post #4
leblancfg wrote: post #2

Now that’s a wall I can get behind.

Unfortunately the Great Wall doesn't seem to be doing so well. This article is from 2024. I looked for updates and found the Wikipedia page. It contains some contradictory statistics but this is the most recent: "In September 2020 it was reported that the Great Green Wall had only covered 4% of the planned area". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall

https://catalogue.unccd.int/1551_GGW_Report_ENG_Final_040920... says they pivoted a bit:

“The aim of the GGW was originally to create a long vegetation barrier between the 100 and 400 mm isohyets, including ramps, and over a length of at least 7000 km along the Sahel, being roughly 15 km wide. In recent years this vision has evolved into an integrated ecosystem management approach, striving for a mosaic of different land use and production systems, including sustainable dryland management and restoration, the regeneration of natural vegetation as well as water retention and conservation measures”

I think that makes it hard to report % completed. Also, 4% is a lot of land (that same PDF says they currently target about 1½ million km² of land. That’s a lot more than that 7,000 by 15 km band originally envisioned (For comparison, the USA and Canada each are about 10 million km², so that would be about 7½% of North America), in the poorest part of the world.

As https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-05-02/africas-great-green-w... says “it will take at least a generation to make it a reality”

Re: Countries build 9 mile wide tree wall across Africa to prevent Sahara advancing (2014)

#14

Post by hedora »

irthomasthomas wrote: post #3

The world is turning into a desert. Run for the hills! "Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert," begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it's happening to about two-thirds of the world's grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI Back on planet Earth,…

These peer reviewed projections for the US are dire. They are 4 years newer than the sources you cite, and incorporate the consensus conclusions the scientific community has drawn from the empirical discrepancies.

They do show parts of the US greening, but much of the South is likely to be unfit for human life or agriculture:

https://projects.propublica.org/climate-migration/

Re: Countries build 9 mile wide tree wall across Africa to prevent Sahara advancing (2014)

#15

Post by pram »

hedora wrote: post #14
irthomasthomas wrote: post #3

The world is turning into a desert. Run for the hills! "Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert," begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it's happening to about two-thirds of the world's grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI Back on planet Earth,…

These peer reviewed projections for the US are dire. They are 4 years newer than the sources you cite, and incorporate the consensus conclusions the scientific community has drawn from the empirical discrepancies. They do show parts of the US greening, but much of the South is likely to be unfit for human life or agriculture: https://projects.propublica.org/climate-migration/

Considering the humidity in places like coastal Mississippi or the Florida panhandle, they're already unfit for human life ;P
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