Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
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Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#2Thanks for sharing. Super interesting video.
Never spent a lot of time with it, but I've always been curious how people could rebuild an ecosystem.
I think it was the dune series, that I read a number of years back that touched on this idea a bit in the second or third book? It was not something I ever really thought about before that. It's cool to see a real life example of it.
Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#3Thanks for sharing. Super interesting video. Never spent a lot of time with it, but I've always been curious how people could rebuild an ecosystem. I think it was the dune series, that I read a number of years back that touched on this idea a bit in the second or third book? It was not something I ever really thought about before that. It's cool to see a real life example of it.
Yeah there's a lot of that even in the first Dune book. The Fremen's leader is an ecologist and they're explicitly collecting water and preparing to change the entire world to be greener and more livable.
Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#4Fascinating video, but still it worries me how sustainable this is. This isn't a "rewilding" process - there is a LOT of manual human labor going into supporting very low yield agriculture.
It seems like this idea relies on a long term low wage workforce willing to live on subsistence agriculture.
Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#5Fascinating video, but still it worries me how sustainable this is. This isn't a "rewilding" process - there is a LOT of manual human labor going into supporting very low yield agriculture. It seems like this idea relies on a long term low wage workforce willing to live on subsistence agriculture.
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Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#6I've been following Andrew Millison's work for a while, he's got a lot of really wonderful introductory lessons on permaculture. He's got an online course at the University of Oregon, I'm planning on taking it sometime soon
Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#7I abhor these projects, because they are seasonal- as in dependent on outside funds and thus hyper-fragile. Also usually propped up by colonizers, to detract from some ressource extraction destruction.
Same with wildlife preserves. One bad coup with corrupt politicians, one recession in the west - and its all gone, poached and ruins. Its worthless feel good photo OP, monetary potemkin zoos and forrests, providing the worst kind of hope, the one that has no chance to last in a storm.
What is their solution against nomads and there goat herds which are still a status symbol and in conflict with the farmers of the region? Poisonous plants? Guards? Landmines? How does it prevent building up resentment, when obviously a green landscape is more important to the foreigners, then the starving locals?
How does it solve the hard problem of exponential mankind vs civilizational allmende protection?
How do the plants survive in the climate change storms yet to come?
Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#8Fascinating video, but still it worries me how sustainable this is. This isn't a "rewilding" process - there is a LOT of manual human labor going into supporting very low yield agriculture. It seems like this idea relies on a long term low wage workforce willing to live on subsistence agriculture.
> It seems like this idea relies on a long term low wage workforce willing to live on subsistence agriculture.
I think that is already the population. What the attempt seems to be is to create a green belt that prevents further desertification of semi-arable land that they are already subsistence farming on, because if the desert keeps moving, these people will cease to exist.
Captialistically/economically, there is questions as to whether these people should continue to subsistence farm, but if they want to, and it can help keep the desert at bay, then I say more power to them.
Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#9Fascinating video, but still it worries me how sustainable this is. This isn't a "rewilding" process - there is a LOT of manual human labor going into supporting very low yield agriculture. It seems like this idea relies on a long term low wage workforce willing to live on subsistence agriculture.
They could perhaps send there criminals, prisoners.. this kind of people.. have them man the green wall.
Re: Africa is building a Great Green Wall to prevent expansion of the Sahara
#10I abhor these projects, because they are seasonal- as in dependent on outside funds and thus hyper-fragile. Also usually propped up by colonizers, to detract from some ressource extraction destruction. Same with wildlife preserves. One bad coup with corrupt politicians, one recession in the west - and its all gone, poached and ruins. Its worthless feel good photo OP, monetary potemkin zoos and forrests, providing the…
> I abhor these projects, because they are seasonal- as in dependent on outside funds and thus hyper-fragile. Also usually propped up by colonizers, to detract from some ressource extraction destruction.
It depends on the institutional experience of each country. There's a reason this initiative is being done in Senegal instead of neighboring Mali.
WFP funding is fairly consistent and less whimsical ime. It's private donors like the Gates Foundation that tend to be flaky, as they only answer to the whims of the Gates family.
Programs like the WFP, WB, IMF, ADB, USAID, etc need to be auditable as significant amounts of public and private money are invested, leading to demands from multiple donors, compared to family foundations or smaller non-profits.