Also, it is vitally important to grow plants from seed to ensure healthy roots that find the deep aquifers, vs planting seedlings that have to adapt their roots to the new zone and survive root shock. Additionally, setting specific types of fire can activate the dormant seed bank and bring trees back to life.
Interesting video. A complex topic, particularly when people's immediate livelihoods and survival are at stake, so as you say, really important that local communities are involved and supported through any sort of transition like this
Wonderful video! This was so well researched and presented, it’s great to see more people making entertaining and educational videos about the environment :))
As a 63 year old, it's good to see young people taking the lead in the fight against climate change. Shaming the older generation, especially politicians who have sat back with their fingers firmer stuck in their ears..
Humans need food, other lifeforms like plants and animals need a native ecosystem. I think the best solution would be if we made a checkered pattern where in each cube we plant native ecosystem and then in another cube a fully natural "old growth" food forest ecosystem.
@6:45 The gentleman needs to leave the cut leaves and branches on the ground around the base of the trees. It provides heat and moisture protection, whilst increasing nutrient availability and enhancing the soil health for beneficial animals like worms.
Often these branches are fed to livestock. It’s often difficult to get communities of impoverished people to reliably do something with no obvious immediate benefit to themselves or their communities. Better a less-than-perfect method than nothing at all, hmm?
@4:19 we need to stop talking in terms of how many dollars it costs and talk in terms of 'people hours.' Money changes value with inflation and deflation, whereas 'people-power' remains at constant. A seed today, takes as much energy to grow as it did at every other time in history
Hey mate, love the videos look up a story in my home country of Aus I think you would like about rewilding. Definitely a different story on how to do it and I think you will love it. Look up ABC Australia natural sequence farming. Cheers 👍
Matthew says, "desertification leads to povert". The people of the Sahel have always lived in poverty. The only way they will stop using wood for cooking, heating and lighting is to develop cheap electricity.
Makes complete sense that you might need to change and developed once you start a project, once you know what works best... Doesn't mean you should give up just identify what top 5 things work and run with what works...
My husband and I got really, really tired of washing Sahara sand off our sailboat -- anchored on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in the Caribbean. These issues aren't just local, they affect the whole world.
One part of the solution is to shit a forest. We shit undigested seeds and sadly, much of that waste/compost goes into underground rivers called 'sewerage.' If we convert all the world's underground rivers (sewerage systems) into composting toilets and spread that waste about the land, then we create compost-rich moisture sponges, that accelerate the growth of forests, whilst preventing destruction from grazing herbivores.
In America our sewage system does end in a system that seperates out non compostables and aerates the sewage water and introduces good bacteria that break it down to fertilizer level material. Composting toilets might be good for rural comunities with limited infrastructure but are not practical for more developed areas. Also, the concern with human waste composting is that there is a chance of spreading disease or poluting waterways if any of the material is not completely proken down and neutralized. Another problem with human waste is it sometimes contains a significant amount of hormones and chemicals from medications and hormonal birth control. So while I get where you are coming from it's not as straight forward as you think and def not a one size fits all solution.
Arizona, we like mesquite trees. Human food, and the leaves have the same feed value as clover, but, livestock need to be trained to eat it. Trees are sacred and mesquite was the tree of life and far more commonly planted than maize.
Pressing X to doubt on China getting good results. There are videos of them painting entire mountains of dead trees and exposed rock green... a widespread practice. They also use blankets of green camo netting and fake plants to drape over areas. It fools both the eye from afar and satalite imagery. There's extensive footage out there of these wastelands. No one has been worse for the environment than the CCP. I recomend looking up 'the China Show, Laowhy, and Serpentza. They've done great work to expose what is really going on in China.
Deserts stopped spreading 40 years ago and we have seen a greening of the Sahel (global actually), around 25%. Due to increased precipitation and, although not popular, increased temperature and CO2 levels. Locally human action have contributed to the greening, not least in Niger and Burkina Faso where I have observed it. Not by megaprojects and overfinanced NGOs, mind you, but by efforts done by local populations.
Agreed, though it is also true that some places are desertified by bad farming practices as stated in the video, but your comment is a great addition to a bigger picture.
They are talking about halting the desertification, not planting the entire saraha. Not only that, planting the entire saraha would be impossible anyway
The Amazon is across the Atlantic in South America. What happens in the souther edge of the Sahara would help the people living there maintain food security if they can learn to manage cattle grazing and managing the local fauna.
Yes the climate crisis is basically unintentional geoengineering through the increased atmospheric CO2, methane etc. We can reduce emissions and regenerate ecosystems to change the tide.
Before watching I am guessing none of this will be attributed to rising CO2 levels, because that's "not cool". However, I do want to share with the audience that higher levels of CO2 causes less stomata to be generated in the leaves, significantly reducing plant evaporation. In simple terms: Increasing CO2 decreases water usage by plants. This may be the primary driver behind "desert greening". For obvious reasons, this doesn't get a lot of attention. But find me any plant scientist that disagrees, and I will eat my shoes.
Majority of desertification is man-made by overgrazing and logging. It has barely anything to do with CO2, climate change, freons and similar things. I know that all the rock deserts in my country are man made through excessive logging and overgrazing. The matter of fact is that forests today are growing at an accelerated pace. Leave the nature alone for 20 years you'll have a tropical forest from a bare land... I've seen it with my own eyes.. you don't have to have no gurus to "teach" you how to regenerate nature.. the nature is self-regerating... just leave it time to heal itself.
You're right about the Co2 part, but wrong about just leaving the desertified areas alone. Environmental restoration often does require human effort due to the unatural conditions we create, and in some places it is also a race against the clock to save entire civilizations or to save endangered species.
Perhaps take a look at Alan Savory and his TEDx talk. The answer is counter-intuitive to conventional thinking. It will be difficult to grow any tree, native or otherwise, without rich soil to capture rainfall.
Desertification is a problem that we have the power and technology to fix. Start with removing the dams and planting native species of plants and animals to the region. Beavers will fix the rest. Sounds so simple, but people like having the control of the water. Damming up the waterways and taking all of the trees will be the biggest ecological disasters of all time. Cutting trees without replanting, to make charcoal was a huge mistake. Climates started changing, as soon as we started clear-cutting the forests to work with metal and mining, the Earth started heating up. Places that don't are much cooler. Just planting trees isn't the answer. We have to manage the forests like the Natives did. They know when to burn and when to cut the trees. Some seeds need high temperatures to grow. Work with nature. Don't try to control it. Controlling the water is much harder.
I want to ask this so smart guy from Mossy this.... what's the correlation between Sahara and Amazon Forest, if we make Sahara Green then wouldn't damage Amazon Forest???? from what i ve reed and learned in School is that even if is a ocean between those 2 regions one without each other cant exist...Amazon Forest take a lot of nutrients from the sand that come across the ocean from Sahara and if we stop that flow what will happens? i m not saying to not help people in Africa but we need to think about the hope pictures,..is not that what you teach us???
They aren't trying to green the Sahara, they are trying to stop it from spreading to areas that were simply over farmed. They were talking about the buffer zones, ffs.
a really nice comitted young man. just my question. people have lived in these areas for thousand of years. they were herdsmen and farmers. when did the ecological decline of these areas actually start, and why? a bit more historical truth would have been good. and a little less "now the western european resuer ist coming too". what we see here are the ugly consequences of european colonial policy, in the footsteps of which a sufficiently large part of today's elite of african states are happy to walk.
ONCE I’ve watched a video on TH-cam that stated, that desertification clearly is bad for locals, but also produces positive effects for the overall planet, as a desert reflects most the sun’s light (albedo), while a dark forest attracts and saves heat… so reforestation is a double-edged sword
Heat isn't inherently bad, and forests actually help moderate temperature, where as deserts experience the greatest severities of temperature changes. So please don't spread such simple minded nonsense.
@@ANPC-pi9vu why the hatte? To me this seems logical. Deserts are very bright, while a dorrest is dark, plus trees hinder the circulation of air. I am very pro a global reforrestation program, but we should grow trees only where their impact is net positive
There were deserts when the world’s population was very small. Do the maths to see how many years you go back to very small numbers. So it wasn’t humans then. Agree that care needs to be taken.
Ngl, it's sad that this is considered an "ambitious goal." $8 billion USD is frankly nothing, on the scale of how much sheer wealth is created for the 1% in a year -- nevermind how much 'wealth' actually exists in total, 'everywhere'. You could probably just sink a few billionaire yachts from just their Caribbean fleet (billionaire's have two, separate annual fleets of yachts in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, don'tcha know? The plutocrats migrate annually, like birds) and fund that entire project without the plutocracy even noticing. And yet projects like this are contingent on the charitable funds provisioned almost exclusively by working class individuals shelling out through mediums like yours. God forbid the bourgeoisie actually utilize any of their wealth to solve systemic global problems; they wouldn't be able to profit off of all the ways they exploit, extract, expropriate, externalize, and ultimately subjugate and abuse the state of vulnerability that poverty creates. If the rich didn't keep people poor, how would they force people to clean their toilets? Eugh. Obliterate capitalism.
Capitalism isn't the problem. In fact capitalism has for the most part improved the lifespan and resources of the world's populations. But then, you probably don't even know what capitalism even is.
If the Sahara turns green then forget the earth, it means its screwed and so are we! The Sahara is one of the places responsible for keeping the earth at a certain temp, same as the arctic, mess with this and we will all die..! Who cares tho cus there is much money to be made 😂😂😂
We need more co2 plants love co2 it make them grow especially in dry areas they don’t have to stay open so long to take in co2 so dry out less and have more chance to grow
Dishonest clickbait. This channel should ashamed of itself, as should anyone who is sucked in by its silly claims, false comparisons, false images, and arrant nonsense.
Double checked the title, yeah, you are right. The video is good but the title is outrageously misleading and probably the reason so many in the comment section are misunderstanding the efforts that are being made, thinking they are actually threatening the Sahera desert.
I've stopped listening to your videos because for some reason there is added music/noise. Your content is good enough, added annoying noise is not required.
Also, it is vitally important to grow plants from seed to ensure healthy roots that find the deep aquifers, vs planting seedlings that have to adapt their roots to the new zone and survive root shock.
Additionally, setting specific types of fire can activate the dormant seed bank and bring trees back to life.
The name "Sahel," comes from the Arabic "sehel," which means "the shore." The Sahara is an ocean of sand, and the sahel is the shore.
And Sahara means desert.
Interesting video. A complex topic, particularly when people's immediate livelihoods and survival are at stake, so as you say, really important that local communities are involved and supported through any sort of transition like this
oh, 100%, it's the farmers/people that are at the heart of it. thanks, Paul!
Demonstrates that it also isn’t just a case of planting trees, rather planting the right trees for that part of the world.
Wonderful video! This was so well researched and presented, it’s great to see more people making entertaining and educational videos about the environment :))
Ah thank you for the feedback. I'm pleased you enjoyed it :)
As a 63 year old, it's good to see young people taking the lead in the fight against climate change. Shaming the older generation, especially politicians who have sat back with their fingers firmer stuck in their ears..
Amazing video Rob! Desertification and these projects are quite complex but I think you explained it really well :)
Thanks man, they are very complex issues indeed!!!
This is giving me heavy Dune references. The voice from the outer worlds will make a paradise of Arrakis.
My desert. My arakis. My dune.
Aiyah!
Humans need food, other lifeforms like plants and animals need a native ecosystem. I think the best solution would be if we made a checkered pattern where in each cube we plant native ecosystem and then in another cube a fully natural "old growth" food forest ecosystem.
@6:45 The gentleman needs to leave the cut leaves and branches on the ground around the base of the trees.
It provides heat and moisture protection, whilst increasing nutrient availability and enhancing the soil health for beneficial animals like worms.
Often these branches are fed to livestock. It’s often difficult to get communities of impoverished people to reliably do something with no obvious immediate benefit to themselves or their communities. Better a less-than-perfect method than nothing at all, hmm?
But don't let the mulch touch the tree trunk itself. Mulch vulcanoes kill trees. Instead build a mulch ring.
Such a complex topic handled with great care! I love it
@4:19 we need to stop talking in terms of how many dollars it costs and talk in terms of 'people hours.'
Money changes value with inflation and deflation, whereas 'people-power' remains at constant.
A seed today, takes as much energy to grow as it did at every other time in history
Yeah fair enough! Unfortunately, time is money though
Rotational holistic grazing is also important in stopping desertification
Even if many trees die and fall over it will not only trap moisture but will eventually turn into rich soil.
Yes sir
Hey mate, love the videos look up a story in my home country of Aus I think you would like about rewilding. Definitely a different story on how to do it and I think you will love it. Look up ABC Australia natural sequence farming. Cheers 👍
sequence farming hmmm sounds interesting, might fit in with my next video, cheers William !
Another great video and balanced insight into Africa's green wall!
Nice one Matthew :) 🌿
Matthew says, "desertification leads to povert". The people of the Sahel have always lived in poverty. The only way they will stop using wood for cooking, heating and lighting is to develop cheap electricity.
Love your videos! Keep them coming!
Cheers James, I sure will
you do good work. i'm glad I've discovered and subscribed to this channel.
Thank you, appreciate that!
An amazing project
Yep, huge project!!
Makes complete sense that you might need to change and developed once you start a project, once you know what works best... Doesn't mean you should give up just identify what top 5 things work and run with what works...
Congrats on getting over 2K subs mate
Thanks man appreciate it!
My husband and I got really, really tired of washing Sahara sand off our sailboat -- anchored on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in the Caribbean. These issues aren't just local, they affect the whole world.
One part of the solution is to shit a forest.
We shit undigested seeds and sadly, much of that waste/compost goes into underground rivers called 'sewerage.'
If we convert all the world's underground rivers (sewerage systems) into composting toilets and spread that waste about the land, then we create compost-rich moisture sponges, that accelerate the growth of forests, whilst preventing destruction from grazing herbivores.
Yeah I see what you're saying - a compost loo on a local scale, say if most houses had them, I could see the benefits.
In America our sewage system does end in a system that seperates out non compostables and aerates the sewage water and introduces good bacteria that break it down to fertilizer level material. Composting toilets might be good for rural comunities with limited infrastructure but are not practical for more developed areas. Also, the concern with human waste composting is that there is a chance of spreading disease or poluting waterways if any of the material is not completely proken down and neutralized. Another problem with human waste is it sometimes contains a significant amount of hormones and chemicals from medications and hormonal birth control. So while I get where you are coming from it's not as straight forward as you think and def not a one size fits all solution.
Well explained video
Forgot to mention how colonization contributed to desertification.
Arizona, we like mesquite trees. Human food, and the leaves have the same feed value as clover, but, livestock need to be trained to eat it. Trees are sacred and mesquite was the tree of life and far more commonly planted than maize.
ide like it if leave curious to visit the lace district
me too!!!
Great video
Cheers Shawn!
first! love your vids man
Ah awesome, thanks man.
great video.
Nice one Mark
Keep planting we live in hope ,and when they do work works well ,good results in china ,They result will benefit people .
We must live in hope & keep workin!
Pressing X to doubt on China getting good results. There are videos of them painting entire mountains of dead trees and exposed rock green... a widespread practice. They also use blankets of green camo netting and fake plants to drape over areas. It fools both the eye from afar and satalite imagery. There's extensive footage out there of these wastelands. No one has been worse for the environment than the CCP. I recomend looking up 'the China Show, Laowhy, and Serpentza. They've done great work to expose what is really going on in China.
There another reason or theory for deserts.YT hydroplate theory walter brown.
Mussolini was having great work done to re-green the north African dessert in places.
Deserts stopped spreading 40 years ago and we have seen a greening of the Sahel (global actually), around 25%.
Due to increased precipitation and, although not popular, increased temperature and CO2 levels.
Locally human action have contributed to the greening, not least in Niger and Burkina Faso where I have observed it.
Not by megaprojects and overfinanced NGOs, mind you, but by efforts done by local populations.
Agreed, though it is also true that some places are desertified by bad farming practices as stated in the video, but your comment is a great addition to a bigger picture.
Do you have sources for that?
I thought we didn't want to turn the Sahara, because the sands watered the Amazon?
and if the desert was a forest the amazon would die?
Desert ecosystem are complex, but this video was more from the helping the people of the Sahel and some other climate factors
They are talking about halting the desertification, not planting the entire saraha. Not only that, planting the entire saraha would be impossible anyway
The Amazon is across the Atlantic in South America. What happens in the souther edge of the Sahara would help the people living there maintain food security if they can learn to manage cattle grazing and managing the local fauna.
I heard it's only really working in 1 country. The rest are too unstable
Geoengineering could be a factor for desertification also maybe? And a main factor for 'climate change' ?
Elaborate?
Yes the climate crisis is basically unintentional geoengineering through the increased atmospheric CO2, methane etc. We can reduce emissions and regenerate ecosystems to change the tide.
Before watching I am guessing none of this will be attributed to rising CO2 levels, because that's "not cool". However, I do want to share with the audience that higher levels of CO2 causes less stomata to be generated in the leaves, significantly reducing plant evaporation. In simple terms: Increasing CO2 decreases water usage by plants. This may be the primary driver behind "desert greening". For obvious reasons, this doesn't get a lot of attention. But find me any plant scientist that disagrees, and I will eat my shoes.
Majority of desertification is man-made by overgrazing and logging. It has barely anything to do with CO2, climate change, freons and similar things. I know that all the rock deserts in my country are man made through excessive logging and overgrazing. The matter of fact is that forests today are growing at an accelerated pace. Leave the nature alone for 20 years you'll have a tropical forest from a bare land... I've seen it with my own eyes.. you don't have to have no gurus to "teach" you how to regenerate nature.. the nature is self-regerating... just leave it time to heal itself.
it certainly will - but many are sometimes unaware of the natural regeneration and where it might be accelerated through pruning etc
You're right about the Co2 part, but wrong about just leaving the desertified areas alone. Environmental restoration often does require human effort due to the unatural conditions we create, and in some places it is also a race against the clock to save entire civilizations or to save endangered species.
The constant zooming in on yourself is irritating.
Despite that constant irritation the message of the video is fantastic. Great work keep it up
Lol i know - habit, which I've actually got the better of now - cheers Mark
Comments for the algorithm
love that!
Perhaps take a look at Alan Savory and his TEDx talk. The answer is counter-intuitive to conventional thinking. It will be difficult to grow any tree, native or otherwise, without rich soil to capture rainfall.
🌲🌲
Desertification is a problem that we have the power and technology to fix. Start with removing the dams and planting native species of plants and animals to the region. Beavers will fix the rest. Sounds so simple, but people like having the control of the water. Damming up the waterways and taking all of the trees will be the biggest ecological disasters of all time. Cutting trees without replanting, to make charcoal was a huge mistake. Climates started changing, as soon as we started clear-cutting the forests to work with metal and mining, the Earth started heating up. Places that don't are much cooler. Just planting trees isn't the answer. We have to manage the forests like the Natives did. They know when to burn and when to cut the trees. Some seeds need high temperatures to grow. Work with nature. Don't try to control it. Controlling the water is much harder.
I want to ask this so smart guy from Mossy this.... what's the correlation between Sahara and Amazon Forest, if we make Sahara Green then wouldn't damage Amazon Forest???? from what i ve reed and learned in School is that even if is a ocean between those 2 regions one without each other cant exist...Amazon Forest take a lot of nutrients from the sand that come across the ocean from Sahara and if we stop that flow what will happens? i m not saying to not help people in Africa but we need to think about the hope pictures,..is not that what you teach us???
They aren't trying to green the Sahara, they are trying to stop it from spreading to areas that were simply over farmed. They were talking about the buffer zones, ffs.
you need to revisit your writing, the first half of this made me feel so hopeless.
a really nice comitted young man. just my question. people have lived in these areas for thousand of years. they were herdsmen and farmers. when did the ecological decline of these areas actually start, and why? a bit more historical truth would have been good. and a little less "now the western european resuer ist coming too". what we see here are the ugly consequences of european colonial policy, in the footsteps of which a sufficiently large part of today's elite of african states are happy to walk.
Nice video
but using miles? kinda cringe bro, ngl
esp when the green wall is a beautiful round 7000 km long
haha what have you got against miles
@@LeaveCurious nothing lethal unfortunately (:
ONCE I’ve watched a video on TH-cam that stated, that desertification clearly is bad for locals, but also produces positive effects for the overall planet, as a desert reflects most the sun’s light (albedo), while a dark forest attracts and saves heat… so reforestation is a double-edged sword
Heat isn't inherently bad, and forests actually help moderate temperature, where as deserts experience the greatest severities of temperature changes. So please don't spread such simple minded nonsense.
@@ANPC-pi9vu why the hatte? To me this seems logical. Deserts are very bright, while a dorrest is dark, plus trees hinder the circulation of air. I am very pro a global reforrestation program, but we should grow trees only where their impact is net positive
@@ANPC-pi9vu watch "what if we terraform the Sahara Desert?" by What if
There were deserts when the world’s population was very small. Do the maths to see how many years you go back to very small numbers. So it wasn’t humans then. Agree that care needs to be taken.
No one said deserts are all man made, just that man made desertification is also a thing that can occur when poor farming and forestry is implemented.
What are miles? Try kilometres if you want to keep the audience.
Ngl, it's sad that this is considered an "ambitious goal." $8 billion USD is frankly nothing, on the scale of how much sheer wealth is created for the 1% in a year -- nevermind how much 'wealth' actually exists in total, 'everywhere'. You could probably just sink a few billionaire yachts from just their Caribbean fleet (billionaire's have two, separate annual fleets of yachts in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, don'tcha know? The plutocrats migrate annually, like birds) and fund that entire project without the plutocracy even noticing. And yet projects like this are contingent on the charitable funds provisioned almost exclusively by working class individuals shelling out through mediums like yours. God forbid the bourgeoisie actually utilize any of their wealth to solve systemic global problems; they wouldn't be able to profit off of all the ways they exploit, extract, expropriate, externalize, and ultimately subjugate and abuse the state of vulnerability that poverty creates. If the rich didn't keep people poor, how would they force people to clean their toilets? Eugh. Obliterate capitalism.
Capitalism isn't the problem. In fact capitalism has for the most part improved the lifespan and resources of the world's populations. But then, you probably don't even know what capitalism even is.
Defund the United Nations.
If the Sahara turns green then forget the earth, it means its screwed and so are we!
The Sahara is one of the places responsible for keeping the earth at a certain temp, same as the arctic, mess with this and we will all die..!
Who cares tho cus there is much money to be made 😂😂😂
We need more co2 plants love co2 it make them grow especially in dry areas they don’t have to stay open so long to take in co2 so dry out less and have more chance to grow
Dishonest clickbait. This channel should ashamed of itself, as should anyone who is sucked in by its silly claims, false comparisons, false images, and arrant nonsense.
Woah there Mike - sorry you’re disappointed.
A little harsh. Though I did wonder about the background. Not Africa. Essex?
@@AlexHallatt yes sir
Double checked the title, yeah, you are right. The video is good but the title is outrageously misleading and probably the reason so many in the comment section are misunderstanding the efforts that are being made, thinking they are actually threatening the Sahera desert.
I've stopped listening to your videos because for some reason there is added music/noise. Your content is good enough, added annoying noise is not required.