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I've heard about some efforts to regreen the desert by careful planting and geoforming. Anyone know anything about this? It would be cool if it could work, even

I've heard about some efforts to regreen the desert by careful planting and geoforming. Anyone know anything about this? It would be cool if it could work, even partially.

daneel_w 3y ago
There are projects going on in both China and on the African continent. Search for "Great Green Wall".
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  China has gone through various tries of this for the last couple of decades. The first tries failed horribly because of lack of water and they sent the wrong trees to be planted for the ecology they were going into. I'm not sure how their current try is going, we will just have to see when/if the dust storms stop coming in the spring.
jazzyjackson 3y ago
Check out the work being done by https://justdiggit.org/ https://justdiggit.org/
- hedora 3y ago
  Water bunds are particularly effective: https://justdiggit.org/what-we-do/landscape-restoration/water-bunds/ https://justdiggit.org/what-we-do/landscape-restoration/wate... (That site breaks the url bar though; I had to get that via a search engine. Wtf.)
eep_social 3y ago
You might as well be referring to permaculture generally. It’s exactly about careful, intentional planting and working with the environment rather than trying to tame it. Geoff Lawton’s Greening the Desert Project comes to mind in particular: https://www.greeningthedesertproject.org/ https://www.greeningthedesertproject.org/
onthecanposting 3y ago
Darwin and Hooker did something like this in the 19th century to Ascension Island. Few know this. Deliberate modification of an ecosystem couldn't be done lawfully in the US. However, that's an administrative obstacle rather than a technical one. https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/darwins-terraforming-experiment https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/darwins-terraforming-expe...
DoreenMichele 3y ago
You might find histories of Fresno County, California interesting. When settlers showed up, it was essentially river running through a desert landscape. They dug canals to support agriculture and the landscape greened up substantially. A lot of water law and patented water development tech happened in Fresno County. It's essentially a modern "hanging gardens of Babylon" situation and no one seems to talk about it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29696251 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29696251
mytailorisrich 3y ago
I think the key is the lack of water. In the Sahara and the Middle East, which are sunny and warm, if you add water plants grow fast. We can imagine future scenarios in which fusion or solar are used to power large-scale desalination and irrigation to represent deserts from the coasts.
tim333 3y ago
They did a bit in China and there is talk of doing the Sinai https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/20/our-biggest-challenge-lack-of-imagination-the-scientists-turning-the-desert-green https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/20/our-bigg...

I've heard about some efforts to regreen the desert by careful planting and geoforming. Anyone know anything about this? It would be cool if it could work, even partially.

daneel_w 3y ago

There are projects going on in both China and on the African continent. Search for "Great Green Wall".

seanmcdirmid 3y ago
China has gone through various tries of this for the last couple of decades. The first tries failed horribly because of lack of water and they sent the wrong trees to be planted for the ecology they were going into. I'm not sure how their current try is going, we will just have to see when/if the dust storms stop coming in the spring.

jazzyjackson 3y ago

Check out the work being done by https://justdiggit.org/ https://justdiggit.org/

hedora 3y ago
Water bunds are particularly effective: https://justdiggit.org/what-we-do/landscape-restoration/water-bunds/ https://justdiggit.org/what-we-do/landscape-restoration/wate... (That site breaks the url bar though; I had to get that via a search engine. Wtf.)

eep_social 3y ago

You might as well be referring to permaculture generally. It’s exactly about careful, intentional planting and working with the environment rather than trying to tame it. Geoff Lawton’s Greening the Desert Project comes to mind in particular: https://www.greeningthedesertproject.org/ https://www.greeningthedesertproject.org/

onthecanposting 3y ago

Darwin and Hooker did something like this in the 19th century to Ascension Island. Few know this. Deliberate modification of an ecosystem couldn't be done lawfully in the US. However, that's an administrative obstacle rather than a technical one. https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/darwins-terraforming-experiment https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/darwins-terraforming-expe...

DoreenMichele 3y ago

You might find histories of Fresno County, California interesting. When settlers showed up, it was essentially river running through a desert landscape. They dug canals to support agriculture and the landscape greened up substantially. A lot of water law and patented water development tech happened in Fresno County. It's essentially a modern "hanging gardens of Babylon" situation and no one seems to talk about it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29696251 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29696251

mytailorisrich 3y ago

I think the key is the lack of water. In the Sahara and the Middle East, which are sunny and warm, if you add water plants grow fast. We can imagine future scenarios in which fusion or solar are used to power large-scale desalination and irrigation to represent deserts from the coasts.

tim333 3y ago

They did a bit in China and there is talk of doing the Sinai https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/20/our-biggest-challenge-lack-of-imagination-the-scientists-turning-the-desert-green https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/20/our-bigg...