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I've been binging a lot of videos on things like rewilding and other approaches that can be used to restore landscapes. The Chinese have successfully executed a
by jillesvangurp 1y ago
I've been binging a lot of videos on things like rewilding and other approaches that can be used to restore landscapes. The Chinese have successfully executed a number of large scale projects over the decades. They started this early. Where other countries talked about doing things, the Chinese went ahead and did those things.
One of their projects is allowing them to undertake infrastructure projects in the desert. They simply stick bales of straw into ditches to stop soil being blown away by wind. The straw traps soil, water, and breaks down over a few years allowing plants to take hold. It's a simple approach that works. Very pramatic, dig a ditch, stick in some straw. Done. Repeat.
Outside of China, the green wall in Africa is a very pragmatic approach that involves digging a lot of half moon shaped ditches to trap rain water. Simple and effective.
Other approaches involve using fences to stop sheep and other grazers from preventing anything vaguely green tinted shoots from being eaten and giving them a chance to actually turn into trees.
What I like about these approaches is that some relatively simple measures can have big effects. People spend a lot of time hand wringing over seemingly insurmountable problems. The Chinese are showing that in addition to the power to destroy landscapes, we also have the power to remake them. It works. They aren't tree huggers. Better landscapes also mean local economies benefit. Deserts don't feed people. Water retention means agriculture gets a second chance.
What I admire in the Chinese is the pragmatic can do attitude. Their motivations are of course self serving. They value having clean air in their cities, clean drinking water, and a landscape that can support agriculture and infrastructure. And in the end that's the best kind of motivation you can get. It's something worth copying. Whenever economy, science, and environment align, everybody wins.
A lot of areas in the rest of the world that are subject to desertification, pollution, etc. are fixable. And there's value in fixing them that needs more attention. I don't see this as a green/left topic. If you exist on this planet, why wouldn't you want something to be done to clean up the mess we've all created in the last centuries? Breaking out this topic from the usual left/right day to day politics is key. The rest is just work. The Chinese put the rest of us to shame with hard work.
- seb1204 1y agoAny YouTube playlist that you can share?
- jillesvangurp 1y agoJust search for things like "green wall", "china straw landscape", etc. A few good ones that I watched: - Inside Africa's Food Forest Mega-Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbBdIG--b58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbBdIG--b58 - China Buried Tons of Dead Plants Under the Desert Sand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev8DsPH_82Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev8DsPH_82Y - Green Gold: Regreening the Desert | John D. Liu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3nR3G9jboc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3nR3G9jboc There are way more. One channel that I might call https://www.youtube.com/@MossyEarth https://www.youtube.com/@MossyEarth. They basically use donations to take on projects to do smalls scale nature restoration. I am actually considering making a donation to them because I like what they do. There are more examples of such channels. Not everything on this front is without controversy of course and I'm not blind to that. But I like the positive, constructive nature of these approaches. Just the simple notion that it's fixable with a bit of cleverness and lots of hard work. China is of course an autocracy that you can criticize for a lot of things. But they are doing a few things right as well. And it's worth calling that out and learning from them.
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- profsummergig 1y agoDo you know why the mounds with half-moon shapes? Why is it more effective than simply digging a circular hole in the ground?
- nkmnz 1y agoSame effect for half the work. Look up the videos on youtube, it's manual labor on very hard ground.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1y agoWhy is it manual? If I had a mission to plant millions of trees, I am going to invest in a ditch witch.
- WorldPeas 1y agoassuming you're not joking, construction equipment is incredibly expensive for countries to whom profiting from importing it is not a "sure thing", doubly so if their roads are not developed. This is why a 2000s hummer in central America still costs as much as a nice modern car.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1y agoA basic trencher is little more than a push lawnmower frame with a chain saw attached. Not enormous industrial equipment, but still a large boost to productivity vs a shovel.
- taeric 1y agoI think the basic trencher would almost certainly still count as manual labor? Nobody is expecting that they are out there digging with bare hands.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- aarondf 1y agoThis video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qwshdtijFY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qwshdtijFY and his whole channel are a great binge for this topic. No nonsense, an actual practitioner, and not very "YouTubey"