• Soot [any]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      I am once again stating that deserts are incredibly important biomes that contribute to the existence of fertility of green areas world-wide. We need deserts for actual global sustainability with the ecosystem we have now, they are hubs for global distribution of minerals that all life needs.

      The Amazon rainforest would be significantly diminished if the Sahara desert were to be 'green’ed tomorrow. We can’t just eliminate deserts willy-nilly and claim we have done a good thing.

      However, China is for the most part doing re-forestation, rather than converting areas that were always deserts. So it’s not a real issue in this case. This program in fact, seems to have been ongoing since 1978 to prevent further desertification. So it’s Ws all the way down in terms of their actual strategy.

      • demeritum@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 month ago

        Yeah a lot of “greening the desert” headlines are actually about regreening former areas that used to be green like 100-400 years ago. Like large parts of the Sahel were lost to the Sahara, even in like 17th century there were european reports about kingdoms that are now lost to the sands. The Kingdom of Yam is an famous example from ancient egyptian times.

      • Moidialectica [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        The entire Sahara being eliminated would be a fruitless endeavour anyway, re-forestation and green projects in places like Argentina, Rockies and Central Asia are way more successful because they’re often not fully deserted