No, desertification is still an ongoing issue around the world. This is planting trees, building structures to hold water and adding clay or cellulose to the soil. So definitely no evidence of any benefit from CO2 slowing the expansion or creation of deserts.
We know the Sahara was once greener, and we know that we are currently leaving an ice age. If co2 is warming the planet, it's not such a stretch to believe that we'll be returning to the conditions where a green Sahara existed, especially when more heat = more evaporation = more rain, as well as shifting climate systems.
It's a shame the current climate narrative is so negative, when there's potential life and opportunity to be had, which could stem the flow of people feeling the need to uproot themselves and be refugees on other sides of the planet.
I live in a tropical zone over 100F year round and use shade cloth to keep grass and plants green. Wonder if that could be used to cover big areas in the desert?
There are places where tropical jungle forms a thick canopy that shelters plants growing in lower part of the canopy. The layers of canopy helps keep the humidity, thus forming a microclimate.
A good example is the moringa forest someone grew in their Phoenix, AZ front yard -- a city built in the lower Sonoran desert. Moringas are heat-seeking, drought-tolerant, fast-growing, and that guy's front-yard developed a canopy under which he grew more sun-sensitive plants. (Stuff labeled "full sun" does not mean "full Arizona sun).
The _simplest_ method for reversing desertification is to work with the natural tendencies so it does most of the work for you. That is, you jump start ecological succession away from desertification. You don't start with trees. You start by changing how rainwater is captured. In arid and semi-arid wastelands, although there isn't much rainwater, when it does come, it sheets off the ground. Rainwater harvesting structures as simple as swales (on-contour trenches), or even wide, shallow circles, capture just enough water for ecological succession to kick off. Planting things comes after, and helps accelerate ecological succession.
I lived here. Old man made this place long ago, never really raising rates like everyone else as things exploded. Reasonably priced, utilities included, well maintained. It’s a forest in Phoenix with many secret gardens , water fountains, items of interest. Yes a forest in Phoenix. It was a great place.
https://www.rent.com/arizona/phoenix-apartments/forest-park-...
Andrew Millison has a video series that includes restoration of wasteland in India.
Before you accumulate organics, you change how surface water is captured and absorbed into the ground. It can be as simple as shallow trenches or holes (no deeper than a few feet) to slow down water. That then supports the trees, which starts the ecological succession to reverse desertification.
Sometimes, you don't even need to seed it. Just slowing down water is enough to get the process started.
I'd say though, the biggest factor in turning arable land into desert is our modern, industrial-scale agricultural practices. Mainstream-adjacent methods such as polycropping, agroforestry, integrating livestock grazing, etc. yields more resilient farming systems than the usual practice of annually stripping away topsoil, let alone more divergent practices such as perennial food forests.
I think the parent poster is referencing "holes", a book and later a movie. The plot involves kids being sent to a punishment camp where they are made to dig holes in the desert.
Follow up: social engineering to destroy nomadic culture whos Statussymbol goats degreened the landscape in the first place and deregulated created vast conflicts like Syria..
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It's a shame the current climate narrative is so negative, when there's potential life and opportunity to be had, which could stem the flow of people feeling the need to uproot themselves and be refugees on other sides of the planet.
A good example is the moringa forest someone grew in their Phoenix, AZ front yard -- a city built in the lower Sonoran desert. Moringas are heat-seeking, drought-tolerant, fast-growing, and that guy's front-yard developed a canopy under which he grew more sun-sensitive plants. (Stuff labeled "full sun" does not mean "full Arizona sun).
The _simplest_ method for reversing desertification is to work with the natural tendencies so it does most of the work for you. That is, you jump start ecological succession away from desertification. You don't start with trees. You start by changing how rainwater is captured. In arid and semi-arid wastelands, although there isn't much rainwater, when it does come, it sheets off the ground. Rainwater harvesting structures as simple as swales (on-contour trenches), or even wide, shallow circles, capture just enough water for ecological succession to kick off. Planting things comes after, and helps accelerate ecological succession.
Before you accumulate organics, you change how surface water is captured and absorbed into the ground. It can be as simple as shallow trenches or holes (no deeper than a few feet) to slow down water. That then supports the trees, which starts the ecological succession to reverse desertification.
Sometimes, you don't even need to seed it. Just slowing down water is enough to get the process started.
I'd say though, the biggest factor in turning arable land into desert is our modern, industrial-scale agricultural practices. Mainstream-adjacent methods such as polycropping, agroforestry, integrating livestock grazing, etc. yields more resilient farming systems than the usual practice of annually stripping away topsoil, let alone more divergent practices such as perennial food forests.