Huge-scale ecological engineering around the edges of one of the world's largest and driest deserts has turned it into a carbon sink that absorbs more CO2 than it emits, research suggests.
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. You’d destroy more carbon sinks than you actually made. We can’t just eliminate deserts willy-nilly and claim we have done a good thing.
However, my understanding is 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.
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
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. You’d destroy more carbon sinks than you actually made. We can’t just eliminate deserts willy-nilly and claim we have done a good thing.
However, my understanding is 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.
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