SearchActivists have been telling us for some time now of the dangers of climate change. But there is some news that brings hope.
Human activity has caused the destruction of land all over the world – cutting down trees, overgrazing fields over time causes the land to dry out and turn to desert. If land cannot stay moist, it becomes barren and eroded. The silt created clogs any remaining waterways.
Weather Makers is a company of scientists working towards regreening deserts. Co-founder Ties van der Hoeven has collected a diverse group of scientists who believe that by dredging waterways, planting trees, limiting animal grazing, and adding organic material to help create soil—then rain will return, land will regenerate and be restored.
To dredge means to clean out the bed of (a harbor, river, or other area of water) by scooping out mud, weeds, and rubbish with a dredge.
The Weather Makers team are working on Lake Bardawi—an area in the Egyptian Sinai desert. This area was once fertile with a network of rivers leading to the Mediterranean Sea. Now the waterways a just a few meters deep and the land is desert. So, by dredging, they intend to cut deeper channels that will allow water to flow from the Mediterranean. The deeper waterways will make the area cooler and migrating birds will return adding fertility and plants to form soil.
The group take as an example a place in northern China called the Loess Plateau which was a dry and barren desert. Silt flowed into the Yellow River. By planting trees, making terraced slopes for planting crops, adding organic material to the soil, limiting grazing—within 20 years the desert became green and rain returned. A documentary was made about it called Green Gold.
The takeaway from these news stories is that people are sharing ideas and coming together to find solutions. It was once thought to be impossible that man could land on the moon but that was achieved by Apollo 11. So, let’s believe that regreening deserts and dealing with climate change is within the realms of possibility.
