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It's also been shown that you can mount massive solar farms a bit higher up in the air (3meters+/-) and space them out a bit, and it allows you to grow crops underneath. They get plenty of sunlight and are offered some shade too to help prevent overheating and evaporation.

Where I live is basically beach sand, I've been growing a garden for 4 years and although it is constant work because everything filters down through the sand, it's still worth it because now we have, insects, birds, reptiles and an ever growing list of species that keep showing up in a place that was completely devoid of life before I started the garden.

The Paani Foundation in India holds a competition for villages who are in need of water. It is called the Water Cup. It works by training the villages in water harvesting and then they have 45 days to put the infrastructure in place. It is hugely successful. I think it can work in most area of the world which is facing desertification.

I am from Hungary. The South of Hungary is very sandy and it is hard to farm. So what did the farmers do? They started growing trees called: Robinia pseudoacacia (originally from north Mexico). This plant is actually kind of invasive, but it also has some benefits. 1. Produces flowers for bees 2. It's roots go really deep, and it can withstand dry soil 3. Grows fast and binds water in the ground (it co-operates with many fungi) In hungary it was used to bind sand and quicksand in the southern area of Hungary . It has spikes, but camels could eat the spikes (once you get a big forest of Robinias , they grow back really quickly. The only problem is, they "sleep" during winter. So I am not sure how it would grow in the sahara.. Anyone has any experience with this? Please comment. We have some areas in Northern Hungary where they plant these trees and within 5 years , instead of sand, you get this "brownish" sandy something, and earthworms can survive in the shades, meaning they can produce the bacteria needed.

Here in the philippines, it storms and flood almost all year round. How we wish we can share some of the rains with the desserts.

The desert really sucks, we at the gulf region are fighting against all odds trying to plant and grow crop, so seeing things like this makes my happy.

Let's stop the desert from expanding and let's plant more flowers,trees and green plants!

More attention should be given to the Desert to Stop Desert spreading

So interesting learning about these large scale projects and about the different methods on how to help the plant. Greening those areas helps the people in the areas and the ecosystem.

It's nice he never said the "Sahara Desert" and just said the "Sahara" as it should be called! This was an amazing video

I think greening deserts is a wonderful idea. I wish governments in Australia would start such a project.

It's actually magic to me to find out crops are being grown on sand, because sand has THE LOWEST water retention capabilities of all tipes of soil, there must be a way to turn sand into a soil with more clay and loam proportions, so that it contains more water and lowers irrigation frequency

Of course we can, just like we can stop other climate crises, but will we?

This reminds me of an amazing story that was part of a documentary about the worlds deserts, where they showed an old man and his wife creating a garden in the Gobi desert! It's mind blowing to me how "simple" it would be for us to help the earth help us save it, but we're not doing it!

Al Bayda is an awesome project. I watched the construction of the gabions some years back when it was being created. They also used earth bag construction to build walls. It's really quite an involved project. Not just about saving water but also in protecting the land they are working on from predators and stuff so that they can get maturity out of the landscape that returns.

The United States has nearly drained aquifers that were assumed to last forever by growing food plants in areas where there was not enough rainfall to sustain plant life. Now, much of that area is in drought and various communities fight with each other about water rights. These types of developments can be fraught with danger and I hope the developers are considering the ramifications.

Permaculture and holistic pasture management are good solutions, as they operate according to nature. Look at the wonderful results of "Greening the desert" project by Jordan government, directed by permaculture guru Geoff Lawton, or at the results obtained on grasslands by Alan Savory in Zimbabwue and Botswana, or at the "Loess plateau" recovery in China by doctor John D. Liu

i've tried thinking of how at one point to try to bring some land from desert to forrested, but i never knew any possible way to actually do it, it seemed so unlikely a thing to do. I'm glad to see that someone else could do what I didn't think could be done.

Great video. Raising awareness on these issues and possibilities is critical.

Few days ago I read a news about the dessert area in Xinjiang, now has enough water they can start farming fish and crabs. They just did their harvest recently, to boost the local economy.

DW, Whenever I watch Your videos... I get a Hope that world will somehow get saved from Climate change. Everyone is doing some part to save this world.

It's fascinating to learn about these innovative methods of growing crops in difficult environments. We were particularly taken with the idea of using solar farms to grow crops beneath and provide shade to prevent overheating and evaporation. And the story about growing Robinia pseudoacacia in Hungary to bind sand and quicksand was fascinating! It'd be interesting to see if it worked in the Sahara. We also sympathize with the Philippines' comment about wishing to share some of the rain with the deserts. Water conservation is clearly an important component of these projects, such as the Al Bayda project in Libya, which not only saves water but also protects the land from predators. It's inspiring to see how these projects' creativity and resourcefulness benefit both the environment and the people in those areas. Keep up the great work, Planet A!

Both informative and inspirational. Kindly keep up the fantastic work!!!!!

Solarpanels to provide shade for plants could also be a great option for desert countrys to reduce sun stress on their agricultural plants and produce electricity simultaneously!

Deserts are an essential ecosystem.

You have a really awesome channel, keep doing what you are doing to show people our problems and demonstrate them that together we could implement everything, and there is nothing impossible! And I am also improving my English thanks to your channel)

Thanks for bringing this issue to my attention. Excellent piece.

It's all about knowing a disaster is coming and having the right mindset to combat it tbh

I saw an interesting idea where sea water was evaporated in greenhouses to provide fresh water for growing plants. It seemed a great way of de salinating water without consuming artificial energy. The moisture collected on the glass and ran down into channels that fed the plants. The main cost was pumping the water up from the sea to send it inland. so simple....(albeit not technically regreening a desert). Soils could be used by composting organic waste??

Watching from Isiolo Kenya.Its like the Documentary Speaking to me and the Northern Kenya Situtation.Thumbs up for the You tube team and those who documented

There is a lot of initiatives locally in Africa that are successful and they all engage old methods, I wish this documentary will speak more about those local initiatives but love the key points.

About 4 years back i held a presentation about this in my school. I got a B for it. Such a great topic thats barely talked about. We as humans really need to educate more about our planets problems so we could fix them soo nenough

I’m glad I came across this video. As a gen z there’s a lot of anxiety about the future of our lives because the climate keeps getting worse and corporations are not being held accountable. This video gives me hope again.

These are all great ideas, and I also have some other possible ways to combat desertification. One way will be planting cacti, specifically prickly pear cacti or Opuntias and use them as a food source for both humans and livestock. People in Mexico and Texas have done this for centuries. Another thing that can be done with the cacti so it won't become so invasive is to use it as a water source for newly planted native plants. Meaning when the people are planting native plants, to bury cactus pads with the root balls (deep enough so the pads won't root) and as the cactus decomposes the roots of the native plants uses that moisture. Another way to combat water evaporating from the soil is mulching and using organic fertilizers (animal manure) organic matter mixed with the sand desert soil can become a great moisture holding soil

Many years ago there was a project that used truck tyres on the desert. They put a mix of clay and soil in the tyre and planted olive trees in them. The tyres helped stop the encroachment of the desert.

I love this content! more please! Also, please talk about the "great green wall" projects and water-from-air (the new types with MOFs, not the condensers; also, MOFs as fertilizers!). and how may automation contribute to these and other ecological projects? Cheers!

I really want to see all this full of green and life! Kisses from Brazil...

Thank you for contribution towards educating us

Greening deserts is good. What I’d like to see more of is cover cropping and prairie strip planting where we still have good soil. Only about 8% of US farmland currently uses cover cropping. That’s a dismal rate, not allowing good carbon sequestration and erosion protection, which then leads to more erosion into River, carrying fertilizers into the ocean and reducing oxygen available in the ocean by growth of algae.

"Greening The Dessert" is one thing people who live in or near desserts should know about. It's done to ensure decades of continual improvement and productivity of foods while desalinating soils, feeding both animals and people with excess foods for the long term. University of Jordan is now teaching "permaculture techniques" for continued production without using aquifers.

Have you thought of ways that we can save the earth's soil?

I from greece and the Sahara sand storms affects even us who are hundreds of kilometres away

I was a great fan and follower of the excellent work done by the Al Baydha Project in KSA. Unfortunately, there's been no update for two years now. Would love to see how it's getting on now.

I found the example of greenification with monoculture crops vs with a water table to be very interesting. Another example of how capitalism isn’t always the answer since the monoculture plants was based on turning a profit. Sure, it makes the place look green for a little bit, but it’s not sustainable for the long term. And frankly, it doesn’t even LOOK natural. Compare that to the example of restoring the water table: it takes longer, doesn’t turn a profit, but it also looks NATURAL and sounds much more sustainable. Hopefully it proves to be successful in the long term. I’ll have to keep an eye out for more information on the subject in the future.

I can't think of any activity that gets to the root of so many problems as growing food in a sustainable way (e.g. permaculture), in places like the Sahel - doing so reduces conflict, reduces immigration, increases family stability hence more productive people, reduces global warming, improves health, reduces healthcare costs....

It's wonderful to see all those project that are already in place to make the deserts green ^^ 💚

Great story. Years ago, I got some tomato seeds and ended up with over 100 seedlings in my apartment on the 8th floor. I gave most of them away and put some in a long box on my balcony. I never got a single tomato and neither did my friends who had a second floor deck, probably because we had no polinators, so I cross-pollinated them and got 1 tiny tomato by Thanksgiving. A friend in the country got some huge tomatoes from my seedlings, but unfortunately the frost got them. I don't know how farmers do it. Over the years, various pollinators, found my garden but mostly I grew herbs and flowers. Now I don't have a balcony but grow sprouts. i've done very well with Cress. It's amazing in a sandwich.

Isn't it crazy how perfect of a circle they got

Greening the parts of land that have been invaded by the desert is ok, but planting trees in area as significant as ⅕ of the Sahara is actually a problem. As we know, darker shades absorb light and lighter shades reflect light. Same goes with land. Ice reflects a lot if light, just like yellow sand. However black rocks, brown soils absorb more light, that means heat. This is called albedo of Earth. Greening substantial parts of Sahara will decrease the albedo and cause more heat to be trapped.

Regenerative agriculture can actually reverse desertification and improve soil health with soil health principles. There is a channel on youtube called Understanding Ag is helping people learn about soil health.

I had an assiment on this in helped a lot thank you your channel is very useful

Wonderful. This is the most inspirational thing I've seen this year

I don't think southeast Asia is having desertification issue, at least for now. We are surrounded by water, and it's raining all year round. 2:29

NO MORE LAWN MEANS NO MORE LAWN COSTS AND NO MORE AIR CONDITIONER COSTS. About 30 years ago I reforested the lot around our house. When we purchased the house it was a typical grass lawn with two trees suburban home. I initially planted 60 young hardwood trees throughout the yard and 90 Burford Holly bushes around the perimeter of the property. Looking at a house as having four walls and one roof I concluded that 4/5ths of the heat was coming through the walls and 1/5th was coming through the roof. The roof was getting direct heat and the walls were getting direct heat plus reflected heat reflected from the lawn. .My reasoning was the trees would stop direct sunlight and the Holly bushes would stop reflected sunlight hitting the walls of house. Before the trees and Holly bushes grew to their current size we had to run the air conditioner 24/7. This gave us a power bill close to $400.00 a month. In spite of the high power pill, it was unable to cool the house to a comfortable temperature. I made a few modifications to the house by adding roofed decks around the back and front entrances, to block the heat coming into the house through the doors, plus replacing the small window in the upstairs bedroom with French Doors plus a small roofed deck. The French Doors effectively took out most of the upper bedroom wall allowing the heat rising from the lower floors to escape. As the trees and Holly Bushes grew providing more shade the electric bill came down. Now the house is surrounded with a forest canopy and we no longer use or need the air conditioner. Our electric bill has been reduced by almost 75% and is currently $110.00 a month. The forest canopy is filled in to a point where the house can no longer be seen from the street. The property forestation is completely self sustaining and does not require watering, chemicals, mowing or any other human intervention.

Just look at the US in the 1920s. Overfarming and bad practices led to sand storms and lowkey desertification. Better farming practices and most importantly, willingness from farmers and the local population to spend their money and time made it possible to recover areas that were destroyed by bad farming and land cultivation practices. If there is no willingness from the locals to adapt there will be no change. It is a good thing, that more and more environmentalists focus on also convincing people because that makes a project future-proof.

It's just nuts the video is fab You know what you, your video, your channel deserves much more views and subscriber's (take it in that way so that it sense about like &subscriber stuff) You are tooooooooooooo good Juts loved it

There used to be hippos, lions, and alligators all across the Sahara thousands of years ago. It used to be grassland mingled with shallow pools, where gazelles would graze. It can be that way again!

Wow why have i never heard of this ? Thank u for sharing

This is very satisfying to watch!

Why is this titled can we stop deserts from growing? Don't we want deserts to have vegetation growth? Oh wait it's ambiguous... Title is referring to deserts expanding in size. I thought it meant growing vegetation.

"don't get me wrong, deserts are fascinating and unique ecosystems worthy of protection"

Great information about how to make the most of the limited resources available

Sad how our planet is mostly water but that water can't be used as resource to tackle this issue. These reaserach and projects are amazing but I hope eventually there will be a break through technology which will circulate ocean water as a completely clean purified drinkable water which can be used for agricultural and greening purpose

The ancient Israelites used three flat rocks. They set them in a depression in the desert soil, tilted so that a rough hole was formed at the bottom. Overnight the desert air is very cold, but contains some moisture. The moisture condense on the rock and drips down toward the rough "hole" in the bottom where a seed is planted. It seems like a useful technique to me. Is it being uses today?

Just love what you are doing!! And sorry about Russia shutting down your studio over there. Take care everyone and KEEP GOING!!

reversing the desertification where it has already happened it not only good, I think its imperative. Fantastic!! Finding ways to restore using innovative techniques like better grazing practices is the long term solution. Using ground water to kick start a long term solution could be helpful but ground water will dry up fast so they are not a long term solution. Think solutions that last for centuries and leave the land better than you started.

This is incredible!! So many interesting solutions here. Excellent video thanks

Some time ago, I’ve heard, that greening desserts may be good for the local trees and animals, but that it would be an overall bad thing for earth‘s temperature overall, as deserts reflect way more sunlight than a green area. Is that true?

Learning how to slow down flashfloods will be strategic on a warming planet

We need the best brains on the planet to solve these problems🙂

I would love to see our planet with beautiful Greenery, lots of birds, little butterflies and what not I love them... We have a terrace garden at our home and there is a sparrow nest. Hearing them chirping gives me some kind of happiness. I hope we all do atleast something for our planet

Stopping unethical commercial farming as soon as possible helps tremendously to contain the occurrence of extreme weather conditions.

Ya they actually started it well done ....wish all world can learn something from them

There is something wrong with the idea of solar panels making the air go upwards. Heat already makes the air go upwards but, if there is no moisture up in the sky, then no rain will come down. However it seems to be working and making some areas greener so there must be something extra that I'm missing.

No drama, no politics, no agendas, straight up facts, good job DW

With the solar power in the Sahara thing. Wouldn't that work if we just put reflective or black slabs of anything out there? That seems fast and cheap and then you could replace them with solar over time while creating tons of benefits for your project and an incredible reputation.

Wow! There's hope in this world. Thanks you for your content. Here's a sub for you

Everyone proffesionals is needed in addressing climate change.Its Our collective Responsibilities to Conserve Enviroment

hope you make a more detailed documentary on this topic thanks alot for the video

I'm glad you mentioned that deserts are also ecosystems worth of protecting. Yes, stop desertification, but don't green whole deserts. Sahara is especially important for fertilizing the Amazon Forest. No Sahara -> no Amazon.

It is possible to fix what was broken, if everyone comes together and helps, they'd be surprised at what can happen, they can stop the droughts and famon

I apreasiating you are giving very valuable information to make our world beautiful and green 👍👍👍👍👍👍

New seeding and Forest restoration is highly important

You all need to watch the Our Planet Deserts to grasslands Documentary. There you can see the role deserts hace in our planet. We don't need to change deserts we need them as they are. What we need is let nature return to the places we have taken from her

I think we need creative leaders with a good cash flow to develop these areas in ways we don't know yet. I think we have potential to do more than be a burden to the planet.

Thank you for a very interesting and informative video! In some cases music is quite loud making it hard to hear the text, hope that’s useful commentary.

I have land in the middle of the Mohave Desert in AZ and plan on creating a food forest, so far not finding anyone in the area who is doing anything close to this...still searching for resources.

terraforming deserts should be humanity's goal instead of colonizing space

Very informative..countering desertification..

Awesome project!! In the world of advanced science & technology, we believe there can be so many amazing innovations such as these ones, we just love how individuals can make such a difference. We would love to add this to one of our playlists to inspire our audience. -Team PlanetCents

I quite like this channel. As someone who studied environmental psychology it is nice to see the use of experts and how there is a solution to the problem. If you haven’t yet subscribe !!

Me a Mongolian happy to see the gobi desert mentioned : 😀 Also me knowing desertification: ☹

Great work.

Desert Control's solution is also very exciting and potentially groundbreaking

I'm not fully aware of the consequences and would like to comparatively decide based on pros and cons. We may want to change things but it may not always be a good thing..

Very informative and knowledgeable content.

love it once again after 9 month,appreciative inititiative

Humans everywhere need to know how to prevent desertification.

We CAN do this! 😍🙂