THe Great Green Wall being built in Africa to halt the southern progress of the Sahara Desert is a favorite public works project of mine — it’s massive, ambitious, long-term, important, and if it works, the effect will repay the cost many times over. This video takes a quick look at some of the work being done on the wall in Senegal.
That was the most brilliant and hopeful thing I’ve seen in ages. Real Fremen shit. Blue-eyes of the Ibad, Dr. Liet-Kynes kinda shit.
This sort of landscaping builds on itself. More biomass makes more biomass. More biomass means more water, and then more biomass. More biomass, more ecological diversity. It’s exponential.
I’m working on this on my own patch of NW Florida swamp. Just changing up a few hundred square feet of land makes an impact. Grind a few hundred sq./ft.? Makes a hot zone, light for growing. Leave it alone? Cool trails, but little diversity.
Tear up some plants along the trail? Erosion. Plant on those same cleared trails? Food and medicinal plants, stops the erosion.
But I must be cautious! 20’ can make the difference in rich, black soil and 1.5" of meager topsoil. Even in my backyard, when I wonder into the very back where it’s 60’ of wild, the temp drops 5°. All too easy to fuck up.
This whole project makes my heart sing. The Great Green Wall is not merely a temporary fix, it’s a solid fix than can last. Terraforming at its finest.
