Greening the Desert

bmed19 Says:

Aug 15, 2009 - im not doubting that these desert regions were once heavily vegetaged, but but alot has changed since those facts were recorded in the bible. human settlement patterns, climate, and nutrient/water flows have changed. is it fair to say that lush vegetation can be supported in these new conditions? to support such PC growth one must focus on restroring the human population/settlement, climatic, and water flow patterns that allowed such lush growth.

bmed19 Says:

Aug 15, 2009 - wouldnt u agree that for PC growth to be sucessful u need to look at the big picture? Its a desert for a reason. trying to change it will be a battle u cannot win unless u change the surrondings which try to keep it desert-like.

ninyae Says:

Aug 15, 2009 - Is it a desert landscape for natural reasons or for human reasons? Has it remained denuded due to human settlement? If humanity was removed from the picture would nature leave it as a desert or would it restore itself to previous conditions. Is it arid due to a rain shadow created by a mountain range or is it arid due to human interference and tree removal? At one time, it appears there was not a rain shadow condition. A few thousand years is nothing in the big picture.

StrongArmZZ Says:

Aug 15, 2009 - It's not stealing if neighbors are letting it run right off because the land they own lacks terrain. I live in the sonoran desert. The greenest parts of the land are the places where canyons are blocked by plants, or swales that were built a hundred years ago. The rest is not sand dunes, the majority of it is recovering from the clear cuts that took place to supply local mines with timber. Some hills have never recovered where the trees cannot keep themselves rooted due to severe soil erosion.

mmimic34 Says:

Aug 17, 2009 - um...taking 1% of fallen debris from a forest is a little different than farmers who year after year take more than 25% of their crop mass to market (along with most of the essential nutrients for life that concentrate in fruits and veggies)

aredditor Says:

Aug 17, 2009 - Do you really truly think there's enough organic material to supply organic fertilizer to all farms? It wouldn't be at all a practical or green endeavor to do such a thing. BTW, you should google map the region. There's no nearby forests to to get debris from, and it would be a horrible idea anyway. Like it or not, most farmers are going to need chemical fertilizers to replace what leaves their fields. Hundreds of years ago, the solution was slash and burn, so we've come a long way.

UniversalBrother108 Says:

Aug 22, 2009 - or we could systematically compost all of our waste, which would be plenty

UniversalBrother108 Says:

Aug 22, 2009 - Permaculture is a practice with a deep level of respect for nature. If there is a human population in an area such as this (which there is) they need to eat. And these methods are the most environmentally sound ways to sustain these populations of people, plus if the desert would be "greened" then there would be much more co2 consuming organisims, as well as cooling very hot areas of the Earth, and as one person already mentioned these areas where once very vital with tremendous vegetation.

zoezuniga Says:

Aug 29, 2009 - Exactly right. in San Francisco they have found that money talkes they are making money getting restaurants to compost all organic waste as well as homes. this could be done in the middle east. imagine if we spent all that weapons money on regreening instead!

Krys0lovers0sos Says:

Aug 31, 2009 - all you people are too smart !!!

LoveHeartLogicHead Says:

Sep 2, 2009 - 1. Life is what can intervene to turn a situation around. Mulch, otherwise burned is used to cool the ground and prevent evaporation. Trees grow + shed leaves - more mulch. 2. Small bugs deposit carbon into the soil. This locks up the salt. Salt is still there but no longer prevents plants from growing. 3. The mass media sells bad news. Why? If I tell you a threat is approaching, you'll want to know everything about it for self preservation. Might be malarkey but it draws many in.

frootEpebbles Says:

Sep 2, 2009 - I made grass in kindergarten once.

carringtonblush Says:

Sep 9, 2009 - @bmed, e.g. the amazon rainforests, most of the precipitation that sustains them is created by the forests themselves through a rapid cycle of transpiration and precipitation. Water doesn't disappear when it goes into the atmosphere or ground - it comes back as precipitation, or ends up as streamflow further downstream. Like the rainforest, PC methods just slow the water on its passage back to the sea, make very good use of it in the meantime to capture free energy from sunlight via plants.

carringtonblush Says:

Sep 9, 2009 - One more point - this area would almost certainly have supported food plants before thoughtless human activity turned it into a desert. Now that the landscape-humidifying properties of those plants are gone, it makes perfect sense for humans to re-humidify the landscape through swales etc., which get the water underground where plants can use it. The plants will restore the fertility of the landscape and halt the erosion of millions of years worth of accumulated soil.

Glargl Says:

Oct 7, 2009 - Pardon my ignorance, but is the mulch (sp?) from "organic fields nearby" merely necessary in order to kickstart the process or do you have to keep adding organic inputs? I mean, does it become selfsustainable after the initial layer?

StrongArmZZ Says:

Oct 8, 2009 - Just to kick start. After that the nitrogen fixing "mulch trees" take care of it.

questone100 Says:

Oct 10, 2009 - so why arent more people doing this? great job, great idea, and great vid.

Snurdgerbly Says:

Oct 12, 2009 - questone100, more people are doing this. Google "rehydrating the landscape"

Plozen Says:

Oct 12, 2009 - Now see, it's an interesting idea, but we shouldn't regreen the whole thing... I mean, there are ecosystems that exist there.

PratimokshaABC Says:

Oct 23, 2009 - Glargl, yes it does become self-sustaining quite quickly. Nitrogen fixing trees, when pruned, will shed root nodules, which decompose in the ground and turn to rich soil. Leaf litter also becomes soil and provides natural mulch. The initial input of organic matter can be phased out after a while, so this is not a zero-sum game.

Aussiemoo Says:

Oct 25, 2009 - well I'd assume that they'd get leaf litter from the trees, and once the trees are up and providing shade, then you can get less evaporation on the ground level.

ahahahayeahright Says:

Nov 6, 2009 - i've watched this video twenty times by now. i don't know why i don't get tired of seeing this, but it blows my mind every time.

ahahahayeahright Says:

Nov 6, 2009 - this is the kind of mindless ecoblabber that needs to be challenged. tell me why we shouldn't grow food in the most famine-stricken part of the world- ie, (sub) sahara? permaculture will create another functioning ecosystem in the desert- what makes one ecosystem better than another? is it the number of species thriving there? because i guarantee you will see a lot more life flourish in a green desert.

SexxyAmmberr Says:

Nov 7, 2009 - looking for a man that would give me some experience.

misterrgerbil Says:

Nov 16, 2009 - Awesome ! The world needs to see and know this !!!!!