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Desert greening is transforming dust and sand into farmable soil (2023)
Desertification is destroying once-fertile land at an alarming rate, but desert greening techniques are making degraded soil bloom again.
The project isn’t without its critics — some argue the Green Wall is too much of a monoculture, and the program should be planting a wider range of tree species, as that would allow the artificial forests to trap more carbon and rebuild animal ecosystems. While most of today’s desert greening projects center on tried-and-true techniques like planting trees and digging bunds, a number of more advanced technologies are showing promise. Researchers at Chongqing Jiaotong University in China, meanwhile, have developed a non-toxic paste made from cellulose, the compound in plant cell walls, that can be mixed with sandy desert soil to improve its retention of water, nutrients, and air.
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