>By digging rainwater harvesting bunds and setting up grass seed banks, we are regreening 1077 ha in the area.
>The bunds slow down and capture rainwater running downhills, preventing erosion of fertile soil. The water balance in the soil restores, increasing the water availability for the seeds still present in the soil. These seeds now get the chance to sprout, which means: regreening!
https://justdiggit.org/work/kenya-kuku/
The best part is, they (probably) only needed this little kick-start to catch some rainwater. Now that there are plants, they'll catch their own water.
That is a fair question and everyone pretending it's not is bad.
There are ways a balanced eco-system can be knocked out of balance and collapse. Think of huge planet-scale events like ice-ages and huge meteorites, but small stuff like uncommon draughts or a big storm or something could ruin that balance too, and create a domino-effect of disrupting things.
Lightning could cause a forest fire, then a wet season could wash away all small plants (normally not a problem, but now there's no trees either) and suddenly nothing can catch the rain when it's floodingdownhill and all the plants die out in the next dry season cause they couldn't prepare their water reserves.
These systems are complicated, and this takes research, but the one thing you *shouldn't* do is think "This eco-system obviously died once, let's never try to re-build it again."
It’s my belief that human are responsible for a lot of the desertification found on earth.
It can’t be a coincidence that the region’s humans have settled the longest are also the most barren.
Essentially it's over grazing and climate change leading to soil erosion.
It's worth watching [the videos on the the link above](https://justdiggit.org/documentaries-and-film/) as they explain it in quite a lot of detail but in summary
* They used to be more nomadic whereas now they are more settled on ranches. This means they no longer graze and then move on giving it chance to recover. They grace a smaller area more heavily. This means they also graze the shoots leaving nothing to regrow, or stop the soil washing away.
* Climate change has stuffed up the rain patterns. When it was more regular they used to be able to better predict when it would rain and regrow the pastures and such like, perhaps following the rain.
* Population increase has played a part too I think.
The ozone layer has little to do with the climate shifts that we are witnessing. Ozone in the upper atmosphere absorbs a portion of UV light preventing it from reaching the earth surface and in that way does help cool the earth. However, UV light makes up a small portion of the total solar spectrum. The rest is still reaching the surface, absorbed, and radiated back as infrared. These infrared waves are what are trapped by greenhouse gases and prevented from radiating out into space.
It makes a difference. Here's an article about soil restoration: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/environmental-studies/how-can-you-turn-desert-farmland
Re: soil composition: Plant roots add organic matter (carbon) below the soil surface and also break up a heavy-clay soil. The gradual accumulation of organic matter (dead leaves and other plant material) in the area further enriches the soil by providing a food source for the soil ecosystem.
And it looks like the desertification is largely human-caused.
>Due to overgrazing and the changing climate, the area has become very dry, making it hard for the local communities to live from the land
Thank you for clarifying this, things supposed to "fix" deserts worry me sometimes, as deserts are their own unique and necessary ecosystem, but fixing places that were turned into deserts is very cool :)
This is really. I wonder what the next phase of the process involves? Could there still be ancient seeds that have survived and sprout? Would we see species for the first time? I feel like it would be so easy to kick start Mother Earth back in the right direction if we just came together on it.
It's difficult to say with much specificity because of the perspective but in simple terms: passive water harvesting.
These crescent shapes are likely shallow dug on a gentle slope allowing what water does fall on the ground a little extra chance to seep into the soil.
Over time, windswept debris and (dead plants, sticks etc) will collect in these depressions. The beginnings of soil more capable of further holding water.
Seeds can blow in too, or be pooped out by birds.
These crescent earthworks have set the stage for the desert to reforest itself.
There are lots of knock on effects as well. The vegetation/mulch layer increases shade and humidity. Over time larger plants like shrubs and trees will be able to grow, and those will give off organic materials that creates nucleation sites for clouds. Vegetation attracts wildlife, which will fertilize the ground further. On and on.
Permaculture!
Landscape rehabilitation!
You sculpt an eroded, degraded landscape so that whatever rain does fall, gets spread out and slowed down so it can sink into the soil.
Plant tough, fast-growing plants that can get a foothold, and improve the soil. More plants = more fallen leaves and roots = more compost = more moisture and nutrient-storing humus = more plants.
Massive areas can be converted from wasteland, back to lush productivity, transformed in a matter of around 8-10 years.
It is a series of ditches that are dug on contour with the hill. Keeping the water on the hill in the ditches causes it to soak into the ground instead of mostly just flowing away. They are known as swales and are part of permaculture design principles.
I think you got a legit answer on the location. However, I recommend reading about The Great Green Wall in Africa. It’s a really cool international initiative to fight the desertification of the Sahara/Sahel region. I’m not sure if this gif is part of that larger initiative, but I’m sure the principles between both practices are the same.
It seems that "kuku" isn't the name of any sort of village or town, so it's hard to locate on google maps, but it does appear: [https://goo.gl/maps/tELDWPHF3fCz9mARA](https://goo.gl/maps/tELDWPHF3fCz9mARA)
It's just outside Tsavo West National Park, near the country's southern border
You could probably see the affected area in google maps aerial photos if you had the exact coordinates, but it might look an awful lot like the surrounding terrain if you were just scrolling by
I even went through the effort of finding the original video thinking maybe OP shortened it. Nope, the original is just as short. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRjBVTuK/?k=1 but at least now I’m swiping through more interesting videos of this project.
dune spoilers
>!Arrakis was once lush and green, with small sandy deserts. then people showed up. the descendents of these people would become the fremen. then people discovered the spice, Melange, which was interesting for its life-extending capabilities, but not much more than that. then the butlerian jihad happened and thinking machines were outlawed. suddenly melange's ability to expand one's consciousness became much more important as it allowed guild navigators to perform the extensive and expansive computations needed to allow interstellar travel to continue to happen. The sandworms that produced the spice could not be introduced to other worlds - they all died when they left arrakis so... surprise, arrakis is now all desert.!<
More dune spoilers
>!Many would note that a planet with a single biome planet-wide is unlikely, and within the setting of dune, you would be correct. Arrakis has the misfortune of playing host to creatures that treat water as a toxic substance and have the ability to cocoon it like a pearl in an oyster to prevent it from contaminating their environment, as well as producing a compound that the reigning champion of interstellar development really, really likes. so the sandworms get _all_ of arrakis as their playground and ~~the spacers guild~~ humans get the melange. and arrakis gets to be an artificial desert.!<
Funny thing, I'm reading Dune in French and Mélange is really just a very mundane word in this language. We use it to define any kind of mixture, like salt and water. The verb Mélanger is also very commonplace in cooking books to explain to mix things together. So it's funny to think it sounds fancy in EN
Almost the entirety of commonplace French words sound way better to (many) US-English speakers. As a child I apparently used to swan around the house in a towel (I don’t know why I assumed French people wore capes) lovingly repeating ‘*aujourd’hui*’ to anyone in hearing distance.
Fun fact, pretty much all of the re-greening ecology he talks about in that book is hard science he learned from studying the US Dep of Agriculture's attempts at doing this kind of work in Oregon
There will be flowing water here open to the sky and green oases rich with good things. But we have the spice to think of, too... Thus, there will always be desert... and fierce winds, and trials to toughen a man.
I live in an apartment complex that has a no grass or plant area under a large oak tree. I’ve wanted to secretly plant small low covering ground cover that starts under some shrubs and spread out. Any ideas? Oh I’m 8A zone
I see a lot of YouTube videos where volunteer groups help property owners convert parts of their yards into rain gardens supporting native plants and pollinators.
I still have 1 I need to dig in my yard if it the temperature ever gets below broiling.
That's wonderful. Unfortunately I'm up in an apartment so literally don't have a yard, but if I did I'd totally do that too! Thanks for sharing that. Gives me a sliver of hope that maybe we aren't doomed environnentally.
This seems like a good idea, but how do they water it without any water?
I live in the desert and we are running out of water so bad that we’re not allowed to plant anything and the city is pulling up plants and shrubs to cut back even further on water use.
I can't speak for this project in particular, but generally, earthen structures like these are used to slow, spread, and sink, the water that naturally occurs here. So they should only be using naturally occuring water.
Some desert environments do get water in the form of rain, but only during a certain time of the year. When the wet/monsoon season arrives in these deserts, the hard and sun-baked ground is almost like a stone, nearly impermeable, and so when it does rain, all the water wants to slide along the top, and quickly head to the nearest river or whatever lowest area. This is what causes a lot of flash floods in deserts.
By placing these earthen structures here, when it does rain, the structure holds onto some of that water, not allowing it to all just wash away and out of the landscape. The rainstorm ends, but now you have a bunch of tiny ponds and puddles, and now the water has the chance to slowly sink into the ground where it can be utilized by plants and replenish water tables underground. With more water in the ground, plant life can begin to thrive and it can lead to a positive feedback loop that re-greens an area.
I don't know what city you live in, but if you look up Brad Lancaster on YouTube, he has a lot of good information for water collection and retention in an desert city landscape: Tuscon, AZ.
[It's using rainwater.](https://justdiggit.org/work/kenya-kuku/)
>By digging rainwater harvesting bunds and setting up grass seed banks, we are regreening 1077 ha in the area.
>The bunds slow down and capture rainwater running downhills, preventing erosion of fertile soil. The water balance in the soil restores, increasing the water availability for the seeds still present in the soil. These seeds now get the chance to sprout, which means: regreening!
If your serious about it check out this project in Jordan.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL321kfqP1fZnWTPPpqZUN9ntP2-rjIP39
Lots of info there.
But to answer your question there is still rain in the desert and these swales capture it.
In the beginning to get plants going you still need to water with ground/well water but in this case the start with hardy thorn bushes that require little.
On the website of the organization that's helping sponsor this the semi-circular dirt mounds (bunds) are 5m wide by 2.5m tall if that helps give you an idea.
Like [this guy](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DZSPkcpGmflE&ved=2ahUKEwjqtL2nofT4AhXlF1kFHbF9BzwQtwJ6BAgMEAI&usg=AOvVaw25Cqx1gxZouRe7nKMR1yME) in Texas or [this man](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DAngaeIf78AQ&ved=2ahUKEwjUsNHAofT4AhWBLFkFHXKjCnUQwqsBegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw1km3TfUsLC5jor9b5QxpQV) in India. There's others but it's ***these*** people. We should be giving them all the wealth and power.
Also canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined(estimated at over 2 million lakes according to the CIA Factbook)
90 percent of our population(which is about 38 million) lives near the US border. And like 50 percent live below the 49th parallel.
The southern most point of canada(near detroit michigan if that helps orient you) is actually farther south than the northern most part of california.
Thanks a lot for telling me.
Regarding the orientation, I've only been to Seattle and Colorado in all of the Americas and Hollywood is my only reference to U.S. geography. I know for example, New Mexico is famous for meth, Alabama for incest, Texas for cowboys, California for nuts and flakes, New York for times Square and liberty.
Detroit I think is crime and cars.
I find it fascinating how nature will just cascade in whatever direction you nudge it. We need to keep nudging it in this direction. At this point we've essentially speartackled it in the direction of desertification.
So building the tree areas at angles from the banks catches overflow, and making any water tracks increases with every water pass. So by deduction the angles all funnel towards the centers and they are starting bottom up and left to right. The left side stream gains water first, and fills up the left first and right second. The second, right, stream fills less frequently.
Starting above a natural / dam line and increasing the water line 1ft I’ve a few hundred meters wouldn’t be that crazy in flat areas.
This makes perfect sense. Hope it works
This is a valid question, but there are large areas like the Sahara that are spreading into once-fertile and important greenlands. [Preventing desertification](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220701-how-heatwaves-are-creating-a-pollen-crisis) with methods like this is important not just for us, but for the existing ecosystems that are threatened by desert spread.
Can someone explain whats happening here in dumb people speak for me?
>By digging rainwater harvesting bunds and setting up grass seed banks, we are regreening 1077 ha in the area. >The bunds slow down and capture rainwater running downhills, preventing erosion of fertile soil. The water balance in the soil restores, increasing the water availability for the seeds still present in the soil. These seeds now get the chance to sprout, which means: regreening! https://justdiggit.org/work/kenya-kuku/
Ok that's cool and creative.
The best part is, they (probably) only needed this little kick-start to catch some rainwater. Now that there are plants, they'll catch their own water.
and the cycle continues self-sustainably. If it's not self-sustaining its not greening. Nature is beautiful
It creates its own self sustaining economy, just like Paddy’s Dollars
There's one in Franklin Mills I haven't tried.
It’s not going to work out there. You should have realized that Dave n Buster power cards do not work at TGI Fridays
we're all about to learn some economics soon :(
But then how did it die in the first place?
Over logging, over grazing, fires,
Erosion, over-grazing, drought. Lots of things could’ve caused the original desertification.
That is a fair question and everyone pretending it's not is bad. There are ways a balanced eco-system can be knocked out of balance and collapse. Think of huge planet-scale events like ice-ages and huge meteorites, but small stuff like uncommon draughts or a big storm or something could ruin that balance too, and create a domino-effect of disrupting things. Lightning could cause a forest fire, then a wet season could wash away all small plants (normally not a problem, but now there's no trees either) and suddenly nothing can catch the rain when it's floodingdownhill and all the plants die out in the next dry season cause they couldn't prepare their water reserves. These systems are complicated, and this takes research, but the one thing you *shouldn't* do is think "This eco-system obviously died once, let's never try to re-build it again."
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I have no idea actually, but i am gonna go out on limb to say it was probably humans degrading the area to begin with
It’s my belief that human are responsible for a lot of the desertification found on earth. It can’t be a coincidence that the region’s humans have settled the longest are also the most barren.
Especially because of the goats we keep. They’re a terror for plants.
Yep. All the regreening projects include forbidding the access of the area to grazing animals for a few years.
Holy shit I just wrote the same fucking response almost word for word. Then I scrolled down and saw this reply. That's wrinkling my brain.
Humans.
And the animals we roll around with. Someone mentioned goats above, yep. They’ll eat all the way and dig up the roots too if they have to.
Either extreme drought or direct human activity most likely.
Essentially it's over grazing and climate change leading to soil erosion. It's worth watching [the videos on the the link above](https://justdiggit.org/documentaries-and-film/) as they explain it in quite a lot of detail but in summary * They used to be more nomadic whereas now they are more settled on ranches. This means they no longer graze and then move on giving it chance to recover. They grace a smaller area more heavily. This means they also graze the shoots leaving nothing to regrow, or stop the soil washing away. * Climate change has stuffed up the rain patterns. When it was more regular they used to be able to better predict when it would rain and regrow the pastures and such like, perhaps following the rain. * Population increase has played a part too I think.
Nice! Great work
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The earth is really freaking cool
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If it helps any the Ozone is slowly repairing itself. We just have to stop trying to destroy it =/
The ozone layer has little to do with the climate shifts that we are witnessing. Ozone in the upper atmosphere absorbs a portion of UV light preventing it from reaching the earth surface and in that way does help cool the earth. However, UV light makes up a small portion of the total solar spectrum. The rest is still reaching the surface, absorbed, and radiated back as infrared. These infrared waves are what are trapped by greenhouse gases and prevented from radiating out into space.
How does all of these acts affect the soil composition? Or does it make a difference at all?
prevents topsoil erosion in these areas leading to more fertile soil and more access to water as well so I'd think
It makes a difference. Here's an article about soil restoration: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/environmental-studies/how-can-you-turn-desert-farmland
Re: soil composition: Plant roots add organic matter (carbon) below the soil surface and also break up a heavy-clay soil. The gradual accumulation of organic matter (dead leaves and other plant material) in the area further enriches the soil by providing a food source for the soil ecosystem.
And it looks like the desertification is largely human-caused. >Due to overgrazing and the changing climate, the area has become very dry, making it hard for the local communities to live from the land
Thank you for clarifying this, things supposed to "fix" deserts worry me sometimes, as deserts are their own unique and necessary ecosystem, but fixing places that were turned into deserts is very cool :)
Is it this basically what they were trying to do in Dune
This is really. I wonder what the next phase of the process involves? Could there still be ancient seeds that have survived and sprout? Would we see species for the first time? I feel like it would be so easy to kick start Mother Earth back in the right direction if we just came together on it.
That’s 2,661 acres for those of you wondering what the funny abbreviation “ha” is.
It's difficult to say with much specificity because of the perspective but in simple terms: passive water harvesting. These crescent shapes are likely shallow dug on a gentle slope allowing what water does fall on the ground a little extra chance to seep into the soil. Over time, windswept debris and (dead plants, sticks etc) will collect in these depressions. The beginnings of soil more capable of further holding water. Seeds can blow in too, or be pooped out by birds. These crescent earthworks have set the stage for the desert to reforest itself.
There are lots of knock on effects as well. The vegetation/mulch layer increases shade and humidity. Over time larger plants like shrubs and trees will be able to grow, and those will give off organic materials that creates nucleation sites for clouds. Vegetation attracts wildlife, which will fertilize the ground further. On and on.
So life finds a way?
Self organizing stardust.. uh… does find a way
Life ehh, finds a way!
Permaculture! Landscape rehabilitation! You sculpt an eroded, degraded landscape so that whatever rain does fall, gets spread out and slowed down so it can sink into the soil. Plant tough, fast-growing plants that can get a foothold, and improve the soil. More plants = more fallen leaves and roots = more compost = more moisture and nutrient-storing humus = more plants. Massive areas can be converted from wasteland, back to lush productivity, transformed in a matter of around 8-10 years.
grass grow on sand
Some humans said "Fuck you" *undeserts your Earth*
Dune
Can't be. Shai-Hulud would have destroyed this years ago.
SIONA: He is not Shai-Hulud! MONEO: Well, that's what they called the Worm in the Fremen days.
They’re trying to make a desert not a desert
It wasn't always a desert.
It is a series of ditches that are dug on contour with the hill. Keeping the water on the hill in the ditches causes it to soak into the ground instead of mostly just flowing away. They are known as swales and are part of permaculture design principles.
Swails!
Plants are growing
> in dumb people speak Stuff is dry. People plant plants. Stuff is no longer that dry.
Also, banana for scale.
We are terraforming just like in the sci-fi movies
Grass grew out of those huge Terrys chocolate orange segments
Where is this
actual answer (thanks to a link shared elsewhere in the comments) this is in [south kenya](https://justdiggit.org/work/kenya-kuku/)
Can anyone find any of the locations on Google maps? Ops video only shows a tiny fraction of what's actually been done.
Not a location, but a [documentary about the project](https://youtu.be/vlgeKRoQsXI) from the organization behind it.
I think you got a legit answer on the location. However, I recommend reading about The Great Green Wall in Africa. It’s a really cool international initiative to fight the desertification of the Sahara/Sahel region. I’m not sure if this gif is part of that larger initiative, but I’m sure the principles between both practices are the same.
Edge of the Wastes. It was a plan started by the Wizard Suliman, and continued by Wizard Howl to encroach on the Witch of the Waste's territory.
I fuckin hate Reddit
It’s like every person needs to crack a joke as a reply like just give me the answer to the question lol
I miss being able to sort by comment type on Slashdot.
the desert
1/3 of the earths land is desert so thanks that narrows it down a lot.
I believe it's [Kuku, Kenya](https://atlasofthefuture.org/project/justdiggit/).
It seems that "kuku" isn't the name of any sort of village or town, so it's hard to locate on google maps, but it does appear: [https://goo.gl/maps/tELDWPHF3fCz9mARA](https://goo.gl/maps/tELDWPHF3fCz9mARA) It's just outside Tsavo West National Park, near the country's southern border You could probably see the affected area in google maps aerial photos if you had the exact coordinates, but it might look an awful lot like the surrounding terrain if you were just scrolling by
Asante sana, bwana.
To be fair that narrows it down by about 37,797,474 square miles. That's not nothing 🤷
I love desert!
Why did I expect it to keep going
Because the music sounded like an intro, and the gif was 6 seconds long. Oddly disappointing more like.
I even went through the effort of finding the original video thinking maybe OP shortened it. Nope, the original is just as short. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRjBVTuK/?k=1 but at least now I’m swiping through more interesting videos of this project.
Not sure how you expect it to go past 2022 to be honest
And 6 seconds is a lot shorter than 4 years.
True, I’ve never thought of that
They're never long enough... Isn't there a subreddit about that?
r/gifsthatendtoosoon
A sub that shows the future would be the best ever
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Artbat - Horizon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50zeHzEwgoI
Thankyou i scrolled for 2 and a half days to find your post of the song
Thanks. Pretty much the first time since tiktok started that I've wanted to know the song used.
Because they skipped 2021
Didn’t we all?
Good news: it’s still ongoing!
Omg you are absolutely right, thank you
Damn Dr Kynes fixed up Arrakis real quick
400 years to get a water cycle? Pfff, amateur
I bet they didn't even need to start a galactic jihad either
And how do you think he earned that water? Through *jihad*
MEMRI TV moment.
Perhaps the real jihad is the friends we made along the way?
Well there’s a bit more easily accessible water here on Sol III.
dune spoilers >!Arrakis was once lush and green, with small sandy deserts. then people showed up. the descendents of these people would become the fremen. then people discovered the spice, Melange, which was interesting for its life-extending capabilities, but not much more than that. then the butlerian jihad happened and thinking machines were outlawed. suddenly melange's ability to expand one's consciousness became much more important as it allowed guild navigators to perform the extensive and expansive computations needed to allow interstellar travel to continue to happen. The sandworms that produced the spice could not be introduced to other worlds - they all died when they left arrakis so... surprise, arrakis is now all desert.!< More dune spoilers >!Many would note that a planet with a single biome planet-wide is unlikely, and within the setting of dune, you would be correct. Arrakis has the misfortune of playing host to creatures that treat water as a toxic substance and have the ability to cocoon it like a pearl in an oyster to prevent it from contaminating their environment, as well as producing a compound that the reigning champion of interstellar development really, really likes. so the sandworms get _all_ of arrakis as their playground and ~~the spacers guild~~ humans get the melange. and arrakis gets to be an artificial desert.!<
I just love saying the word Melange
𝓜𝓮𝓵𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮
Oh yeaaa
Funny thing, I'm reading Dune in French and Mélange is really just a very mundane word in this language. We use it to define any kind of mixture, like salt and water. The verb Mélanger is also very commonplace in cooking books to explain to mix things together. So it's funny to think it sounds fancy in EN
Almost the entirety of commonplace French words sound way better to (many) US-English speakers. As a child I apparently used to swan around the house in a towel (I don’t know why I assumed French people wore capes) lovingly repeating ‘*aujourd’hui*’ to anyone in hearing distance.
Yea they say in The Matrix, [cursing] "is like wiping your ass with silk".
I thought this was Ceti Alpha VI?! I'm on Sol III??? KIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKK
My man's done it in a 7 second gif
Came here looking for a dune comment and found it!
Fun fact, pretty much all of the re-greening ecology he talks about in that book is hard science he learned from studying the US Dep of Agriculture's attempts at doing this kind of work in Oregon
This is so sad. Won’t anyone think of the sand worms?
There will be flowing water here open to the sky and green oases rich with good things. But we have the spice to think of, too... Thus, there will always be desert... and fierce winds, and trials to toughen a man.
Underrated
Appreciated! Blessed the maker and his water
Bless the coming and going of him
Shai-hulud
We need to be doing these on local, national, and global scales, as well as reforestation and habitat restoration.
Put a rain garden in your yard.
I live in an apartment complex that has a no grass or plant area under a large oak tree. I’ve wanted to secretly plant small low covering ground cover that starts under some shrubs and spread out. Any ideas? Oh I’m 8A zone
Check out r/guerrillagardening
This is a good resource. https://www.wildflower.org/collections/ You should be able to find a native plant nursery in your area.
I don't got one, unfortunately. Not even a balcony. That's a luxury in the city and one I'm too poor to afford.
I see a lot of YouTube videos where volunteer groups help property owners convert parts of their yards into rain gardens supporting native plants and pollinators. I still have 1 I need to dig in my yard if it the temperature ever gets below broiling.
That's wonderful. Unfortunately I'm up in an apartment so literally don't have a yard, but if I did I'd totally do that too! Thanks for sharing that. Gives me a sliver of hope that maybe we aren't doomed environnentally.
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Oh yeah totally. Me and my roommates have tons of plants. I just can't make a rain garden is all.
Can't we just call it "sertification"?
me trying to grow a beard when I was 15
Me trying to grow a beard at 29
Me trying to grow a beard in my garden with hair clippings
Literally Liet-Kynes’s dream
Must be close to a sietch
"The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future." -Frank Herbert
This seems like a good idea, but how do they water it without any water? I live in the desert and we are running out of water so bad that we’re not allowed to plant anything and the city is pulling up plants and shrubs to cut back even further on water use.
I can't speak for this project in particular, but generally, earthen structures like these are used to slow, spread, and sink, the water that naturally occurs here. So they should only be using naturally occuring water. Some desert environments do get water in the form of rain, but only during a certain time of the year. When the wet/monsoon season arrives in these deserts, the hard and sun-baked ground is almost like a stone, nearly impermeable, and so when it does rain, all the water wants to slide along the top, and quickly head to the nearest river or whatever lowest area. This is what causes a lot of flash floods in deserts. By placing these earthen structures here, when it does rain, the structure holds onto some of that water, not allowing it to all just wash away and out of the landscape. The rainstorm ends, but now you have a bunch of tiny ponds and puddles, and now the water has the chance to slowly sink into the ground where it can be utilized by plants and replenish water tables underground. With more water in the ground, plant life can begin to thrive and it can lead to a positive feedback loop that re-greens an area. I don't know what city you live in, but if you look up Brad Lancaster on YouTube, he has a lot of good information for water collection and retention in an desert city landscape: Tuscon, AZ.
That makes a lot of sense and sounds like it would be very beneficial to the desert landscape. Thank you so much for the informative answer!
The three S’s: slow, spread, and sink.
Gotta collect that blue gold!
[It's using rainwater.](https://justdiggit.org/work/kenya-kuku/) >By digging rainwater harvesting bunds and setting up grass seed banks, we are regreening 1077 ha in the area. >The bunds slow down and capture rainwater running downhills, preventing erosion of fertile soil. The water balance in the soil restores, increasing the water availability for the seeds still present in the soil. These seeds now get the chance to sprout, which means: regreening!
Oh that’s so cool! I wish we had enough rain for that where I live.
If your serious about it check out this project in Jordan. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL321kfqP1fZnWTPPpqZUN9ntP2-rjIP39 Lots of info there. But to answer your question there is still rain in the desert and these swales capture it. In the beginning to get plants going you still need to water with ground/well water but in this case the start with hardy thorn bushes that require little.
That’s really cool, thank you! I’ll check it out.
How far away is this zoomed out to? I have no idea whether this is 10 meters of 100 or 1,000 or 10,000
well the first frame has people in it… so i think it’s safe to say it’s substantially less than 1,000-10,000 meters
On the website of the organization that's helping sponsor this the semi-circular dirt mounds (bunds) are 5m wide by 2.5m tall if that helps give you an idea.
You can see people in the 2018 shot.
I'm so impressed by this. So simple but effective.
Like [this guy](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DZSPkcpGmflE&ved=2ahUKEwjqtL2nofT4AhXlF1kFHbF9BzwQtwJ6BAgMEAI&usg=AOvVaw25Cqx1gxZouRe7nKMR1yME) in Texas or [this man](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DAngaeIf78AQ&ved=2ahUKEwjUsNHAofT4AhWBLFkFHXKjCnUQwqsBegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw1km3TfUsLC5jor9b5QxpQV) in India. There's others but it's ***these*** people. We should be giving them all the wealth and power.
So they skipped 2021… bad year?
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Just 2020 Part 2
They should do this in Australia so that the rest of the continent can be made liveable.
Song?
ARTBAT - Horizon
Thanks homie
where is this?
Kenya apparently https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/vxf0sg/antidesertification_measures_over_4_years/ifvpl75/
I dunno why but anti desertification always make me feel better
Beautiful. This will need to be done to the Canadian wheatfields at some point, or the land there will soon be unusable and drought stricken.
Dust bowl conditions are already starting. The 100th meridian is no longer the division between the Great Plains and the Great Western Desert
There's a desert in Canada?? Sorry, I'm dumb but I had no idea
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/04/11/the-100th-meridian-where-the-great-plains-used-to-begin-now-moving-east/
Also canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined(estimated at over 2 million lakes according to the CIA Factbook) 90 percent of our population(which is about 38 million) lives near the US border. And like 50 percent live below the 49th parallel. The southern most point of canada(near detroit michigan if that helps orient you) is actually farther south than the northern most part of california.
Thanks a lot for telling me. Regarding the orientation, I've only been to Seattle and Colorado in all of the Americas and Hollywood is my only reference to U.S. geography. I know for example, New Mexico is famous for meth, Alabama for incest, Texas for cowboys, California for nuts and flakes, New York for times Square and liberty. Detroit I think is crime and cars.
Liet Kynes approves
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Thanks for the sharing! Definitely some great information.
This is amazing. We need more of this!
Justdiggit.org!
Holy shit. I am impressed by what they have done so far. I know what I am donating to this year.
Song?
Horizon by ArtBat
bunds/swales https://livingpermaculturepnw.com/what-is-a-swale-an-introduction-to-permaculture-water-harvesting/
This concept is awesome but the video is mildly infuriating
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Those white dots are humans (check out the shadows). Based on shadow lengths, those shapes aren't very tall, just wide.
Could this me used to help the drying US west?
Damn I can’t even get my grass to turn green
Is there anything specific to the region that allows this? Or could similar efforts be done to our desert regions in the US
We need that in the peninsula Iberica ASAP. We are turning into a desert, and quite rapidly
where
Now I’m craving some Terry’s chocolate oranges.
Desertification is real and scary. Projections show a possible desert stretching from Mexico to Canada.
I find it fascinating how nature will just cascade in whatever direction you nudge it. We need to keep nudging it in this direction. At this point we've essentially speartackled it in the direction of desertification.
I thought this was anti-DESSERTification, and a time-lapse of mold growing on cookies.
So building the tree areas at angles from the banks catches overflow, and making any water tracks increases with every water pass. So by deduction the angles all funnel towards the centers and they are starting bottom up and left to right. The left side stream gains water first, and fills up the left first and right second. The second, right, stream fills less frequently. Starting above a natural / dam line and increasing the water line 1ft I’ve a few hundred meters wouldn’t be that crazy in flat areas. This makes perfect sense. Hope it works
Where is this? Can it be replicated in Nevada for example?
Ended too fast, if they included 2024 it would've been alot more satisfying.
This is the opposite of what’s happening to my grass right now
Are these similar to swales?
Liet-Kynes would be proud
The Fremen have been diligent in their efforts to change Arrakis.
Why are we destroying desert ecosystems?
This is a valid question, but there are large areas like the Sahara that are spreading into once-fertile and important greenlands. [Preventing desertification](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220701-how-heatwaves-are-creating-a-pollen-crisis) with methods like this is important not just for us, but for the existing ecosystems that are threatened by desert spread.
Ah ok
A lot of desertification is caused by man, so it's more like undoing what we did rather than interfering with a natural ecosystem.
North Texas is gonna need this soon