Green and desert land

• Autores: Fred Pearce
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3090, 2016, págs. 16-17
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • It is terraforming on a grand scale. A sinuous line of trees has started to spring up across the hottest, driest and widest part of Africa. Once finished, the band of green against gold will stretch from the Atlantic coast of Senegal, across the southern fringe of the Sahara desert to the Red Sea--and be visible from space. The purpose of this Great Green Wall is to hold back the advancing sands of the Sahara in the name of fighting climate change. Formally inaugurated in May, it is a grand project of the African Union, with 11 nations signed up. Senegal has taken the lead and last year its president Macky Sall announced that it had already planted 12 million trees, mostly native acacias. The final wall, set to be 15 kilometers wide and almost 8000 kilometers long, will number more than a billion trees. Here, Pearce examines whether the Great Green Wall will work and determines the part of "desertification" process that it is intended to prevent