The Sahara Desert Used to Look Like This…And May Again

Thousands of years ago, the Sahel region of Africa was a green, lush, tropical paradise. The Great Green Wall initiative is on a mission to restore that greenery in that region across the entire continent. » Subscribe to Seeker! http://bit.ly/subscribeseeker » Watch more Elements! http://bit.ly/ElementsPlaylist The Great Green Wall is an epic project that aims to grow an 8,000 kilometer belt of vegetation across the entire width of the African continent. If completed, it would be three times larger than the Great Barrier Reef, and be the largest living “structure” on the planet. But can this massive geo-engineering project transform the landscape into the fertile, tropical place it once was? So here’s the thing: this part of Africa is heating up. Particularly in the Sahel, which sits between the southern edge of the world’s largest hot desert, the Sahara, and humid savannas to the south. Vegetation is scarce in this semi-arid belt of land, and the U.N. has identified it as a hotspot for climate change. Temperatures in the Sahel region are increasing 1.5 times faster than the rest of the world, and the Sahara desert is now 10% larger than it was in 1920. Periodic drought, deforestation, and unsustainable agricultural practices have reduced the productivity of the Sahel, causing desertification. This has led to massive food insecurity and displacement of people in the region. And with temperatures expected to be 3-5°C warmer by 2050, these problems are projected to get worse. But not all is lost! Remember when we said the Sahara used to be green? Well, that was about 11,500 years ago. Back then there was grass, lakes, and animals like hippos and antelopes! Dubbed the African Humid Period, also known as the “Green Sahara,” this era was the result of intense West African monsoons, which were stronger and brought more summer rainfall than today. #SaharaDesert #Sahara #Africa #Algeria #ClimateChange #Environment #Desertification #Seeker Read More: Africa’s