When someone asks you if global warming is real, a perfect example is an African region on the southern border of the Sahara Desert called the Sahel. Depending on who’s drawing the border, the Sahel spans as many as 14 countries, and is one of the poorest areas in the world. Over the last five decades, the land has been devastated by drought, as climate change, famine, over-farming and other human factors that have caused hunger and poverty for people living there. There have also been international conflict when it comes to who gets the remaining resources, and masses of people are migrating to Europe because they cannot sustain the living conditions.
But there is hope. That hope is a wall—a wall of trees. It’s called the Great Green Wall, an African-led movement that aims to grow 8,000km (6,000 miles) of natural assets and wonder. Dozens of African countries are working together on the project. Launched in 2007, once the Great Green Wall is completed, it, like the Sahel, will span across the entire width of the African continent.
The GreatGreenWall.org explains:
A decade in and roughly 15% underway, the initiative is already bringing life back to Africa’s degraded landscapes at an unprecedented scale, providing food security, jobs and a reason to stay for the millions who live along its path.
The Wall promises to be a compelling solution to the many urgent threats not only facing the African Continent, but the global community as a whole – notably climate change, drought, famine, conflict and migration.
Once complete, the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet, 3 times the size of the Great Barrier Reef.
Since the initiative began 12 years ago, growth on the land in the Sahel has begun to re-emerge. It’s “a symbol of hope that humanity can overcome its greatest threats.”
Here is a YouTube video about the wall via GreatGreenWall.org.
The wall is growing more than trees. In the words stated from the website, here is a list of other incredible benefits the Great Green Wall is creating.
- Growing a new world wonder across the entire width of Africa.
- Growing fertile land, one of humanity’s most precious natural assets.
- Growing a wall of hope against abject poverty.
- Growing food security, for the millions that go hungry every day.
- Growing health and wellbeing for the world’s poorest communities.
- Growing improved water security, so women and girls don’t have to spend hours everyday fetching water.
- Growing gender equity, empowering women with new opportunities.
- Growing sustainable energy, powering communities towards a brighter future.
- Growing green jobs, giving real incomes to families across the Sahel.
- Growing economic opportunities to boost small business and commercial enterprise.
- Growing a reason to stay
- to help break the cycle of migration.
- Growing sustainable consumption patterns,
- Growing to protect the natural capital of the Sahel.
- Growing resilience to climate change in a region where temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else on Earth.
- Growing a symbol of peace in countries where conflict continues to displace communities.
- Growing strategic partnerships to accelerate rural development across Africa
The Good News Network adds:
Over 12 million acres (5 million hectares) of degraded land has been restored in Nigeria; roughly 30 million acres of drought-resistant trees have been planted across Senegal; and a whopping 37 million acres of land has been restored in Ethiopia – just to name a few of the states involved.
Below is another YouTube video about the Great Green Wall with closed captions via BBC.
To learn more, click here.
The goal is to “achieve a more equitable and sustainable world” by 2030. What an amazing agenda. What an amazing wall. What an amazing way to actually make the world a better place.