Behind Greening the Desert

[ValiantVendetta]

This needs to be done in Australia, less likely to lose all your work in a war here.

[sustainablehuman]

@ValiantVendetta Agreed. Somewhere near Broken Hill or Tibooburra, even the Flinders ranges. Annual rainfall in the Jordan Rift Valley varies between 300 and 120 mm, which is quite similar to much of desert Australia. Australian soils are much poorer, but can be remediated with seaweed, mulch, coffee grinds etc in the initial stages. Most of desert Australia has ground water access (Great Artesian Basin), which can be used sparingly with micro-irrigation under mulched swales.

[ValiantVendetta]

@sustainablehuman As long as more water is being retained by the soil and put into the soil, it should rejuvenate rather than drain the ground water as long as the majority is externally sourced. Nuclear powered desalination plants would work great.

[sustainablehuman]

@ValiantVendetta No need for desalination. You can use groundwater to 'kick start' the soil building process, once that is well under way (~ 2-5 years), the hummus in the swales will retain enough rainwater. The ground water is constantly replenished by rainfall. Ground water can be tapered off as the soil is built and a canopy forms. This can be self sustaining for a very long time, and perpetual with very low usage. You could, in theory, re-green the whole of desert Australia.

[ValiantVendetta]

@sustainablehuman ALL of Australia could be turned into a huge botanical garden with external water sources.

[tanyageyer1]

(Isaiah 35:1-2) . . .The wilderness and the waterless region will exult, and the desert plain will be joyful and blossom as the saffron. Without fail it will blossom, and it will really be joyful with joyousness and with glad crying out. The glory of Leb′a‧non itself must be given to it, the splendor of Car′mel and of Shar′on. There will be those who will see the glory of Jehovah, the splendor of our God.

[10countrygirl01]

love it

[monica24b]

I'd like to see this done in Sahara..

[jessecaoswald]

Thank! for the knowledge! i need it! I was going crazy for the past 10yrs on how to do what u are doing already! i know it could be don't an u put the word to my knowledge that i had all along!..Mahalo so much for sharing ur knowledge of what can be done! ..

[deathofisrael]

Bravo , Bravo .

[fatturdburger]

Great vid.

It just goes to show you it can be dun.

[dragonfanatic7]

quick question,

is this the same flashtoonz that made all those animated flash cartoons?

What happened to turn it into farming?

[octohorse]

Not everyone can leave the city--I am disabled severely and alone in San Francisco. All I can do is raise awareness and post links since I discovered all this post-Haiti earthquake when I was frustrated with what I was seeing and googled Michael Reynolds to see if he was helping with the disaster and ended up finding the Permaculture E-zine and the call-out for a Permaculture Relief Corps for Haiti so exciting!! All you able people that want a great challenge, sign up or if you have cash, donate

[pdsavage]

Bill Mollison has a youtube video on doing permaculture in small spaces like a balcony.

[djdnauk1977]

@octohorse you can do permaculture within a normal city sized garden, albeit on a much smaller scale.

[Tywers]

@octohorse power on man. Power on.

[fitzfarmer]

Amazing

[TreyNitrotoluene]

I wish I knew the type of mushroom that was.

[naturalenergyworks]

Also review the Desert Research Institute in Sde Boker, Israel, where just on the other side of the border, with minimal water, a whole town was similarly created with rich greenery. A major common principle for all these kinds of efforts is, to keep the animal herds off the land. They have thwarted many desert-greening efforts for several hundred years.  By fencing out goats, sheep and camels, large areas of the Sahara have been re-greening with native shrubs & grasses several meters high.

[fosheezeey]

I wonder what Someone like Geoff Lawton could come up with if they had unlimited resources for a global greening system for food and reforestation. I would like to see what that would like like say for the Venus Project.

[permacultureli]

thank you Geoff Lawton...your work is invaluable.

[Els8258]

In all the years of video-watching on youtube, I have never posted a comment. This is my first youtube comment.

Everyone needs to re-prioritize their responsibilities and place the learning and implementation of permaculture at the top of their lists. The faster we do this, the faster we will have heaven on earth. Land is cheap if you look far enough away from the cities. Get your own piece of land ASAP!

[77GSlinger]

Now if we can just use this to plant 100 billion trees world wide and reverse the tide of greed and destruction.

[HolyFrijoles90210]

If we all planted 1/1000 of what Geoff has, we'd be there already!

[GrizzlyAdams72]

This seems like one of those moments.... Maybe one where you think, "yes, let nature do its job instead of burning it all off." or even better "maybe we can actually live through this..."

[j9journeys]

im blown away every time i watch this. how amazing is permaculture. im trying my little vege patch with some pc principles. growing veges in beach sand (live nr beach)- a bit like desert maybe but not 50 degrees C. with mulch and kitchen compost. some success. getting better.

[momentinpassing]

I don't understand why "lowest place on Earth" is a liability. The air has greater density there. Doesn't that assist plants?

[govindas999]

ggole subhash palekar...

cows are man's best friend!

[MojaveMomma]

I am not sure how I feel about this. Very unique and specialized plants live in the desert, and CAN and DO sustain the life in that ecosystem. Personally I want to live in harmony with my desert home. Making this type of radical change, although certainly an achievement of mankind, is NOT good. Why must man always conquer and change his environment instead of learn to live in harmony with it. The land provides the adaptations needed. Including less moisture, more salt, alkaline soil, etc.

[StrongArmZZ]

I'm under the impression that many desert ecosystems are in truth pioneer ecosystems. By that I mean creating the conditions for future advancement. That being said, I wouldn't condone the development of healthy desert with "invasive" species. In many deserted agricultural landscapes the damage is beyond natures ability to repair. In those cases the introduction of water harvesting swales, mulching and tree planting would be more beneficial than not. The key being a balanced system of trees.

[pietrosperoni]

I understand your point, but you need to understand that we have already modified the environment a lot. MAny of those deserts are there because of us. And if we were not there the land would recover. It would take thousands of years, but eventually it would recover. Plus with the predictions on a globally warmer world that so many part of the world will desertify those knowledge will become really important. Unless you want to wait 50 million of years.

[ahahahayeahright]

this area is a desert today precisely because man conquered and changed his environment. this is the 'fertile crescent'- where the 1st agricultural revolution occurred. it's a desert today because of poor ag practice. that is fact. this process is giving 100x more life back to an area that wants and needs it. this is mankind fixing its mistake.

[Nakashii]

This kind of project actually sounds like fun. A lot of work, but it would be stunning to watch barren soil turn into a living ecosystem.

[dremkes]

I am planting a food forest around my house because of this video

[APRILIAART]

What a badass, food forest in the middle east! HOLY

[Nichen]

This guy is a saint. God bless him.

[platinum243125]

@Nichen He's a scientist

[harryogre]

More on Geoff Lawton and Permaculture in Jordan.

If this works in the Dead Sea Basin, It'll work in West Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, or the Colorado Desert.

[sunnymoody]

This is awesome. We need to do this all over the world.

[1337KurtCobain]

what dose that mean "where jesus was christened" there wernt christians or christenings till well after. What do you mean thedead sea, death is the fermiment of life. This man alone cannot save us we all must. Otherwise yall be dead and we few not dead atall.

[Y3rMawm]

John the Baptist

[danbuck333]

get a life

[monkeyVII]

you really dont know what the deal sea is? ._. "1337KurtCobain" xD

[lifesmyjourney]

Amazing stuff!! Why don't I see more of this in the daily news?

[gabydewilde]

Yeah, amazing stuff!

I hope you understand what this says about the news lifesmyjourney. Basically you are watching a shopping channel, it has nothing to do with world events. Nothing will grow there :D

[Sinnergee08]

imagine how quickly we could turn "terrorists" into friends by investing in the regeneration of their land. A new kind of "Homeland Security".

[ldruide]

What a great idea!

[ahimsainternational]

Awesome. Uplifting, inspiring, wonderful, and an incredible antidote to the politics of fear. Doesn't it make you eager to build a new future based on cooperation with Nature and learning to understand Her.

[eadiew]

Makes me feel like the problems in my little hard-clay garden are insignificant.

I wish I had the money to buy this DVD for every politician in the world, and could make them sit down and watch it. Like nbm34 asked, seriously, why is this not being repeated?

[tyandambika]

brilliant man and hopefully he gets more funding !

[justmom66]

Amazing! I wish more would attempt this.

[luv2bud]

Great work. Too bad the people with the wealth and power who could promote the expansion of kind of work are more interested in using violence and terror to maintain their social position and wealth. What a shame they can't see that true wealth is a healthy, productive landscape for all and true power is the power to save the earth and the people.

[ahriman2000]

we need permaculture designers for hire and repeat this success everywhere.

[caseyforever]

i totally agree! imagine if we turned the middle east back to the beautiful green place it once was!

[DarthVaygr]

Amazing!

[nbm34]

WHY IS THIS NOT BEING REPEATED..?????

[danndan6]

i am sure it will catch on soon

[TheOriginalEntz]

You are too naive. This kind of stuff has been going on since the 70's. Still has not caught on. Nevermind that it is practically ancient technology.

[polyzygote]

the problem that you have is that you have fallen for the technology trap. the most ancient technology of all is of course life on earth. permaculture did in fact come about in the 70s, but it is trying to mimic ecological systems that are far older and far more robust than any technology humanity has developed. as far as 'catching on', the impending peak oil crisis is pretty much going to force any body with any brains into this kind of agriculture, the rest will simply die.

[hananokuni2580]

Permaculture, despite the ancient origins of the systems from which it draws its inspiration, is revolutionary.

So revolutionary that, if adopted wholesale, it would bring about a violent transformation of human civilization in our time. Think of the possible consequences. For one, petroleum-based agricultural fertilizers and pesticides would become obsolete. Think of how much profit would be lost if the market for such products were to just evaporate.

It is revolutionary to the core.

[StrongArmZZ]

This is being repeated... search "food forest" or permaculture... not all results will be exactly the same, but i think people are doing this all over the world. With the centralization of world food supply, as well as media, oil ect its no surprise that a this, and all the other threats to business aren't being hustled onto television.

[saffrongirl]

Very interesting.

Thanks for theat info.

Take care,

saffrongirl

[Energyium]

very good:)

[danbuck333]

this dude is the daddy mac keep it comming