China is Geoengineering Deserts With Blue-Green Algae (scmp.com) 41
An anonymous reader shares a report: Deserts are hard to reclaim because plants cannot survive on shifting sand, but scientists in northwest China are changing that -- by dropping vast amounts of blue-green algae onto the dry terrain. These specially selected strains of cyanobacteria can survive extreme heat and drought for long periods, according to China Science Daily on Thursday. When rain finally comes, they spring to life, spreading rapidly and forming a tough, biomass-rich crust over the sand. This living layer stabilises the dunes and creates the perfect foundation for future plant growth.
This is the first time in human history that microbes are being used on a massive scale to reshape natural landscapes. As the "Great Green Wall" -- China's massive multi-decade initiative to plant trees and fight desertification -- expands to include efforts in Africa and Mongolia, the unprecedented geoengineering technology could one day transform the face of our planet. This artificial "crusting" technique was developed by scientists at a research station in Ningxia Hui autonomous region, located in northwest China on the edge of the Tengger Desert, according to China Science Daily.
This is the first time in human history that microbes are being used on a massive scale to reshape natural landscapes. As the "Great Green Wall" -- China's massive multi-decade initiative to plant trees and fight desertification -- expands to include efforts in Africa and Mongolia, the unprecedented geoengineering technology could one day transform the face of our planet. This artificial "crusting" technique was developed by scientists at a research station in Ningxia Hui autonomous region, located in northwest China on the edge of the Tengger Desert, according to China Science Daily.
Neato but (Score:4, Insightful)
That's neat, I'm glad it's working, I just hope it doesn't leave yet another toxic debt. Cyanobacteria commonly produce toxins.
Re: (Score:1)
What could possibly go wrong....?
Re: (Score:3)
Nothing could possibly go wrong. The invisible hand of capitalism will... um... Squirrel!
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing could possibly go wrong. The invisible hand of capitalism will... um... Squirrel!
The invisible hand of capitalism of... authoritarian centrally-planned China, where this story takes place?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Make no mistake, China is very capitalist. Authoritarianism is not exclusive to communist economies.
Which would be a relevant point if authoritarian centrally-planned government control of commerce had been the system proposed alongside "invisible hand of capitalism" theory. But it wasn't, so the prior post referring to "the invisible hand of capitalism" is an irrelevant non sequitur; factional snark merely for the sake of factional snark points.
By that logic we should blame Baha'i for the ills of evangelical Christianity because both involve theism.
What could possibly go wrong... (Score:4, Informative)
Step 2: Local climates change.
Step 3: Rain amounts change due to local climate change.
Step 4: Unforeseen consequences. Previous areas that used to get enough rain now see drought conditions worsen.
Re: (Score:1)
Formatted as a joke, but so far not moderated Funny and I tend to concur. At one level is sounds like a good idea, but we sure don't know everything about how climate works. So let's shoot some more technology at it and see what happens?
Does remind me of some stuff I recently read about the causes of ice ages. Minor changes in temperature that allow more snow to last through the summer leading to accumulations of snow leading to glaciers... (My memory is so fuzzy that I suspect I read it in Japanese and wha
Re: (Score:3)
The goal is to fight desertification [wikipedia.org], that is, to undo the harm we're doing to the environment and put it back to the way it was before.
Re: (Score:1)
Step 4: Unforeseen consequences. Previous areas that used to get enough rain now see drought conditions worsen.
Yeah, just relentlessly pumping ground water up to grow almonds in the desert is so much more safe and can't possibly go wrong, right?
People like you is why America is in such a decline, you criticise everything new that could possibly make things better, while turning a blind eye to ongoing harm simply because it was ongoing and hence not new. With prevailing attitudes like this, there is nowhere America can go but down.
I think it is a great idea. (Score:2)
Re:I think it is a great idea. (Score:4, Informative)
Saturated brine is a pretty hostile environment, which is what you would eventually get. The water evaporates, the salt sticks around.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Toss a smallish asteroid into the Pacific ocean?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
See you down in Arizona Bay.
Re: (Score:2)
... such that the path would go over desserts ....
Mmm, liquid desserts.
Re: (Score:2)
What are you smoking? Windmills kill whales.....or something.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Seems like deserts are ripe places for terraforming.. I wonder why we don't put up windmills, and pump salt water into them. There are trees and plants that can thrive with salt water. They would 'resparate' clean water. Form a bit of an ecosystem eventually with bugs and critters.
Today I learned that Emperor Leto II posts on /.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Keep us informed.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Turning the Gobi desert into the Gobi rain forest :-p
Kinda Similar? (Score:2)
Is this similar to how we cover bare dirt, like land cleared for construction, with grass seed and then a layer of straw over the top to stop it blowing and washing away before roots go down?
There's also a sprayable slurry of seed and "mulch" to cover bare spots and small areas. But I've not seen that one used on anything larger than half an acre.
Chinese greening their land (Score:1)
Here's a video [youtube.com] of China's greening efforts.
If China keeps on the way it's been going, eventually the whole country will be green!
Re: (Score:1)
Granted, China's attempts to green PR their way out of decades of environmental damage.
I support any agriculture spending of R&D to improve the vegetation growth. Like USA land grant schools that continue today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
I do see them hybridizing existing species to survive with less nutritional inputs.
Re: (Score:2)
If China keeps on the way it's been going, eventually the whole country will be green!
Yay! Maybe Toddler Trump will get confused and try to steal Chinese green land instead of Danish Greenland! Boy, won't he be surprised!
Re: (Score:3)
I'll have a green / Crustmas / without blue (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The way I read it, the bacteria isn't supposed to survive. It's just gunk to form a crust for erosion control. Think hair spray but for sand dunes.
Seems even more stupid now. Doesn't it?
Re: I'll have a green / Crustmas / without blue (Score:1)
Re:I'll have a green / Crustmas / without blue (Score:4, Informative)
Wikipedia has a summary of the causes of desertification [wikipedia.org]. The most relevant part:
Though vegetation plays a major role in determining the biological composition of the soil, studies have shown that, in many environments, the rate of erosion and runoff decreases exponentially with increased vegetation cover. Unprotected, dry soil surfaces blow away with the wind or are washed away by flash floods, leaving infertile lower soil layers that bake in the sun and become an unproductive hardpan.
The goal is to create a crust over the top that resists erosion and gives plants a place to grow. Once the plants are established, they further resist erosion.
It's a little unintuitive that heavy rain can sometimes promote desertification. When there's lots of plants, the rain soaks into the ground and helps them to grow. If the plants are removed (through overgrazing, unsustainable agriculture, drought, etc.), it washes away the top soil and makes the ground less fertile.
Re: (Score:2)
Not first time (Score:2)
Mankind has been doing this kind of thing for thousands, if not millions of years. The fact that it involves bacteria vs plants is not unique. Yeast, Lactobacillus, Aspergillus, are just some of the more famous ones.
We discovered Azotobacter in 1901 and have been using it to fix nitrogen for quite some time.
Long time effort in China (Score:2)
They have been working on crusting for years. I a video documentary about the antidesertification effort in China in Spring 2025 and I came up with my own idea and even a business plan as an intellectual exercise to try out Claude, this was May 2025. It was coming from the angle that dust devils lift the sand from China into Japan where millions of people like me suffer from the sand allergy. Well I found the chat and let Claude summarize it for you here.
That was from May 2025 — titled "Aerial Deploym
"the perfect foundation for future plant growth." (Score:2)
Oh, that seems like world-class bs.