> UPDATE #17: While the US is bogged down and spending $4B a month in the Middle East, this is what China is doing

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/gener … r-AA27fS0e

Over the past five decades, China has planted 66 billion trees in a massive wall that spans the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts. This reforestation effort intended to stop the deserts’ spread is working — but, it turns out, with a surprising twist.

In a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers found that the trees planted in the so-called “Great Green Wall” appear to grow faster than trees in natural forests, possibly because they respond to the rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere better.

The Great Green Wall project began in 1978 and is expected to be completed by 2050. The original intent was to slow the desertification of the country’s grasslands, of which the Gobi devours over a thousand square miles every year.

Forest cover in the regions the wall touches has ballooned from 5 percent in 1978 to 14 percent in 2023, according to a Nature article, which has helped cut down on dust storms and improve the air quality in downwind cities, including Beijing.