Podcasts about Great Green Wall

It's no secret that massive change is needed to restore our planet's vital ecosystems. Permaculture offers practices to restore local environments by focusing on creating sustainable agricultural systems that mimic patterns found in nature. But how might permaculture initiatives go beyond agriculture to transform some of our largest-scale problems, such as social cohesion, climate stabilization, and even human migration? In this conversation, Nate sits down with permaculture educator Andrew Millison to discuss the Great Green Wall project, a massive ecological initiative aimed at combating desertification in the Sahel region of Africa. They explore the causes of the Sahara Desert's expansion, the simple but impactful permaculture techniques being employed to restore land, and the significant ecological and nutritional benefits resulting from these efforts. This conversation highlights the collaboration between local communities and global organizations, emphasizing permaculture's potential to transform lives and ecosystems around the world.  How can innovative permaculture techniques aid in helping our most complex ecological challenges? In what ways have land restoration projects reduced conflict between people in resource scarce areas? Furthermore, what kinds of  responses – both grassroots and top-down – are needed to implement these practices on a large scale?   About Andrew Millison: Andrew Millison is an innovative educator, storyteller and designer. He founded the Permaculture Design education program at Oregon State University (OSU) in 2009. At OSU Andrew serves as an Education Director and Senior Instructor who offers over 25 years of experience, and a playful approach to regenerative design. Andrew is also a documentary videographer who travels the world documenting epic permaculture projects in places such as India, Egypt, Mexico, Cuba, and throughout the US. You can view his videos and series on his YouTube channel.   Show Notes and More Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future Join our Substack newsletter Join our Discord channel and connect with other listeners

Pippa speaks to UK Professor Jeremy Allouche about his article on The Conversation about the Great Green Wall, which spans 8000ks, from Senegal to Djibouti.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

De wereld verandert sneller dan ooit, en volgens Wouter van Noort zitten we midden in een transitie waarin het oude systeem vastloopt en het nieuwe nog niet volledig geboren is. In een inspirerend gesprek duikt hij samen met Michel in de rol van media, hoe we omgaan met meningen en waarom hoopvolle verhalen een grotere plek verdienen in ons medialandschap. Wouter ziet het als zijn missie om niet alleen te focussen op wat er misgaat, maar juist ook op ideeën over hoe het beter kan.Hij pleit voor een bredere blik, weg van alleen de problemen en meningen, en richting concrete oplossingen en innovatieve initiatieven. Zo noemt hij inspirerende voorbeelden zoals China's "Great Green Wall" om woestijnvorming tegen te gaan en het herstel van koraalriffen door simpelweg het geluid van gezonde ecosystemen af te spelen. Dit soort hoopvolle initiatieven laten zien dat verandering mogelijk is, maar worden in de media vaak overschaduwd door negativiteit. "RTL Nieuws doet dit goed," merkt hij op, door standaard een hoopvol item in hun journaal op te nemen. Waarom gebeurt dat niet vaker?Met een flinke dosis nieuwsgierigheid en optimisme kijkt Wouter naar de toekomst. Of het nu gaat om journalistiek, technologie of maatschappelijke veranderingen: het draait allemaal om de juiste balans vinden tussen realisme en hoop. Want, zoals hij treffend zegt: "Als je die gloeiende kooltjes van hoop wat meer zuurstof en aandacht geeft, kunnen ze uitgroeien tot een mooi vlammetje."

Host Johnny Mac shares five uplifting stories, starting with Katie the dog, who has successfully hunted 364 rats in New York City. The show also covers China's ambitious Great Green Wall reforestation project to combat desertification, the increasing population of thick-billed parrots in Mexico, Chicago's achievements in running all city-owned buildings on renewable energy or offsets, and a lighthearted discussion about Monopoly house rules. E00:11 Katie the Rat-Hunting Dog01:54 China's Great Green Wall02:28 Thick-Billed Parrots in Mexico03:00 Chicago's Renewable Energy Milestone03:28 Monopoly House RulesUnlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! Get all our shows on any player you love, hassle free! For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. No plug-ins needed!  You also get 20+ other shows on the network ad-free!  

Where the Nile Meets the Sea: Mystery of the Great Giza Sphinx is a fictional tale about two characters Geb and Luna. Local author, Andreja B. Gunjaric was a guest on The Spark to share more details about her debut book. “Where the Nile Meets the Sea is a fictional adventure tale about GEB and Luna, their prehistoric siblings in the late Stone Age. And they go on a long adventure along the Nile River, where the Nile meets the sea is the point. In the Nile River's meeting with the Mediterranean, where the river separates, and the ancient Egyptian gods once lived as humans in my story. And that is where the primary action takes place. But Gabert Luna follows the Northern Star. Their father has told them stories about the North Star and how he believes that ancestor souls pass through the spiraling stars into the heavens, and they hope to meet their ancestors there.” Gunjaric was inspired to write the book during the Covid lockdowns as she began researching her genealogy. She knew that her ancestors were originally from Switzerland and was traced back to the 1300’s. However, her husband didn’t know much about his genealogy. “My husband knew nothing about his other than they had come from a particular country that once was aligned along the Roman Empire, the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. And so we researched on 23 and me, we submitted DNA samples, and we also consulted cousins that were older than Andrew to learn more about our ancestors and discovered the village from which they came. And after that, I began to trace the migration of people and how they arrived at the country where they eventually ended up living and decided I wanted to write a story about the migrations of people over a series of time. And this is really the first of six books. This discusses a migration from ancient Africa up to Dagger Land, which is a part of the North Sea, submerged between the British Isles and the European continent. Ten percent of Where the Nile Meets the Sea royalties earned will be donated to Tree Aid, a international NGO supporting communities to tackle poverty and the climate crisis through the power of trees. Their project supports the Great Green Wall- an initiative to prevent the Sahara desert’s expansion by planting a wall of trees from Senegal to Sudan. Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China has completed a monumental 46-year effort to encircle the Taklamakan Desert with a vast green belt of trees. Stretching over 3,000 kilometers in the Xinjiang region, this initiative is part of the "Three-North Shelterbelt" project, also known as the Great Green Wall, launched in 1978. The goal: combat desertification and protect vital farmland. Over 30 million hectares of trees have been planted, boosting China's forest coverage from 10% in 1949 to more than 25% today. However, critics warn that the harsh desert conditions—rising temperatures, sandstorms, and floods—may threaten the long-term survival of these forests. In response, China's forestry experts spent decades researching resilient tree species that could withstand these challenges. This green-wall effort has inspired similar projects worldwide. In 2007, the African Union launched the Great Green Wall initiative in the Sahel region, aiming to restore 100 million hectares of land across 22 African countries by 2030. The project seeks to improve local living conditions, enhance food security, and create climate-resilient regions as a global model for combating desertification.

Drawing on years of experience in agroforestry, regenerative agriculture and landscape restoration, Patrick Worms shares how integrating trees into farming systems is transforming degraded lands, boosting food production, and helping communities adapt to climate change.Key Takeaways:Learn how agroforestry is revitalizing barren landscapes and increasing farm productivity.Discover the powerful lessons from Africa's Great Green Wall initiative, a project fighting desertification.Understand why regenerative agriculture is a sustainable solution for the future of global food systems.Hear about inspiring success stories from Zambia, Niger, and Ethiopia, where nature-based solutions are helping farmers thrive.Patrick's insights make complex topics easy to understand, showing how nature-based solutions like holistic grazing, farmer-managed natural regeneration, and silvopastoralism are practical and scalable strategies for both smallholders and commercial agriculture.Listen to this fascinating conversation and be inspired by real-world solutions making a difference.

Kate Adie presents stories from Thailand, Australia, Senegal, Germany and the USThailand has seen its fair share of political drama over the years. In recent weeks, the dissolution of the opposition party and the dismissal of the PM showed the firm grip on the country by unelected institutions. Jonathan Head has been watching the events rapidly unfold.In Australia, there's a deepening housing crisis with 120,000 people facing homelessness in the country every night. Soaring property prices and underinvestment in social housing and a growing population have made the situation worse. Katy Watson has been in Perth, Western Australia.It was an idea that first had its inception in the 1980s: fighting desertification by planting a wall of trees across the African continent. The Great Green Wall would snake through eleven countries, from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the East. But progress on the project has been slow. Nick Hunt has been in Senegal.The Baader Meinhof gang are an anti-American, anti-imperialist terrorist group that spread fear across West Germany in the 1970s and 80s. The group claimed responsibility for a series of unsolved murders in the early 90s. So, the arrest of one alleged member of the group in Berlin has attracted significant attention, as Tim Mansel reports.And finally, a cast of political heavyweights, ranging from Hilary Clinton to Barak and Michelle Obama to Bernie Sanders took to the stage in the glittering halls of the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago. But back in Washington, Rajini Vaidyanathan spoke to some street vendors who were somewhat underwhelmed.Producers: Serena Tarling and Farhana Haider Editor: Tom Bigwood Production coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill

Imagine a thin green line of hope stretching 8,000 km across northern Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This is the Great Green Wall: an African-led land restoration project that aims to hold back encroaching desertification in the Sahel.In this episode, we take a close look at what could one day be the largest living structure on our planet. Join us as our Associate Vice-President Dr. Jo Puri discusses how IFAD supports the Great Green Wall, while other UN experts share insights on the initiative's past, present, and ambitious future.You'll also get a sneak peek at next episode's spotlight on Global Citizen Prize winner Sophie Healy-Thow.This is Farms. Food. Future – a podcast that's good for you, good for the planet and good for farmers. Brought to you by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.For more information:https://www.ifad.org/en/web/latest/-/podcast-episode-64Act4Food - Act4Food Act4Change is a youth-led and initiated campaign that mobilises the power of young people to call for a global food system which provides everyone with access to safe, affordable and nutritious diets, while simultaneously protecting nature, tackling climate change and promoting human rights. Great Green Wall — The Great Green Wall Initiative - The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement with an epic ambition to grow an 8,000km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa. UNCCD - The UNCCD is the global voice for land. We promote practices that avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation and are the driving force behind Sustainable Development Goal 15 and Land Degradation Neutrality.Sahara Sahel Foods - Sahara Sahel Foods is a social enterprise located in the Republic of Niger. We process and market foods from indigenous Wild Perennial Crops - plants that are pristine, often under-exploited and good for the environment.

This week we talk about protectionist policy, solar panels, and rare earths.We also discuss Chinese business investment, EVs, and extreme weather events.Recommended Book: Meet Me By the Fountain by Alexandra LangeTranscriptThe Great Green Wall—the one in China, not the one meant to span the Sahel region, straddling the upper portion of Africa—is officially called the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, and was initially implemented by the Chinese government in 1978.This program is scheduled to be completed sometime mid-century, around 2050, and its purpose is to keep the Gobi Desert, which spans the lower portion of Mongolia and part of China's northern border, from expanding, which is something large deserts otherwise tend to do through a collection of natural, but often human-amplified processes called aeolian desertification.The Gobi currently gobbles up about 1,400 square miles, which is around 3,600 square km, of Chinese grassland every year, as dust storms that roll through the area blow away topsoil that allows grasses and other plants to survive. And those storms become more powerful as the climate shifts, and as more grassland is turned to desert, giving the winds more leeway, fewer things keeping them from blowing hard and scooping up more soil, and as the roots of the plants on the fringes of the desert dry up, which usually keep the soil in place, become newly exposed to these influences, withering, their roots holding things together less tight than before, the process continuing to move ever outward.Around a quarter of China's total landmass is already desert, and while there are a number of other causes of the country's desertification, including coastal erosion and the incursion of salty water into otherwise freshwater areas, this type, aeolian desertification, is one that they can tackle somewhat directly, if still at great expense and with muddled levels of success.So the Great Green Wall of China is meant to stop that desertification, it is a potential means of tackling this issue, and it does this by keeping those winds from blowing away the topsoil, and over time is meant to help reclaim areas that have been turned into desert by this collection of processes.And those in charge of this program do this by basically planting a huge number of trees, creating sturdier root systems to keep soil from blowing away, blocking the winds, and over time, the trees are meant to help new ecosystems grow in areas that have been previously diminished; holding everything together, soil-wise, but also adding nutrients to the ground as their leaves fall; those natural processes slowly reestablishing new layers of productive soil.The area they're attempting to swathe with newly planted trees is huge, and by that 2050 end date, it's anticipated that they'll need to plant something like 88 million acres of forests across a belt of land that's about 3,000 miles wide and nearly 900 miles deep in some areas.Local governments that have been largely tasked with making all this happen in their jurisdictions have claimed some successes in this ambition over the years, though one of the biggest criticisms leveled against those same governments is that they often spend a lot of time and money planting large swathes of trees, stabilizing some areas for a time, but then they fail to maintain those forests, so they more or less disappear within just a few years.This can actually leave some of the afflicted areas worse off than they would have otherwise been, as some of these trees are essentially invasive species, not optimized for the local conditions, and they consume more water than is available, gobbling up resources other plants need to spring up around them, and they thus blight the areas they're meant to enrich, killing off the smaller plantlife, not supporting and expanding it, and then they die because they're undernourished, themselves.While China plants more trees than the rest of the world, combined, due to this and similar projects, then, the system underpinning all of this planting isn't typically optimized for long-term success, and it often succumbs to the needs of local politicians, not the desired outcomes of the program, overall.Also, in the cases where the forests are sustained longer-term, they often to create monocultures that are more akin to plantations than forests, which makes them more susceptible to disease—like the one that killed more than a billion poplar trees that were planted in Northwestern China in 2000, leading to a 20-year-or-so setback in the program—and that also makes them faster-growing, but less effective as carbon sinks than slower-growth versions of the same; they get big faster, but they don't absorb and store as much CO2 as other trees options would.The forests they've planted that have sustained for more than a few years have periodically served as giant carbon sinks, though, pulling down as much as 5% of the country's total industrial CO2 emissions from 1978 to 2017, which is a pretty big deal for a country with such a huge volume of such emissions.That said, it's still an open question as to whether this Great Green Wall will do what it's meant to do, by 2050 or ever, as while the concept is solid by some estimations, its implementation has been uneven at best, and it seems to be plagued by short-term thinking and metrics of success that don't line up with the stated purpose of the program.What I'd like to talk about today is the implementation of what's being called, in some economic circles at least, a new Great Green Wall, this one around China and its exports, especially renewable energy exports, by the US and its allies, at a moment in which those sorts of exports are both highly desirable, and arguably, highly necessary.—The International Energy Agency recently said it expects to see about $2 trillion-worth of clean energy investments, globally, in 2024 alone.This spending is partly the consequence of the $13 billion in damage China sustained from natural disasters in January to June of this year, and the something like $37.9 billion in damages the US suffered from just the 15 most damaging storms it saw during the same period, not inclusive of all the other ones.Nations around the world are paying out gobs of money in the aftermath of increasingly brutal weather disasters, and that's on top of the slower-moving devastation that's being caused by the impacts of the climate shifting, messing with everything from crops to water cycles to where people can afford to live, because insurance companies are wholesale pulling out of some areas, and the cost of rebuilding over and over again in the same, previously habitable areas, just isn't worth it any more.While there's still some political and ideological opposition to the concept of climate change, then, even some of the folks who are vehemently against the concept, publicly, are privately investing huge sums of money in infrastructure meant to help them survive and thrive in a future in which the climate has changed, and that includes things like sea walls and buildings that are cooler, passively, allowing more airflow and reflecting sunlight rather than absorbing it, but we're also seeing surges of investment in renewable energy sources, as they don't further contribute to the issue of climate change, but also because they come with a slew of advantages over fossil fuel based versions of the same; hence, that $2 trillion clean energy spending in 2024, compared to the estimated $1 trillion for fossil fuel-based energy sources the same year.In May of 2024, US President Biden announced a near-future wave of tariff increases on a slew of Chinese goods, especially those related to the renewable energy transition.For those aforementioned reasons, alongside a bunch of economic ones, as renewables are cheaper over time than fossil fuels, it's expected by essentially everyone that the planet will largely shift to renewable energy sources this century, with many governments hoping to make the transition entirely or almost entirely by 2050, with some nations that are moving more slowly, because of issues related to existing infrastructure, population, or poverty, arriving sometime in the 2070s or 2080s.Thus, whomever owns the industries that will be relevant in that future—electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and so on—they will be something like the new oil giants of the latter-half of the century, and beyond, massively enriched because they're the ones that allow everyone to generate energy in this new reality.Making those sorts of investments now, then, in terms of manufacturing capacity, but also the knowledge and trade secrets and brands and supply chains that get those products to the world, may yield incredible dividends for those willing to make them.And at the moment, as of mid-2024, China is by far the king of the hill when it comes to pretty much every component of this transition, dominating the world's output of solar panels, EVs, wind turbine blades, batteries, and rare earth metals that are currently fundamental to the making of basically all of those things, while also owning some of the most valuable intellectual property, developing some of the most vital innovations, and controlling the most active, resilient, and competitive supply chains that make them available, globally.The push by the Chinese government to own these spaces began in earnest in 2009, when it started providing subsidies to companies that were willing to invest in and start producing electric vehicles and accompanying technologies, and that successful effort has allowed the country to leapfrog other countries, like the US, which by some measures had a leading advantage up till that point because of other capacities and investments, and which has long served as the home bases of traditional car companies, and exciting new brands like Tesla and other startups that were beginning to gobble up global market share.The Chinese government poured tens of billions of dollars into tax breaks and subsidies, though, and that helped stoke a highly competitive market that's led to the development of ultra-cheap electric vehicles, which are now outselling rivals in almost every market they've entered.This effect is perhaps even more pronounced when we look at solar panels and batteries.Chinese exports of these goods have easily outpaced and outcompeted rival producers overseas, and that's, combined with demand on the local, Chinese market, has pulled the price of solar panels from about $126 per watt in 1975 all the way down to about 26 cents per watt in 2022.Over that period, these panels have become more efficient and effective, more resilient, and more useful—reshapable to fit more use-cases.And the concomitant drop in lithium-ion battery prices, down about 97% since 1991 due to similar economic variables, has made solar even more useful and in demand, as solar setups are usually, these days, connected to battery backup systems that allow the panels to capture sunlight during the day and to stockpile that energy for later, when the sun isn't shining, ameliorating one of the biggest and most common concerns about solar power at the individual home scale, but also at the utility, city-sized scale; that it's an intermittent source. Attaching a battery, though, makes it a consistent source of power, that's also incredibly, and increasingly, inexpensive compared to other options offering similar levels of power.That's been a major contributor to the expansion of solar installations, and recent innovations in the development of alternative, non-lithium-based batteries could do the same, as some novel battery types, like sodium-ion batteries, use a similar setup as their lithium counterparts, but without the issues associated with mining lithium, and with a better power-to-weight ratio, much lower fire risk, and lower theoretical expense, and flow batteries, made from iron, salt, and water, which are a lot worse than lithium ion batteries in essentially every practical regard, are just silly cheap and incredibly resilient, and thus could be built and deployed essentially everywhere—into the walls of homes and other buildings, into driveways and roads, everywhere—providing widespread, low-grade energy backup to whole cities at a very low cost.So all of these products are already in high demand, and that demand is just expected to grow as these things continue to get better and cheaper.China owns the majority of the best companies in these spaces, and makes the best, cheapest versions of these products.Biden's recently announced tariff increases are an example of what're called protectionist monetary policy, the idea being to make competing products from elsewhere, like China, more expensive, by requiring folks pay another 25-100% of the product's price in tariffs, which in practice can double the price of these goods, which in turn makes locally produced goods, or those produced in allied countries, like in Europe, more competitive, despite not actually being competitive 1-on-1, without these policies in place.The argument for this type of policy is that while on some level it could be beneficial to have these high quality, cheap Chinese solar panels and batteries flooding into the US market in the short-term, as it would help companies shift to clean energy sources faster than would otherwise be possible, in the long-term it would allow China to own those spaces, killing off all US-based competition in these industries, which would make the US economy, and by association all US businesses and people, and the US government, reliant on China, and a constant flow of such goods.That would mean China would have a permanent whammy on the US because if they ever wanted to invade Taiwan, for instance, and keep the US off their back, they could just say, hey, let us do what we want to do, or we'll stop sending you solar panels and batteries, and we'll stop providing support for the ones you already have, which would devastate the US, because that would be equivalent to what happened when OPEC stopped exporting oil to the US in the 1970s—it was brutal, and we've only become more reliant on cheap, abundant energy in the decades since.And that's on top of concerns that China, if it owned all the infrastructure related to these technologies top to bottom, which they kind of do, they would also conceivably have all sorts of potential backdoors into the US electrical grid, giving them the ability to shut things down or cause other sorts of havoc in the event of a conflict.So while these are kind of just theoretical concerns at the moment, the risks associated of becoming reliant on one country, and one run by an authoritarian government that isn't the biggest fan of the US and its allies, controlling all aspects of a nations energy capacity in that way are substantial enough that the US government seems to think it's worth taking a hit in the short-term to avoid that potential future.This situation in which short-term loss is necessary to avoid long-term energy dominance by China is arguably a problem of the US and other wealthy governments' own making, as again, China started wholeheartedly investing in these technologies back in 2009, and the US and Europe and other entities that are trying to play catch up, now, didn't make the same bet at the same scale, and that's a big part of why they're so far behind, scrambling to figure out how to catch up, and how to avoid having all their own solar and battery and EV companies killed off in the meantime.Some of these governments are doing what they can, now, to pick up the pace, Biden's Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Act, for instance, shoring up these sorts of businesses and seeding potential next-step technologies—but again, these and similar efforts are more than a decade behind the same in China, and the Chinese government often entangles itself more directly with Chinese businesses than Western governments are conformable attempting with their own versions of the same, so Chinese businesses have that additional entanglemented-related leg-up, as well.There's an argument to be made, then, that while these tariffs—in the US and otherwise—are almost certainly at least a little bit performative, for political purposes, and at least a little bit reactive, in the sense that they attempt to reframe Chinese superiority within these spaces as unfair, rather than the winnings associated with making different, and ultimately better bets than other governments back in the day, there's an argument to be made that this is one of the only ways to prevent Chinese companies from killing off all their foreign competition, locking themselves in as the makers of solar panels and wind turbines and battery backup systems and electric vehicles, and more or less owning that component of the future, which—because of how fundamental electricity is already, and how much more fundamental it's becoming as more nations segue away from fossil fuels as primary energy sources—means they have a slew of adjacent industries in an economic headlock, as well. Arguably the whole of every economy on the planet.Attempts to label one side good and pure and the other a malicious economic actor may be just set dressing, then, and the real story is how one side managed to lock-in a true advantage for themselves, while their competitors are scrambling at the 11th hour to figure out a way to dilute that advantage, and maybe grab something of the same for themselves.Biden's attempt, here, and similar policies elsewhere—especially Europe, but we're seeing some protectionist ideas flutter to the surface in other nations, as well, most of them aimed specifically at China—is meant to give competitors time to catch up. And many of them use a stick approach, increasing the price of these goods on foreign markets, while others are carrots, offering subsidies for locally made panels and EVs, for instance, but only if their key components are made in friendly countries; so Chinese-made vehicles don't benefit from those subsidies, but those manufactured elsewhere often do.Some businesses in tariffed areas are bypassing, or attempting to bypass these concerns by making licensing deals with, for instance, Chinese battery giant CATL, which makes the world's best and cheapest batteries, and which US-based Ford and Tesla have been dealing with in ways that they all claim still work, legally, under the new policy system.Other countries, like Brazil and Chile in South America, and Hungary and Germany in Europe, have been making deals to attract Chinese foreign direct investment within their borders, basically having Chinese companies build offshoots in their territory so they can benefit from the additional job creation and local know-how, and in both cases the idea is to dodge these policies, still benefitting from relationships with Chinese companies but in ways that allow them to avoid the worst of those sticks, even if they don't always benefit from the carrots.China, for its part, has been investing in reinforcing its global supply chains against these sorts of tariffs for years, especially following former US President Trump's decision to begin disentangling the US and China when he was in office, which caught a lot of businesses and governments off guard at the time.In the years since, Chinese officials have been moving things around so that many of their supply chains end in third countries before headed to US and European markets, giving them backdoor access to those markets without suffering the full impact of those amplified tariffs.This is just a riff on an existing strategy, as China did the same with their solar panels back in the industry's relatively early days of the 2010s, rerouting their panels through Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Cambodia to avoid tariffs, which is part of why something like 80% of the US's solar panels still come from these countries, today: they're Chinese panels, in most of the ways that matter, but those buying and selling them can claim otherwise for tariff purposes.Now, China is developing the capacity to build their EVs in Mexico, before then shipping them to tariff-defended countries around the world, including the US to the north, and Chinese-mined and refined rare earths, which are necessary components for batteries and other such technologies, are being mined in and diverted through a variety of different countries, their origins visible but still obfuscated for legal, tariff-related purposes.The US and its allies are beginning to insist that other trade partners implement similar tariffs against China when it comes to these sorts of products, but results have been hit and miss on that front so far, and it could be that, even though this sort of trade war stance has been ongoing for nearly a decade at this point, policies related to these increasingly vital goods will be what finally fractures the global economy into rival collections of supply chains and viable markets, smaller countries forced to choose between dealing with the US and other Western nations on one hand, and China and its allies on the other.Of course, again, intensifying weather events and the changing climate is stressing a lot of infrastructure and causing a lot of damage, globally, which is making the shift to renewables an increasingly pressing need.At some point that need could strain or break existing relationships, depending on who ends up wielding the most leverage in this regard, and that in turn could contribute to the ongoing and substantial realignment we're seeing in the global world order that has determined how things work, economically and legally and militarily, for the better part of the past century.Show Noteshttps://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-pv-priceshttps://ourworldindata.org/battery-price-declinehttps://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/21/1068880/how-did-china-dominate-electric-cars-policyhttps://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2024/may/us-trade-representative-katherine-tai-take-further-action-china-tariffs-after-releasing-statutoryhttps://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/great-green-wall/https://archive.ph/MxOTZhttps://www.trade.gov/commerce-initiates-antidumping-and-countervailing-duty-investigations-crystalline-siliconhttps://www.reuters.com/world/china/natural-disasters-china-caused-13-bln-economic-loss-january-june-2024-07-12/https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2023/abandon-idea-great-green-wallshttps://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-us-fusion-race-4452d3behttps://asiatimes.com/2024/07/chinas-subsidies-create-not-destroy-value/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/07/09/china-floods-climate-change/https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/iea-expects-global-clean-energy-investment-hit-2-trillion-2024-2024-06-06/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall_(China)https://phys.org/news/2023-10-china-great-green-wall-boosts.htmlhttps://earth.org/what-is-the-great-green-wall-in-china/ This is a public episode. 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Our experiences of the world are diverse, often changing as we move across borders from one country to another. They can also vary based on language or subtle shifts in climate. Yet, we rarely consider what causes these differences and divisions. In this episode we speak to geographer Maxim Samson at De Paul University in the US about the unseen boundaries that can shape our collective and personal perceptions of the world – what he calls "invisible lines".This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Full credits available here. A transcript will be available shortly. Subscribe to a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further readingRemoving urban highways can improve neighborhoods blighted by decades of racist policies Wallacea is a living laboratory of Earth's evolution – and its wildlife, forests and reefs will be devastated unless we all actAfrica's got plans for a Great Green Wall: why the idea needs a rethink Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been a wild ride since my last podcast episode, and I'm so excited to explore how we can use challenging experiences (I've had TWO near-death experiences in the past month and a half - !) and science fiction to greatly deepen our relationship with our creativity and help us use it for good. Basically, I'm weaving together everything I've learned from my recent wild life experiences and my current Dune obsession - the books, not the movies - to give you juice you can use to fuel the creative aspects of your great work in the world. To check out a real-life Dune transformation, head to this video by Andrew Millison to see the Great Green Wall being grown across Africa to stop the march of the Sahara desert. And you can always connect with me on Instagram, LinkedIn, or through my agency's website, Jennings-Creative.com.

All my links: https://linktr.ee/fairlylame This Week's Topics! (0:00) Climate Insurance For America's Ocelots! (1:57) Food Forests And Africa's Great Green Wall! (3:07) Indonesia Cracking Down On Palm Oil! (4:44) Energy Generating Windows! (6:03) Climate Insurance For America's Ocelots! https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/texas-ocelot-breeding-and-reintroduction-may-offer-new-route-to-recovery/  Food Forests And Africa's Great Green Wall!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_SzuUHXP1M  Indonesia Cracking Down On Palm Oil! https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/land-use-biodiversity/indonesia-says-200000-hectares-palm-plantations-be-made-forests-2023-11-01/  Energy Generating Windows! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMhdpWMDp04

41 men were working underground in a tunnel in India when a nearby landslide caused part of it to cave in, trapping them inside. They were rescued after 17 days. BBC South Asia Correspondent Samira Hussain explains why it took so long - and what questions the authorities are facing in the aftermath.Chelsea Coates from the What in the World team describes what being trapped underground for ages can do to your mental and physical health. And Maimuna Jabbie from The Gambia and co-lead of The Great Green Wall is one of the young delegates at COP28. The Great Green Wall aims to create an 8000km ‘wall of trees' spanning the entire width of the African Continent. Maimuna tells us about the initiative and what she's hoping to achieve at the climate summit.Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Chelsea Coates and Julia Ross-Roy Editors: Verity Wilde and Simon Peeks

Episode:Title: 3D PrintedShow: ohmTown Daily - Science, Technology, & SocietySeason: 2Episode: 329Date: 11/25/2023Time: 6PM ET Sun-Sat, 8PM ET M-F@ohmTown Episode Article Vote: https://www.ohmtown.com/elections/Past Episode Votes: https://www.ohmtown.com/past-elections/Live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ohmtownYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/ohmtownPodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ohmtown/id1609446592Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ohmTownDiscord: https://discord.gg/vgUxz3XArticles Discussed:[0:00] Introductions...The highest heating bills in the US. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/ohmtowndaily/f/d/people-in-missouri-ohio-michigan-and-other-midwestern-states-will-have-the-highest-heating-bills-this-winter-heres-why/But we gave 2 weeks notice so its okay. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/ohmtowndaily/f/d/a-3-year-cruise-was-called-off-less-than-2-weeks-before-departure/No, this doesn't mean climate change is a hoax. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/technologytoday/f/d/snowpocalypse-now-anchorage-smashes-snowfall-records/What is 872 square feet and costs $530 a month? https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/ohmtowndaily/f/d/this-apartment-building-is-being-3d-printed-in-europe-and-rent-wont-be-more-than-530-a-month-for-a-872-square-foot-unit/The Great Green Wall of China. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/technologytoday/f/d/the-great-green-wall-chinas-fight-against-desertification/Fair competition requires sustainability and enforceability. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/lawnerd/f/d/states-are-quietly-stepping-up-antitrust-enforcement-to-ensure-fair-competition/According to this, Honda issues Recall. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/hatchideas/f/d/honda-recalls-select-accords-and-hr-vs-over-missing-piece-in-seat-belt-pretensioners/A Prompt Paycheck with a lot of hype. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/ohmtowndaily/f/d/prompt-engineer-is-one-of-the-hot-jobs-ai-is-creating/Already got wealth, here is some more. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/ohmtowndaily/f/d/new-york-city-will-pay-homeowners-up-to-395000-to-build-an-extra-dwelling-in-their-garage-or-basement-to-help-ease-the-housing-shortage/A Kilo-Degree of Milky Way. https://www.ohmtown.com/groups/mobble/f/d/kids-in-the-sky-new-stellar-system-discovered-by-the-kilo-degree-survey/Broadcasted live on Twitch -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/ohmtown

In this edition: Niger's private sector has stepped up to fertilise failing plans for Africa's Great Green Wall. Also, people from Ethiopia's town of Lalibela help restore some of the iconic rock-hewn churches unique to their community. Plus, Malian children from riverside communities take to the waters to head out to a specially built island school. 

The Great Green Wall is one of the most ambitious environmental projects ever conceived, creating a vast belt of vegetation spanning Africa by 2030; from Senegal on the Atlantic to Djibouti on the Red Sea. It was heralded as Africa's contribution to the fight against climate change, reversing damage caused by drought, overgrazing and poor farming techniques. The regreening of 11 Sahel countries on the edge of the Sahara Desert would create millions of jobs, boost food security, and reduce conflict and migration. The plan was launched by the African Union in 2007, and despite political consensus, only 4% of the Great Green Wall had been completed by 2021. So what has gone wrong? What lessons have been learned, and will a change of strategy ensure its success by the end of the decade? Presenter: Audrey Brown Producer: Ravi Naik Editor: Tara McDermott Researcher: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Broadcast Co-ordinators: Brenda Brown (Photo: The Niger river in Mali. Credit: Getty images)

This week on Living Planet, we hear how refugees in Cameroon are creating shade and fresher air, as they connect their tree-planting project to the Great Green Wall of Africa. We also unpack Uganda's electronic waste problem, which has been made worse by a flood of cheap, counterfeit mobile phones on the market. And we learn about the promise and drawbacks of compostable packaging.

Hello wildlife geeks, we are holding a Wildlife Quiz on 18-Sep. Come, join us to have lots of fun discussing wildlife trivia and register for the wildlife quiz by clicking here.The Sahara desert has been spreading southwards, as global warming and deforestation have been on the rise. To prevent its spread, the idea of a great green wall - a wall made of trees, rather than forests, was mooted in 2007. The trees, plants and shrubs are to help the local communities find more jobs, grow their own food and also prevent further migration out of Africa. In this episode, an eighth grader Siddhi, from Ahlcon Public School, Delhi, discusses the impact of this wall on the rest of the world as well. 'What is a vertical green wall''Who started the idea of green walls inside buildings and residences'To find answers to these and more, listen to the full episode.To find more updates on the Great Green Wall, click here to readDid you find the Disney movie in the puzzle? Send it to us at hello@wsnt.in

How Golfers Can “Eat Their Greens.” That story and more on H2O Radio's weekly news report about water. Headlines: Study: Focus more on methane and other pollutants to give Earth a fighting chance at beating climate change. Concerns leap over invasive jumping worms that pose a huge threat to forests and residential gardens. The Great Green Wall—an ambitious project that would plant billions of trees across Africa's Sahel region—has hit a wall. For owners of a golf club opening in the UK, a truly green course should be edible.

Unless you are particularly interested in Earth's history, most people do not think in terms of a geological time scale. This is because geological time is measured in eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages. This corresponds to anything from 1 billion years to millions. But due to our lifespan we only relate to a human time scale, which is centuries, decades or less. In fact civilization as we know it is thought to have been around for only 6,000 years. Yet the changes that we have made to the planet during that time is the very reason we need projects such as the Great Green Wall. So, it you want to hear about this epoch project, then stayed tuned and listen to this episode which is called Growing the Next World Wonder. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future. Patrick

Debra, Diana, and Jesi talk about a badass nurse, The Great Green Wall, and Peggy the doll... and Dillon T. Pickle's disappearance... and Jesi's second prank on Diana. Tell us what sparks your interest on twitter (@interest_spark), facebook, instagram, and TikTok! (@sparkmyinterestpodcast) Send a crazy story or interesting article to sparkmyinterestpodcast@gmail.com or through our website sparkmyinterestpodcast.com and we might just discuss it on the show! Articles and other sources: https://www.opb.org/article/2022/02/17/dillion-the-pickle-missing-portland-pickles-baseball-mascot-found https://www.mamamia.com.au/woman-killed-hitman-hired-to-kill-her https://www.rd.com/list/interesting-facts/ https://www.greatgreenwall.org/about-great-green-wall https://www.redbookmag.com/life/news/a21511/warning-this-video-of-a-haunted-doll-may-make-you-sick/

I 2007 beslutter den afrikanske union sig for at søsætte et helt enormt stort klimaprojektet under navnet ”The Great Green Wall”, den store grønne mur. Ideen er at plante 100 millioner hektarer træer i et 15 km bredt og 8000 km langt bælte tværs over Afrikas Sahel-region, der løber syd for Sahara, fra Senegal i vest til Etiopien i øst. De 100 millioner hektarer svarer cirka til Frankrig og Spanien lagt sammen. Det er i øvrigt også ret præcist den mængde skov verden mistede alene fra 2000 til 2020 på grund af skovrydning. Oprindeligt var der 11 afrikanske lande med i projektet, men i dag er det vokset til at dække 20 lande. Projektet skal på én og samme gang skabe jobs, mindske regionens konflikter, dæmme op for migration, hindre ørkenspredning og hive millioner af tons CO2 ud af atmosfæren, til gavn for klodens samlede klima. Verden har desperat brug for klimainitiativer i stor skala og The Great Green Wall er netop sådan et megaprojekt. Men fungerer det? Det har vores to forskere Mikkel Funder og Marie Ladekjær Gravesen undersøgt i en rapport, der giver en status på hvor langt projektet er nået, hvad der har været dets største forhindringer, og hvordan det fremadrettet med fordel kan tilpasse sig. For på trods af de gode ambitioner har projektet langt fra været en udelt succes. Det forklarer postdoc Marie Ladekjær Gravesen i denne udgave af Verden til forskel. Læs mere om forskningen i projektet her: https://www.diis.dk/en/research/the-great-green-wall

  LINKS buymeacoffee.com/changeug The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/ FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/ email: jon@worldorganicnews.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681 Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode288/ Episode 84. https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/84-heat-waves-a-great-green-wall-and-a-one-square-metre-garden-worldorgancinews-2017-10-02 21 African Nations Fight Desertification with 8,000 Kilometer Long Great Green Wall https://www.archdaily.com/976054/african-nations-fight-desertification-with-80000-kilometer-long-great-green-wall The Great Green Wall https://www.greatgreenwall.org/about-great-green-wall Episode 281 https://worldorganicnews.com/episode281/ Episode 282 https://worldorganicnews.com/episode282/ Episode 278 https://worldorganicnews.com/episode278/ Episode 191 https://worldorganicnews.com/episode191/ Episode 184 https://worldorganicnews.com/episode184/ Cuba's organic revolution https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/apr/04/organics.food Episode 286 https://worldorganicnews.com/episode286/

At least sixty people have died in a massive explosion in a makeshift mine in Burkina Faso; A Nigerian man based in Kyiv tells us what the atmosphere is like there as Russia moves troops into Ukraine's eastern regions; The President of Botswana makes the case for his country to become the centre of transparency for the diamond industry; And we take look at the Great Green Wall - an African solution to counteract climate change in the Sahel.

The Malian musician Inna Modja is not only a UNCCD Land Ambassador, but also the protagonist of the documentary 'The Great Green Wall'. She takes us on an epic journey along Africa's ambitious project to plant trees across the entire Sahel region and thereby hold back the expansion of the Sahara desert. The project, which is now being implemented in more than 20 countries across Africa, is a symbol of hope in the face of one of the biggest challenges of our time – desertification.

Lettenbauer, Susannewww.deutschlandfunk.de, Umwelt und VerbraucherDirekter Link zur Audiodatei

Kenya's president pays tribute to the late conservationist Richard Leakey, who has died aged 77. Leakey spent his life defending his country's endangered wildlife. Also, we sample the pan-African offerings of award-winning experimental chef Dieuveil Malonga at his Kigali restaurant. And the Great Green Wall struggles to flourish, but dozens of gardens have already sprung up in the Senegalese desert. 

Hi folks! Welcome to part 2 on Afforestation/Reforestation! Last time, we discussed the Chinese effort to plant a ton of trees, both to combat desertification and to capture carbon, with complex results in terms of water availability and climate across the whole of China. This time, we discuss the Great Green Wall of Africa, an effort to stem the growth of the Sahara (whether it is growing or not is actually a matter of some debate...). We'll also talk some about Sargassum! Hop on in! Use the code POD at stamps.com to get big discounts this holiday season! References: https://earth.org/the-great-green-wall-legacy/ https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2019/09/18/great-green-wall-sahara-desertification/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61085-0 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/great-green-wall-stop-desertification-not-so-much-180960171/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/farmers-in-sahel-beat-back-drought-and-climate-change-with-trees/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837721004737 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11056-017-9623-3 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ijbcs/article/view/194136 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw7912 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22837-2

The destruction of the natural world is the ‘other' global environmental crisis, but it is entwined with climate change. Global warming is the number-one cause of that destruction, and the loss of forests and other ‘carbon sinks' is increasing the pace of climate change. At COP26, world leaders agreed to  halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade, pledging  $19 billion in public and private funds. Among the countries to sign up were  Brazil, Indonesia and Democratic Republic of Congo, which collectively account for 85% of the world's forests. In this episode we speak to Tabi Joda, a forester in Cameroon who is helping plant the Great Green Wall - reforesting a strip right across the southern edge of the Sahara desert. We hear from Natura, a major cosmetics company on how businesses can make money from forests without destroying them, and Elizabeth Mrema, the head of the UN's biodiversity convention - the person driving global efforts to protect nature - on a new plan to get companies to report on their impact on the natural world.

The destruction of the natural world is the ‘other' global environmental crisis, but it is entwined with climate change. Global warming is the number-one cause of that destruction, and the loss of forests and other ‘carbon sinks' is increasing the pace of climate change. At COP26, world leaders agreed to  halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade, pledging  $19 billion in public and private funds. Among the countries to sign up were  Brazil, Indonesia and Democratic Republic of Congo, which collectively account for 85% of the world's forests. In this episode we speak to Tabi Joda, a forester in Cameroon who is helping plant the Great Green Wall - reforesting a strip right across the southern edge of the Sahara desert. We hear from Natura, a major cosmetics company on how businesses can make money from forests without destroying them, and Elizabeth Mrema, the head of the UN's biodiversity convention - the person driving global efforts to protect nature - on a new plan to get companies to report on their impact on the natural world.

Millions of people rely on natural resources for their livelihoods and well-being. What have we learned from climate adaptation efforts to preserve and manage natural resources and their impact on local communities? Climate change is accelerating the degradation of natural resources, putting whole communities at risk. In this episode we take a look at the Great Green Wall, a large belt of trees stretching across 12 African states, developed to combat land degradation and desertification of the Sahel. The World Bank and its partners have invested over one billion dollars on this iconic project to preserve and manage natural resources. Listen in as Lauren Kelly, of the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), and Oumou Moumouni, of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UN OCHA, share lessons learned from the implementation of these programs and their impact on local communities.

Here with us today is Jason Szeftel. He is an expert with China politics. Listen how we tackle issues regarding force labor and many more.======================================Ari Gronich0:25Welcome back to another episode of creating a new tomorrow. I'm your host, Ari Gronich. And today I have with me Jason Szeftel. Jason is an expert in China politics. He is a writer, a podcaster, and a consultant. He's been in the world of sustainability. And I'm really excited to have a conversation with him about all of that, because, you know, this world we're living in is changing. And we are creating a new tomorrow today and activating our vision for a better world. And Jason might have some good ways for you to do that. And, you know, relationships with the rest of the world. Jason, welcome to the show.Jason Szeftel1:45Thanks, Ari. I'm glad to be here.Ari Gronich1:49Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background, how you got started in, in the relationship with China, and some of your sustainability and those kinds of things. your background?Jason Szeftel2:02Yeah, sure. My China angle for me goes back a long time, probably around 20 years. But I was really, really got interested in China around when 911 and the Iraq war. And all of that really started. That was very curious about not even curious, I was kind of worried and curious and tense and nervous, wondering what was going on in the world, are we going to see with China, the same sort of bizarre miscalculations and hysterical reactions we saw with the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then here we are 20 years later, and we've kind of fled with our tail tucked between our legs. And over that time, I just wanted to learn what was really going on in China, what the country was really about what to do with a country that's so large and complex. And we had to understand we have to really understand it, if you want to have any sort of way to get our hands around where it's going and where it comes from. Really. And then yeah, so I started I went, I learned Chinese. In college, I got a scholarship to study in China, in Beijing, at Beijing University. There, I learned about various systems. Actually, that's where a lot of the sustainability stuff came in. I was really interested early on, in how are we developing the world today? How, what systems what electrical types of systems are we building, sustainable water systems, transportation systems, all of this. And when I was actually in China, I was studying their transportation networks, agricultural systems, their demography, all of those inputs that kind of give us the societies that we live in. I was just very curious where that was going. And yeah, at the time, that was the, you know, 2010 to 2015, I was in and out of China, most of the time. And that was where that was kind of the heyday for me of sustainability, and what kind of sustainable future we were going to build. And I actually learned a lot of things that kind of set me against a lot of the mainstream about how would we would get that done? And what would work and what wouldn't work? And yeah, so I've just been kind of putting some pieces together, trying to figure out what could work and what we could do, and then trying to share it with people.Ari Gronich4:00Awesome. So you know, this show is all about going against the mainstream. So let's talk about a little bit of what the mainstream solutions are. And what you've found, are the flaws in those systems, and you know, how they can be improved?Jason Szeftel4:17Sure, well, right now, the two main systems from a sort of renewable energy perspective, it could just take this sort of green energy, which is very important, since the Industrial Revolution, you need energy to run society to run any of these civilizations, any of these industrial systems. And we've typically ran on fossil fuels, coal, oil, natural gas, and everyone, every where's talking about how we're going to get rid of them. And the main two that we've come up with are basically wind turbines, wind energy, and then solar energy with solar panels. And these two things are awesome. I have nothing against them. I think they're very cool. But the issue is that most of the world, the vast majority of the world does not have the solar irradiation you need or the wind speed, height and consistency that you need to have panels, I mean startup panels or turbines running. So if you sort of map it out, and you look at the sort of places where you have the right solar conditions, or at certain conditions that radiation you need, or the right wind conditions, to a very small percentage of the world. And you if you put that next to the places that have the population centers nearby, it's tough otherwise, you have to build very, very large transmission systems. And in the United States, for example, it's very tough to build a single transmission line, it can take decades, it can take 10,15 years. And so, red tape, but a lot of things, it could be environmental things, you could be crossing a lot of preserve, you know, sort of habitats that need to be preserved or endangered species, it can cross through tribal lands, red tape, and then yeah, and then there's increasing backlash from a lot of rural areas. So in California, the two oldest areas for one of the tools areas for wind and solar energy is near Palm Springs. And people in Palm Springs now see a lot of the solar and wind energy production as almost industrializing the landscape. So they don't want to see wind turbines, as far as the eye can see that I want solar panels on all land surrounding them. And it's a real challenge. So that's particularly on the left, where there's so much investment in these two technologies, there's ever more competing interests. And it's interesting that these are both environmental versus environmental, environmental versus humanitarian, environmental versus sometimes racial or other other justice issues.Ari Gronich6:38So when it comes to those two, right, we're not talking about something that I've thought of as a great source of energy for years, which is wave energy, right, the flowing of waves, so they're constantly coming into shore, there is a way to harness that energy, right. But we're not talking about that as far as like a main kind of energy source. The other thing that comes to mind with regards to things like the wind turbines, right, I remember reading, this is maybe 12, 13 years ago, and a Popular Science magazine was a wind turbine that was horizontal. So instead of vertically spinning, it's been horizontal and spun on basically a fulcrum. So there was very little resistance. So it was like a three mile per hour breeze that would cause it to generate energy, which is almost nothing and can be found almost everywhere. Yet, those kinds of newer forms of the old technology still aren't being adopted, right? The solar panels are just starting to undergo transformation in their technology as well. To make you know them less expensive. So here's my question, the point of that rant is, when it comes to these things, how quickly can we move with technology if we got out of our own way, rather than holding technology back due to money concerns and other things like that?Jason Szeftel8:31Yeah, it's an open question. But even you bring up a really good point, that there are different styles of these sorts of technologies, and some of them aren't being considered as much. A big reason why is that? It's a question of scale, and centralization, and a lot of ways. So the large solar and wind companies are just as invested in controlling these resources as a typical fossil fuel company, oil company is. So they want to build giant wind farms. And giant solar farms. Because it gives you scale, it gives you a large size. They're not as interested in doing small micro local sorts of things. There's a big battle going on between should we have giant, giant transmission lines all over the world and all over the country in sort of take advantage of the great wind corridors in the center of the country and sort of shift the energy out, you know, and take advantage of, you know, the Southwest, the United States for solar, or should we try and do this in a more diffuse distributed way, where you have little, little power plants everywhere? I mean that's a big question. Yeah, I mean, that's just one of the things we always got to remember. It's trillions of dollars to replace the grid. And it brings up real questions about reliability, about who runs it, how the systems work, because they're not meant for solar panels on every house. That's not how they're designed. And we'll see where it goes. But you also bring up the question of the tech, the actual, how far can we go? With the technologies we have and so, on solar panels, there's about there's an efficiency threshold, we really not gonna be able to go beyond it. But it's very good, I mean, it's very good. And then with wind turbines, you're sort of what they've decided to do is just go for bigger and bigger turbines, they're not really changing, like, the arrangement of them, they really just want them huge. I mean, I think they're multiple football fields long at this point. And that's also really good for the companies. Companies like vest das in Europe, the manufacturers, these because no one is gonna come at you, if you manage. If you're manufacturing things that big. It's, there's very few companies that can do it. The other question is the industry, where's it located? So and so one of the things with solar panels Is that something like 80% of all solar panels are built in China. And most of the polysilicon one of the key ingredients comes from shinjang. Whereas run it where the entire system runs on forced labor. So there's a big question about, well, should we be getting solar panels from there? You know, if we ramp it up to kind of expand it all over the country and all over the world to run on solar energy? Are we going to do that on the backs of forced labor, in western China, with their people, and basically, in concentration camps, three indoctrination camps and stuff like that? These are real questions. And it's, again, I think there's a strong corporate push at this time behind traditional renewable energy in the form of solar and wind companies. And I find a lot of dishonest at this point, especially because they pretend like there's gonna be a big green revolution in terms of energy and jobs. It's like, No, you guys are just buying panels from China and installing them. The jobs are an installation and construction, it's like, those are temporary jobs, you get the build out, you get the time you get the jobs from the build out, then it's gone.Ari Gronich11:45So, you know, let's say, I mean, we obviously can't change China's stance on how they treat their employees. And at least it up till now our policies are as such that it is tremendously incentivized to work with China, right? versus other places that have maybe better policies towards their people. So how do we bridge that gap between bringing those jobs back to America, bringing those jobs actually to anywhere that they're going to be installed, the manufacturing should be kind of in the areas in which there'll be installed? So that we're always buying local, right? So even big companies can, you know, think a little differently and do that. But how do we bridge those gaps?Jason Szeftel12:43Yeah, that's a great question. And I think you really nailed it, it's going to be more production, where the consumption or the installation happens. That's where things are trending. And the way it works is that China basically flooded the market with solar panels, and did them below cost so no one else can compete to basically cornered the market during the 2010s. That's what happened. They just wiped out the competition. It was not. Again, you don't want to say what's fair, unfair in sort of global economics, it's kind of not how it works. But that's the game they played, and they did very well. So most US solar panel manufacturers are all gone. And what they're relying on now is industrial policy. So they're relying on the Biden administration just like the Trump administration to start, basically, preventing, incentivizing things to make it happen, make them happen in the US subsidizing things, tariffing, different products from abroad, and basically trying to rearrange the global production system we've had since the 1980s. That's kind of what's happening. We see it in semiconductors, we see it in certain solar energy stuff, we see it with certain rare earth minerals. It just goes on and on. It's kind of what we're seeing across the board. COVID really set this, I mean, just set this loose after with the PPE and all of the vaccine problems, mean people in the United States would be freezing out if we didn't have vaccines made in the country. If they were coming from India or China, it would be even worse. So it really gave people a sense of almost like a national security thing for production for the economy. And we're seeing it. I mean, it's almost a bipartisan thing at this point. So we'll see where it goes. But that's where things are happening. We're not really trying to help other countries as much anymore, trying to prevent it from being in China. Number one, trying to build it here. And then we'll figure everything else out later. That's kind of the thought process.Ari Gronich14:26Yeah, well, so my thought process is always How can we plan and work backwards versus, you know, plan from the end result, right. So, in my case, this series I told you about, when in our pre interview, the series of books that I'm writing, tribal living in a modern world is a lot about how do we take technology and marry it with nature, marry it with a natural way of living that does support all the people on the planet and In a way, that's not like the planet isn't killing us because of what we've done to it, right? So how do we marry the modern, the technology, the influx of this revolution that started with the industrial revolution? and bring it back to a sustainable natural flow so that they're kind of together and helping one another versus destroying one another?Jason Szeftel15:30Yeah, that's a big question. I think it's one of the things that really animated the sort of sustainability movement, the more modern one that's more technologically focused since the mid 2000s. It's been a huge question that we need this greater sense with global warming, with climate change, with anything going on in the world. And even with the sort of political conflicts you see everywhere, resource conflicts, water conflicts, that we have to do something. But there is a real question. And a real challenge, just because it's not clear that we can do this for everyone everywhere. what's likely is that the sort of place that could have a sort of marriage of nature and technology is a place like the United States that puts the money into it really invest in it develops a host of new technologies which don't exist, and then is able to sort of transform its society and economy while also keeping it stable, and productive and healthy. Most places on earth cannot do that. And so for China, for example, trying to just transform the Chinese energy system is a massive, massive undertaking. So they use 50% more energy in China than in the United States. And they have all the dirty industries on Earth, right? They do more steel manufacturing, like steel and aluminum preachers like 50% of the entire world, they pull 50% of all the coal in the world out of the ground. Everything. I mean, all these really, really energy intensive, dirty industries, whether it's, you know, minerals processing, or gas, or steel and steel in different smelting procedures. It's just that everything is 30% of world manufacturing. So how do you retool this entire production node in the world to run on new forms of energy? I mean, it's trill again, trillions and trillions of dollars. And it's tough for China to do because they need low costs for everything they have to keep people employed. They can't have dislocated people running out of the factories and started marching through the streets, like you saw on a bit in Hong Kong. I think that it's really tough to see I actually see more countries, not marrying nature and technology in a wholesome way, but sort of heading heading back down in a bad way, not able to get the resources they need, not able to evolve their economy and the way they need not able to sort of bring society forward. At the same time as they're doing all this. It's just extremely difficult. And even in the United States, we don't have the best politically minded, cooperative sort of party system right now. So we'll see how that goes.Ari Gronich17:57I mean, if you were to if you were to like if you were to be doing this, right, but I was Biden, for instance, and you are giving me your, you know, five minutes, so to speak, your your elevator pitch on why I should listen to your consulting, and what I should be doing with the country. As far as this aspect goes, what would you be saying to me?Jason Szeftel18:28I don't want to shirk the question. But I will say that I don't think that the President has nearly as much power as people thinkAri Gronich18:33I understand that. And, and here's how, here's where I feel the power lies. The power lies in somebody like Kennedy saying, we're going to the moon, you have a decade to do it. You know, it's just gonna be done. It's like a mandate, right? They say something, and then the world kind of starts doing the things to make that happen. Right. So Biden has the power of a leadership position where he can create a mandate, he can say, this is what we're doing, you know, like a Kennedy would, I don't think we've had anybody since Kennedy, like that. Jason Szeftel19:17We'll also think our government or federal government's not as competent as it was particularly starting in the 1970s. Its ability to actually execute on programs like that for multi decade or even 5, 6, 10 years. It's just completely almost disappeared. So what we see is some of the biggest revolutions are just privately funded things. So for example, the shale revolution, particularly in Texas, North Dakota, and in Pennsylvania, all these small places, they, it was revolutionary for the US energy system, but it wasn't didn't come through any federal initiatives and actually sort of had to push back against a lot of state initiatives that didn't want fracking and didn't want all this stuff to happen. But it's been probably the biggest energy transformation in 50 years in the United States. So I'm very wary of, I love the idea, I love going to the moon, setting the mission, setting the plan. But even look at NASA since the end of the Cold War, NASA hasn't been able to do anything right now. It's gonna be Elon Musk that goes to the moon with his rockets in Texas.Ari Gronich20:15Now, I understand that. But here's the thing, I guess is the difference. Most people believe that when the government says, Let's do a mandate, that it's the government doing the job, right? You don't realize that it's the private contractors, it's the private citizens, the private companies, the engineers, the geniuses, that are actual human beings, right, that are doing the job that are getting paid. So when they hear something like this will be trillions and trillions of dollars, they don't hear Cha Ching, that means that we're going to be getting paid. That means that our communities are going to have sustainable incomes, and we're going to have a future and we're going to have money to spend and we're going to have things to do all they hear is it's going to cost trillions of dollars. Right? So I guess this is where, yes, I believe that private companies are the answer, private citizens, private people, but I believe that there needs to be some kind of level of incentive that says, You guys got to do this. And you gotta do it now. Because we're not waiting anymore. For your, you know, return on investment, so to speak, we're looking at what's the newest technology? How can we get it out the fastest and most effective, etc.Jason Szeftel21:37Yeah, so I don't want to shirk your question, I'll get back to it and just say, I think that what I would what I would tell them to focus on is, you know, actually try and focus on technology development in certain key areas and stop thinking about technology as just new texting apps, and new video messaging apps and stuff like that. We've really diluted the meaning of the word, technology. And it's really tragic. And some of the consequences. So I'd say, you know, focus on encouraging people to develop new ways to deal with natural disasters. Are there better ways that we can deal with fires? Is there something better than throwing water on it? Right, is there something we could do, you know what I mean, things like that, I think are very important. Ari Gronich22:16You're in LA, right?Jason Szeftel22:17I am in LA? Yeah, I am familiar with it.Ari Gronich22:19I saw 310 cuz my numbers were 310. And so I used to live through those LA fires, right. And I had an idea once and I brought it to the government. I said, Let's plant some ice plants all alongside the mountains, they grow very well there. They don't need a lot of water, but they hold a lot of water. It's like planting cactus, they'll keep a lot of that area from, you know, from burning, because it'll extinguish the fires, but nobody listened. was kind of interesting. It was like a really easy thing I felt like to do. But you're right. We're not telling people to do that.Jason Szeftel23:00Yeah, and it's a lot of the reason is just the government contracting methods. So let's say you and I had an idea for how to better, you know, fight fires in California, well, we'd go and we'd pitch something to, you know, probably this callfire, it would take, you know, three years for them to get back to us. And then you know, we get a decision, then we'd start we get to work on the project for maybe two, three more years. And it's just, it's this massive, extended timeline to try things out. So I believe they should be more encouraging of a lot more experimentation in agriculture and transportation technologies in electrical and energy technologies. I mean, the places bizarre. I mean, even the right to try, that's, I think that's a very good policy, like let's, you know, people are going to die, they have no other options. We should try things if they want, if they want to pay consent, you know, try things. I think that's a good policy. But it's funny, the place where you see the bizarre small innovation and experimentation is often in the military. The military has things like DARPA, that are invested in trying to push things forward with technology. And a lot of impressive technologies have come out of that. So we need a bit more of that focus. It's just very hard to get it together in government, especially the state governments trying to contract with state governments is not fun. So those procedures, I think a lot of things related to it sounds a bit, you know, buzzworthy, but smart government things that can just running the systems for government on more modern systems would be a really good thing. The reason everything's so bad on a government website is because it took the same thing we said, three, you know, six years ago, seven years ago, they had an idea for the website for unemployment benefits in Florida. And then, you know, crisis hits, and it all collapses because it was like, well, this thing was basically 2010 technology, and we don't live in that and it can't be updated. It's not right. It's not right.Ari Gronich24:47Yeah, you know. That's part of like, in general. My issue with business, with government, with what I see in the world, like, I see the technologies as they come out, you know, like the prototypes and the things that people are working on and they're showing done. And then I see what's out and I go, there's such a gap, it's like a 50 year gap between what is here, and what's developed and could be out. And bridging those together is usually a conversation of money, which to me is like the silliest conversation we could have, right? Money is something we made up, the planet, we didn't make up. You know, we didn't make up the need of money to be people who wanted to innovate or grow or things like that, I just find that by using that money as the excuse not to, we have stunted our personal growth, our financial growth, our systemic growth, and, you know, our technological growth.Jason Szeftel26:11Yeah, the places where you see the most technological growth tend to be places with a big consumer market that you can keep coming back to. So if you look at iPhones, or consumer electronics, you get a lot of innovation, just because every year you can put up something new and you can convince them to buy it. And that's huge, big promise for these technologies is if you just have a government buyer, if you just have something like that you can't get rates of innovation and iteration that you need to really continuously advance them. And so in China, for example, there's a new policy, not new five, six years old, called civil military fusion, where basically the Chinese government realized that they can't develop military technology, as it's as good as a lot of consumer stuff. And so what they're doing is trying to actively take consumer technologies, things like electronics, or little drones, that kids use to take videos or whatever to and bring that into the military, because they've realized that the military timelines are now too long and too slow for the same reason. And the United States has actually the same problem. They tried to have a big military cloud product they bought it from there's a whole brouhaha between Microsoft and Amazon. And they basically just said, you know, we're gonna cancel the contract, even though it's four or five years old, because already the technology is already too old. So there's a real challenge of bringing, we actually see. have to find a way to either give something a consumer market, to let it innovate continuously, right? Or you're in trouble. And so it's, that's the place where you can really see a lot of innovation, it's just hard to get. That's why so many technologies just die on the vine, can't pay the people to keep doing it.Ari Gronich27:44So there was something I saw recently, and it was, I think Samsung had their TVs on a subscription, where you're paying just, you know, a monthly amount, and you get the TV and every couple years or whatever, you get the latest one. So you send them back that one, you get the latest one kind of like Apple does with the iPhones these days. And stuff like that. Would it be with you know, if we have to have a money system, I think that would be a good money system is we have a subscription model instead of a buy for model. And that way, we're encouraging innovation versus encouraging people to have to get rid of their inventory before they can sell anything new.Jason Szeftel28:32Yeah, I mean, a lot of things are moving towards the subscription model. It's pretty crazy. Everything feels like it's a subscription. Now, Netflix is a subscription, your entertainment is a subscription. Even writers are doing subscription stuff on substack. There's a subscription ification of everything. It feels like I think there's a good reason why it gives you reliable recurring revenue in a way that one off purchases, that could be one year four, five, six in between really don't do. And often you just don't need as many as much marketing, customer acquisition can be a lot lower, smaller enough to do as best as much. If you have someone in there with you for years, it's reliable revenue, you can loan you could lend off of it, you can do a lot of cool stuff. So I don't think it's going to replace the money system. But it's becoming a bigger and bigger part of the way services are sold in almost every app and every sort of cool app on the internet or on your Mac or on your iPhone. They want you to subscribe because it gives them the certainty that they'll have money and they'll actually continue to invest in improving the technology or at least keeping it up to date for the newest operating system. There's a lot of apps I'll get on my Mac that are free that once you update to a new operating system. They just never updated either because they don't have any incentive to so the subscriptions are definitely here to stay. Although they're kind of getting out of control. They want you to have a subscription for like boxes for your dog. And like everything.Ari Gronich29:56I'm I'm more thinking like if that was the model we went to for technology, like, you know, whether it be our energy system, we're on subscription models, but they don't update the technology with every month, you know, the way that we're paying for subscription, they keep the technology, kind of they maintain it, but they they're not always updating. So that's where I'm thinking, like, Is there a way I just want ways I want things that we can do something that people if they're listening to this in the background, the audience, you know, they're like, what do I do, I'm passionate about something, and I want to be able to, you know, create a sustainable life, I want to create sustainable living with all the subscriptions people are going broke. Because they don't realize that the $9 here and the $10 there and the $9, there's adding up to $3,000. Right, so I you know, it's like, how do we get to where innovation and sustainability technology, and free flowing ideas is like the norm again, kind of like the Roman era or the Greek, you know, era where people were the Renaissance, where it was all about rebirth and growing, I think we've like hit this stage in our evolution, where it's like, we like we got to a place in the 50s, where we liked it, and we just want to stay there forever. And, and so, how do we get back to that rebirth? mentality? I know, you talked a little bit about the psychology of it.Jason Szeftel31:44Yeah, I'm with you on that. I think there's a bit of stasis. And you know, we're all watching Tick tok, and watching videos and all the subscriptions we have are typically little consumer comforts, that let us just keep doing what we're doing, kind of avoid the fact that the rest of the world that we live in, looks exactly like it did in 1970. None of the new physical systems are there, most of LA was built, every home feels like it's a weird, poorly built stucco building from the 70s. They were supposed to go up for like 5, 10 years be replaced and then never get replaced. So yeah, we live, you know, our digital comforts, and digital, little digital consumer electronics really helped us avoid realizing and looking at the fact that the world around us otherwise looks completely old, 50 years old. And you know, in China, it's a bit different, everything is brand new. So there's actually a lot more of a forward looking hungry edge to it, they've seen transformation in their lifetimes in a way that most of us have not. So to get back to it is a real, I mean, it's I think it's like a key key thing we all need to be thinking about. But for stuff, little people, I mean, stuff, little things people can do. That little people, I mean, the challenge with energy is that you often need huge, multi billion dollar investments. So that's not it. But so I mean, if you live in the southwest of the United States, you basically live in one of the best places to have solar energy, you should probably get, I don't want to say should, you can get solar panels on your home, that can be installment payments, and it probably will be a great deal. The panels are really good now. So people who bought solar panels, like 10 years ago, they were paying, they were paying for you to have great solar panels today. You don't I mean, those are outdated, and they're terrible compared to what we have now. And the cost is going down so much. I think you mentioned this earlier, that by 20, 30, solar panels are going to be really, really cheap. And they're going to be at industrial scale at sort of major grid scale stuff, they're gonna be really good. But for consumers, the probably be even better. So that's a great thing to do. I mean, I think Solar City, which is owned by Tesla, Tesla, energy, whatever it's called, now, they integrate batteries and solar panels on your home. And that's a good that's a good combo if you if you want to live in a world where you there's electric cars and solar panels and batteries. And that's I mean, that's a big part of the future. That is advocate the of the most optimistic future advocated by the solar energy cohort of the sort of renewable technology thing. That's something to invest in. I have certain reservations about electric cars, like for example, in China, I don't think China's ever going to be able to run on electric cars, there's, it would need something like four or five times the amount of energy China currently uses, which is more than any country ever, which is 50% more than the United States. And they don't have the energy for that. You would need massive, probably massive, massive amounts of nuclear energy to do that. That's probably the only way. So yeah, I think that's something people should keep in mind running. certain places aren't going to run on electric cars and solar energy. Germany is a great example. They built alot of solar panels in Germany, but they forgot to look up at the sky. And notice that it's overcast all the time. So there's a big installed capacity of solar panels, unfortunately, also old panels, like we said, they said, Germany is subsidized the good panels you can get today. They just, it's just the actual energy generation, the power generation from these panels is very limited. And so Germany actually uses more coal than it did 10 years ago. So those are one of those contradictions that you, you don't get caught in. But again, for people here who live in the southwest, feeling Florida, he lived in the southern part of the United States. So panels ain't a bad idea. And so that's a good one that I would focus on for the energy side of things. Yeah, it's good. The time is there, time is now.Ari Gronich35:42So, you know, you mentioned China could never run unless it was like on nuclear. Unless maybe it was local. You know, local supply, I think, might be a little different. But here's I guess that where I want to go with this question. So we're looking at China, and all of the innovation, all of what they're doing, all the energy, they're consuming the pollution that they're making, the violations that they have on human rights. And we go, all right, we don't really understand their culture much. And so we judge it from our outside perspective and our outside eyes. And so you have a little more of an insider's view on you know what it is to be in China and what it is to be under that culture. So just for the audience who has preconceived notions, which ones are true, which ones not so much. Can you kind of just illuminate on what this thing that we've now known to be? China?Jason Szeftel36:57Yeah, so there's a lot of sort of myths and sort of misconceived notions about China. I'll just try and kind of run through some things that people might find illuminating, to give them a sense of that place. And, yeah, I think one interesting thing people wouldn't realize, and that is so hard for people from the west to understand is that the Chinese Communist Party is not despised as a totalitarian dictatorship. Until the last 10, 15 years, the Chinese Communist Party was actually not in most people's faces. But all that much, it wasn't like authoritarian forcing you to do this or that there was a lot of freedoms on the ground level, because people were, they wanted to encourage private innovation. So back in the 70s, very different story back in the 60s, very different story. 50 very different story. But in the last 50 years, overall, it hasn't been 40 years, it hasn't been up in people's grill all the time, although that's now changing. And so the party is actually thought to be a good force of ease that you can't do polls in China, because that would be dangerous. But in a healthy majority of Chinese people think the Communist Party is overall a good thing. And they support it hard to hard to believe that goes very much against our Western individualist ideas, That's the way it is. So So why, what what MC, isAri Gronich38:18So why? Is it indoctrination? Is it just history and culture? Is it? What is it that that says to them? And are they allowed to be individuals still, even within the system of control that they're in?Jason Szeftel38:32So there's always a propaganda element in every Chinese state, that the Chinese state has to manage its population. So China has on a broad scale has overall bad land relative to the size of the country, and it has limited capital. So it doesn't have a lot of money, it doesn't have the best land. And so there's labor land and capital and technology, but just thinking about labor, land capital, the primary resource in China is labor. It's always been the population. You if you need a great wall built in the desert, you send millions of people to do it. If they end up as mortar for the stones, well, you have millions more. And that's what you see. You need to build things. You get them sent here, you just send people all over to deal with whatever needs to get done. But the people are also a threat. At the same time. You have a large, large, poor population, there's something like the entire population of the United States, there's like a group that large in poverty in China. It's hard to fathom. And yet the Chinese government and Chinese people are more concerned with one thing probably than anything else. And that's political integrity, its political stability and order. And the thing they're contrasting the communist party with isn't some Western democratic liberal ideal of a individualist democracy, blah, blah, blah. It's just chaos. They see the two options as order, often tyrannical authoritarian and terrible versus chaos, which is much worse. And most of China's history is chaotic, it's chaos. It's not in an integrated state ruling over an integrated people integrated territory. It is warring factious clans, and warlords duking it out all across the country. Ari Gronich0:11Wow. So you're talking about the land like, you know, we have a whole song about how majestic our land is. So I want you to, I want you to explain that in a way that people who have never been there could grasp what that means for the people what that land is like and what it means for the people.Jason Szeftel0:30Sure. So China's big. China's about the size of the United States overall, like the physical territory. But China, something like 66-70% of China is mountainous. And a large part of China is just huge deserts, the whole western and northern parts of China are massive deserts. So when you get down to it, the sort of flat, temperate, arable land, you can farm-on, build cities easily, all of that is really small. It's something like maybe 15% of the entire country, and maybe the size of Colombia, like the state of Colombia and South America, that's very different than the United States. The United States probably has 30% of the country, mountainous and hilly, right, sort of like the Rockies. And you know, Denver and Salt Lake are, and then you have massive flat stretches of land, all the way in between the Rockies and the Appalachian is basically the Appalachian Mountains is basically a giant Valley, it's like a million to a million square miles. It's enormous. And there you have the Mississippi River system, really like a bunch of rivers that are all interconnected, you can float things down, that you can send goods, products, troops, messages, everything down and across these rivers. And overlaid on top of these rivers are some of the best access to some of the best agricultural land on Earth. So you really have a Nexus, not trying to sing America, the beautiful here, but just to give the comparison, the United States does have a very, very, very fortunate set of natural features that are a major reason why this country is wealthy and powerful. It's not imperialism, it really isn't. It's not colonialism, the United States was the largest consumer market, the largest agricultural manufacturer, the largest industrial manufacturer, the largest food produced the largest everything by like the 1880s, within about 100 years after it was formed. And it's been all of that since for over 120 years. And that was before it ever invaded Cuba before it ever did any of that it was after the Civil War. So it wasn't built on the back of slavery. So that's something I want people to keep in mind. It's always good to have a good sense of our country, because otherwise we get caught up in very misguided and dangerous forms of American exceptionalism will think, oh, we're so great, because XYZ maybe, but maybe we'd be just as great if we all spoke Spanish, or if we'd all been Catholic or something. And my read on things is, that's probably true. If you happen to be in this part of North America, you've managed to take it all over. And no one had ever been here, in a sort of industrializing and heavily agricultural manner, like the Native Americans weren't quite like the 1000s of years of Chinese agriculture. It's very different. But in China, you don't have something like that. The Eastern lowlands of China that are basically the core regions of China are the yellow and Yangtze river valleys. This is 90% of the Chinese population lives there. And it is not like the United States. It's not like what we were just talking about, like this great large center heartland or whatever you want to call it of the United States. It's much meaner, it's much more overpopulated. It's crowded one way, think about it. Imagine the United States was mostly mountains. And then on the East Coast, you had a big kind of large East Coast was, you know, you could fit more people there, you had 90% of US population there. But instead of, you know, 300, 200, something million people, you had 1.2 billion people all stuffed there. So you have in China, you basically have the American Midwest. And on top of that, you have the equivalent of New York, and Boston, and Washington and all of it, it's all piled all piled on top of each other. There are people fighting for land, space, air, water, everything. And there are factories and mines and schools and in cities on top of farmland. I mean, this is just the way it is, there's not enough land. And that's really, really important to keep in mind.Ari Gronich4:17Right? And so for people who have belief systems, like everybody should go back to their country or something, right. We're talking about a country, where are they planning on going? Right, when the population gets too much for that place? Are they planning on terraforming some of those mountains? Are they I mean, like, what can they do? once that population is too much for the landmass?Jason Szeftel4:52It's a real question. It is certainly straining the ecological carrying capacity of the land. So many people China's built over 600 major cities that has over 100 major cities with over a million people that all built in the last few decades. And that's an enormous amount of people's products of resources that you need. And to sustain that is even harder, you have to keep feeding it, you have to keep pouring down. So you have to keep building buildings, you have to do all of that. It's just maintaining it is very difficult. But one thing people should remember is that waves of Chinese people have been leaving China for over 800 years. Okay, this has nothing to do again with colonialism. China was not never colonized. Or it was beaten up by Japan in the 20th century, but was not colonized by other European powers before that. And the reason you have waves of Chinese people in Southeast Asia, and why you have Chinese people in the United States, originally in California in the 19th century, is because China is chaotic and unstable. And you actually saw basically wars between the northern equivalent of northern and southern China, and the southern Chinese fled to Southeast Asia. And then they fled to California as well. These are typically people from southern China from the Guangdong Hong Kong sort of region. And it's that instability in China that has led to waves of Chinese people elsewhere in the world. So that's a very important thing to keep in mind. Because Yeah, people are you tell them to go back to their country, but they've left because of instability to call it often to call China a country is not correct. Like that's a new modern nationalist thing started in the 20th century, China was more of a culture and a civilization, ethnic heritage, cultural heritage than it was a single unified country. That's, that's important. But you also asked just the question of, well, what do you do with when there's too many people. So China has been in a war between its geography, nature, this terrible land it's been given, and any and all technologies that can use to help it. So China has enormous plans for everything, right? They're trying to move water from southern China, up to northern China, because northern China is sinking, drying out and getting covered in dust storms. And it's prone to drought and floods. And it's a problem in a lot of ways. So they're trying to do that, they're trying to build a green wall, basically, a Great Green Wall, to block out the expanding Gobi desert is trying to eat up a lot of northern China. So they're trying to do all these things. But there are fundamental limits, it costs a lot of money just to remediate all the pollution, all the, you know, the air and the water pollution. And like we mentioned, just paving over important farmland, all this kind of stuff, just to remediate that is trillions of dollars. So in a lot of ways, China is stuck with a kind of bluets load, it stuck with the development, it managed to get in the 80s,90s,2000,2010s. And it's going to have to make choices make tough choices about what to do afterwards. That's really the best way to think about it. But in China, typically, things devolve into pretty brutal scenarios you run out of, you have to choose between water and electricity to choose between getting fertilizer, and, you know, building military weapons or whatever. And that is, those sort of brutal questions might be coming back pretty soon. So that's what to keep in mind. It's very hard, like we said, like I was saying earlier, to, most places don't have the ability to marry nature and technology in the way that perhaps the US can if it can build a sustainable system. But like I mentioned with energy, even Chinese agriculture is its own disaster, Chinese transportation, a lot of it is just being built to keep people employed, right? Do you need autonomous electric cars, and rail systems to go to every single country, every single city? Wouldn't you just need one or the other? Maybe one of these never gonna do you need also planes and airports and every single one, like you a lot of the basic economics of these things aren't rational. This is a political project, all of this stuff in China, like we said, they worry about political integrity, and chaos. And that's what they're trying to prevent. And we'll see how it goes. But it's a tough, tough problem. Ari Gronich9:10Seems like a bit of a pressure cooker. Actually. You know, it seems like something's gonna blow.Jason Szeftel9:15I believe so. I believe so. I think that all you need is one the hammer to fall in one area, and it can start a chain reaction, that's what's always happened in Chinese history. So the people don't remember if China is a massive superpower. And it's always been it's, a once in future superpower. And this is just as rebirth into the modern world, which is kind of some of the narrative we've all heard. Really, if that is the case. Why? Why do all of its states always collapse? Every single one has collapsed. Every single Chinese state has collapsed and ended in a massive kerfuffle and bloody struggle. And we need to look at why that's happened. And see if there's anything different today. It's really the question is, What is different today. They could keep China together not? Well, China will continue forever, without any problem, because that's not what's happened. Ari Gronich10:06So let's take it to a cultural step there in that case. So culturally speaking, what keeps China going? Is the culture that they've developed over the last, however many 1000s of years of doing this behavior of implode, rebuild, implode, rebuild, implode, rebuild, right? So different mentality, different psychology. You know, let's talk about how the psychology of that is manifesting in the scenario versus, say, the psychology of, we're in this together, we can do this. And we just got to figure out and plan the steps and then execute them. Right. So taking it out of that emotional, back and forth, upheaval. Do you think that China's capable at this point of shifting the psychology from ancient to modern?Jason Szeftel11:12No, no, I think that the psychology is the desperate struggle for political integrity and unity. And it's very hard to move away from that. And so the way it works in China, like we were saying earlier, If US has a lot of different pieces, right? There's Texas, there's California, like there's the Northeast, the Northwest, there's Alaska, there's Hawaii, there's many different parts in different cultures all around the country. And that's something we all we always think about Florida is not California, Alabama, is not Minnesota. And this is the same thing in China. So when I'm talking about political integrity, and all of that, what I'm really talking about is northern China, Beijing is in northern China, Beijing actually means northern capital, in Chinese. And northern China is where you have political, military, and political military power. And what has always happened in China is that China is the creation of the Northern warlords, basically, and they conquered the rest of China. And they actually did that. Just as recently as well. That's there's only one time in Chinese history when there hasn't been like a northern power that took over everything else. And that's the culture that matters. That's the culture that is running the show. So southern China, in the southern ports have a very different perspective, Shanghai has a very different perspective, western China, Tibet, shinjang, very different perspective. But the overriding one, the only one that can come to the top, and really set the tone is the one in northern China, because that's the one that can keep things together, or can try to, if you let Hong Kong run China, there's not going to be China very long, there's not going to be any of that. So to have a unified China, you really need this northern power to keep things together and obsessively try and make it work. And usually it fails at some point. But that's the culture that rises to the top. So there's never No, no Chinese leader since Mao has ever been from southern China. They go down on tours to southern China. That's a big moment in Chinese history in the late 70s, early 80s. When and then early 90s, when Deng XIAO PING went to southern China, that was a big moment was it was a symbolic event, because southern and northern China aren't the same even ethnically or visually, a lot of Chinese people know and can tell someone who is from Southern versus northern China, it's, again, these have been not not even just separate countries. I mean, they've been different places that are populated for 1000s of years. Right there. There's a region in China called Sichuan, which has the good food that has its own, you know, old culture that had a culture that went back three over 3000 years, had its own language. And even today, the Sichuanese is like the language they speak there, more people speak that as a first language than German or French. And the, you know, the province of Guangdong in southern China, where Hong Kong is that there's more people there than any country in Europe, except for Russia. So there's just it's a scale question. So this question of like, can you integrate it into a new harmonious sort of cultural and if the Chinese perspective is no, there's way too much diversity, the histories are way too old. And what they did was they they simplified the language they impose written Chinese on everyone, because these languages in China they say they call them dialects. So this is a dialect this a doubt. It's not most languages in China are mutually unintelligible only propaganda calls them a dialect, right? But you have to do that because you want this sense of unity. It is essential. So that's what I would say this up and down this endless up and down, build, collapse, rebuild all that it has a permanent mark. And to move beyond it. That's been the goal since 1949, and Wilson's modern try since 1911, really, and they just have not found a way to do it, and technology and pushing into the future. Pushing as fast as you can. It's kind of like Republicans or Democrats trying to focus on enemies abroad or broader ideals that pushes people forward and can also avoid some of the immediate problems like, well, maybe everyone, the republican party doesn't agree right now on things. Maybe everyone that, you know, the democratic party doesn't quite see eye to eye and in factor, you know, clashing in moments? Well, let's look into the future. Let's just ride this technology wave as far as possible. That's what China's been trying to do.Ari Gronich15:30That sounds like a good thing to do, though. So that's what I like is let's ride technology as far as it can go, until it becomes seamless with the rest of nature and the rest of the world. But, so for Americans who want to do business with China, who are in the business, like, I used to do a lot of manufacturing of gym equipment, we know he had factories in China. So for people who want to do business with China, don't know how safe it is, don't know the processes and all that stuff. Just kind of give a little bit of a what would somebody want to think about? Jason Szeftel16:13Yeah, so the whole relationship with China is changing right now. It's transforming, there's more conflict, more animus than in hostility that we've seen since relations were normalized, in the 1970s. So we are really looking at a major sea change and what's been happening. So you know, how to think about it. Not to plug but I do if people have specific questions, sort of, you know, if you're in the entertainment industry, you want to see if your content can work, if you manufacture things, you want to see if your products will get stolen and copied right away. Those are sort of things I help address sort of directly, because it can be very specific. But in general, you probably, it depends industry by industry. But in general, I think what you said earlier, is the long term, right move. I think, if you can, you want production maybe in North America. I know that it's very difficult that the challenge of moving out of China is extreme. But the costs are also rising. I think that, you know, maybe you're not going to be able to do massive production runs all across the world, right, you don't need the same scale that you had, if you're just really selling in the United States. If the global supply chain system, global production world we live in changes, maybe you don't need that you can get ahead of the curve. But in general, it's very dicey these days, I mean, energy costs are going up across the Chinese coast. So our labor costs, so prices are higher. So a lot of them, they're eating a lot of those costs. So right now they're keeping people employed, their subsidies, etc. But they're rising, and a lot of people are moving to Southeast Asia. Is Vietnam. If you're, you know, textiles, you can move back to the United States, you can move to Southeast Asia, but does depends on each industry. But we're also seeing more and more party infiltration of operations in China. So just to think about it, just to give you a broad context, the Chinese Communist Party is a 95 million person organization that runs the country, right? So you have all these government agencies, and they're staffed by party officials, it's as if there was one, you know, Democratic Party, there's only one party allowed in this country. And they sort of had a shadow organization in everything, right. In the 1970s. Like I was saying earlier, this was everywhere, you used to get your food from the party leader, the party bureaucrat, the press secretary in your town, you get your housing from him, your business would be, you know, secured by him, etc. That changed when you had, you know, the privatization and entrepreneurial sort of time came, but later, now, we're kind of getting back to some of that. So there are party officials, party cells, party councils, and coming back to everything, multi-tenant buildings will have party officials, major corporations, all our party officials. So a lot of people that have joint ventures with companies in China are realizing that the state companies that they're partnered with, have a lot of party activity going on. And so the party is trying to both claim the glory for rejuvenating China and wants to be back in everyone's face and doesn't want to be behind the scenes as much anymore. Once people see the red armbands, you know what I mean? Here we are, you know, we rebuilt China, it's the national rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. But it's also just getting up into everyone's grill again. And so major tech companies are having, you know, there's party control of their data at this point as well. So I'd be very wary, I think, again, it really depends on the industry, if you're just manufacturing small things, probably not a big deal. Keep doing it wherever cost is lowest, right? I mean, you're trying to have a business. So that's a smart thing to do. If you're sending a lot of data back and forth to China, that's probably gonna be dicer and dicer. But, but yeah, it's again, I think there's so much transformation and change right now, that giving the broader sort of general stuff can be tougher, but the general stuff I'd say is that relations are getting worse with China every year and things are probably gonna keep getting worse. Because the humanitarian crisis in western China, the political conflict with Taiwan, the sort of eradication of a lot of the freedoms and everything that's gone on there for decades, centuries, the conflicts with potential conflict with Taiwan, you know, the militarization of the South China Sea, all this isn't going away. In fact, it's all kind of hitting into a massive nexus of problems. That is allowing the US government to target China more than ever before. We are also seeing more cyber attacks and cyber targeting by Chinese companies than we have ever seen. So how do I be wary of all this? Personally, I'm not going back to China. I don't think I'm welcome anymore. I wouldn't want to have an exit ban. So I come in and never allowed back. But people should be wary of this. I mean, this is not. Yeah. Ari Gronich20:44So, what's the devastation potential? As we pull back and start manufacturing in the US again? And in doing those local things? Is there a net devastation or a net benefit to like calming the water, so to speak, by taking back some of those jobs? And some of that? I mean, what the prognosis.Jason Szeftel21:07China? Do? You mean, calming the waters? Are there tensions with them?Ari Gronich21:11No, I mean, calming the waters as far as like, they're busy, right? They're busy, busy, busy, busy, they don't stop, they're busy. They're doing all our stuff, all their stuff, you know, all of the rest of the world stuff, as you said, like 50%, of manufacturing and of energy consumption and all these things. They're busy. If we pull back, and we start manufacturing in the US, as the largest probably user of the Chinese, you know, people. What's the prognosis? What's going to happen?Jason Szeftel21:49Well, it's a, it's a dicey thing, the Chinese system is built for exports, it got all the money, most if not all, got a lot of the money, it needed to develop the country through exports, since the 70s, late 70s, and 80s, it just money came in through the ports, they loaned against it, and they built everything in their country. That's the general super simplified story. So that's also where that's one of their most productive and credible industries. And it brings in hard currency and does a lot of things to stabilize the Chinese financial monetary system. But you know, if that goes away, there are deep deep challenges that the state has to face. And a big one is just that, China needs the enormous volumes of global manufacturing, it needs to build not just for China, widgets, just for China, but widgets for everyone. That's how it gets the volume. That's how it gets the profits. That's how it gets the scale. And that's how it keeps the employment levels up. China needs people employed and needs money coming in. And the US pulling back is a major, major threat, because the US is the largest consumer economy in the world. So you can add up the rest of Europe, and you're not going to get the same sort of effect for China. And they need to read. So this has been the whole thing, the last 10 years, people were like, well, China's gonna have to change catches export forever. Japan doesn't just do that Japan's clue that's just exporting all around the world, like it was in the 70s. Things have changed, but China's going to really struggle, I don't think it's, I don't think it's impossible for it to be a consumer economy. Ideally, China would want to start manufacturing for itself, sort of rejigger the economy, have more internal products and services and be able to sort of self-sustain what it's built. But that's for a lot of reasons. That's probably not possible. So this is this question. I mean, this is what makes the Chinese state governments so tense, so nervous and anxious, and defensive. You see that with every all of their diplomats are, you know, getting, you know, in everyone's face and having all this negative commentary, and they're, they're trying to project the image of power to their own people primarily. And, you know, to try and not be seen as weak to not have any, any event that could suggest that the Communist Party is, you know, weak or incompetent, or out of its depth, or illegitimate because they run on getting things done. Like you said, busy, busy, busy, keep doing things that people agree with it. You don't you can't vote on on their policies, but you can, you can see that they're responsive and making things better. And that's what they run on. It's like performance. It's like

The Great Green Wall was officially launched by the African Union in 2007. It aims to fight desertification by creating a huge strip of vegetation across Africa, from Dakar in the west to Djibouti in the east. The Wall would be eventually more than 8,000 kilometres long, crossing 11 African countries. Since 2007, the project has evolved, with the goal of creating millions of jobs. But critics say progress has stalled. Our correspondents report from Senegal and Nigeria. 

Inna Modja est une artiste originaire du Mali, une personne particulièrement engagée en particulier sur le droit des femmes mais ici nous allons parler d'un projet autour de l'écologie sur le continent africain "the great green wall" pour lequel elle est également ambassadrice et qui a donné lieu à un documentaire du même nom. Il s'agit sans doute du plus grand projet écologique au niveau mondial. Inna est une très bonne amie et nous vous invitons dans cette conversation intime. Avec elle nous parlons des détails de ce projet qui est engagé depuis de nombreuses années. Vous avez sans doute tous vu passer le rapport du GIEC et les catastrophes cet été: Russie, Grèce, Canada, Chine, Algérie, Allemagne, Belgique, France... mais vous n'avez peut être pas entendu parler de ce qui se passe sur le continent Africain et surtout la réponse à aborder. Car si une chose est particulièrement injuste, c'est que le continent africain est l'un des premiers impacté par les dérèglements climatiques dus à nos modes de vie en occident. Ce projet permet de reboiser une zone d'est en ouest de l'Afrique afin de limiter les catastrophes à venir. Cette grande barrière verte a beaucoup oeuvré de manière positive déjà mais il ne faut surtout pas baisser les bras. Avec Inna nous parlons de la situation sur cette zone du Sahel en entrant dans des histoires personnelles, profondes et poignantes que ce soit d'écologie, de terrorisme, de féminisme et comment tout cela est intimement lié. J'espère que vous apprécierez comme moi cette conversation. Suggestion d'autres épisodes à écouter : Vlan #34 Innovation en Afrique: mythes et réalités avec Stephan Eloise Gras (https://cutt.ly/bfFwrvK) #159 Casser les idées préconçues sur le continent Africain avec Odile Goerg (https://audmns.com/hXljCUx) Vlan #103 Comment passer du rejet des migrants à leur accueil avec Lionel Pourtau (https://cutt.ly/IfFwyrS) Vlan #76 Mythes et réalités autour des migrants avec Josephine Goube (https://cutt.ly/tfFwr3S) #170 Ecologie: dépasser les fausses bonnes idées avec Hélène de Vestele (https://audmns.com/NsiNltm)

Are you tired of sad climate news? Tune into the new Climate Good News series for happy climate stories. Read about why we need forests from the World Wildlife Fund. Learn more about reforestation from the Nature Conservancy. And, here are resources on the Great Green Wall and Canada's forest policies. Visit us at climatefocusedfuture.org.

The latest secret weapon in combatting ocean plastic? Mussel poop, plus Madrid's great Green Wall. Aptera-- the EV super car, and climate champion Tom Swain @100!

Highlights from the conversation:You collect ideas by looking around the world and doing things, and all of those things form a vocabulary of ideas that you then come to useI always try and encourage young designers to not just look at design – to look wide and experience wideThings lead to other things. The more you collect ideas, the more you will have opportunities to make them happenIt's important that we create systems that are open and easy to flex to accommodate audiences as they participate in what you've createdWe shouldn't just do ‘adaptable' for the sake of it, we should understand the role that each organisation playsThe work is also the journey. The difficult thing is to make brave ideas survive the process + make make into the real world More about Marina Marina Willer is a graphic designer and filmmaker with an MA in Graphic Design from the Royal College of Art. Before joining Pentagram as a partner, she was head creative director for Wolff Olins in London.During the course of her career, Willer has led the design of major identities schemes for Amnesty International, Tate, Southbank Centre, Serpentine Galleries, Oxfam, Nesta, Second Home, Sam Labs, and the largest telecoms in Russia (Beeline) and Brazil (Oi), among many others. She was also one of the designers behind the brand for Macmillan Cancer Support. More recently she led the rebrand of Battersea, one of​ ​Britain's​ ​oldest and most famous animal rescue centres, Maggie's and Rolls-Royce.Willer's first feature film, Red Trees, premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and was released worldwide by Netflix in 2018. Her films have been shown at Fondation Cartier in Paris, the ICA in London and prestigious film festivals worldwide. Marina has made several films for iconic British architect Richard Rogers, including “Exposed” — a film to introduce Rogers' exhibition at the Pompidou Centre and the Design Museum — and “Ethos”, which was screened at the Royal Academy of Arts. The films are the result of a longstanding collaboration with Rogers and his architectural practice RSH+P, for which Willer created the visual identity. A multi-faceted designer, Willer has recently turned her hand to exhibition design, where she has completed work on major exhibitions for the Barbican (‘Mangasia: Wonderlands of Asian Comics') and the Design Museum (‘Ferrari: Under the Skin').She has been an examiner at the Royal College of Art and is a member of the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) the most prestigious graphic design association in the world. She has been chair of the D&AD jury on numerous occasions.During the course of her career, Willer has been the recipient of a variety of industry honours and she is consistently recognised as a leading figure in UK design, including Creative Review's Creative Leaders 2017, Design Week's People Who Made an Impact on Design 2017 and The Dots' Female Creative Leaders 2017.Awards include best Brazilian short film at the São Paulo Film Festival, 2004, Best British Promotional Film at Promex 2000, Grand Prix for Oi at the 2002 Design Effectiveness Awards and Gold for Macmillan 2007. Her Serpentine Galleries identity was among the 2014 nominees for the Design Museum's ‘Beazley Designs of the Year.Find Marina here: LinkedIn | Instagram Show NotesPeople:Margaret CalvertCompanies and organisations:TateAmnesty InternationalGreat Green Wall AfricaRolls RoyceMoholy-Nagy FoundationRoyal College of ArtShakespeare Theatre CompanyMiscellaneous:Red Trees How can you help?There are four ways you can help us out.Give us your thoughts. Rate the podcast and leave a comment.Share this as far and wide as you can - tell your friends, family and colleagues about us (caveat: if you own a family business, these may all be the same people)Tell us how we can create a better podcast - tell us what you liked, didn't like, or what you'd like to hear more (or less) ofTell us who you'd like to hear on the podcast. Suggest someone that you think we should interview.

This week, The Cultural Frontline is looking at a precious and vital resource: water. Chi Chi Izundu is finding out how issues of water scarcity, water sanitation and climate change are inspiring artists and musicians. The Malian musician Inna Modja tells Chi Chi Izundu about an epic project to combat drought: the Great Green Wall. Spanning eleven countries in Africa's Sahel region, the Great Green Wall is an initiative to grow an incredible 8000 kilometre wall of trees. Inna Modja talks about the film she's made about the project and how the musicians she met on her journey along the wall inspired her. Indian musician and activist Ditty combines her work as a musician with a career as an urban ecologist. She explains how the women working to collect and preserve water in northern India inspired her collaboration with the band Faraway Friends and their new album, Rain is Coming. Nigerian writer Ben Okri has collaborated with British artists Ackroyd & Harvey to create an installation made entirely out of grass and float it down a river in London. He talks about how the living work of art will make us think about climate change. Guatemalan artist Maria Diaz discusses her art installation made of oversized rain-sticks. Nostalgic for the rain of her homeland, whilst living in California with the threat of drought, Maria Diaz created this immersive piece to raise awareness about the importance of the vital resource, water. (Photo: Inna Modja. Credit: Marco Conti Sikic)

In this episode, we speak to Birguy Lamizana about the Great Green Wall project.The Great Green Wall is one of the most inspirational and urgent movements of our times. This African-led initiative aims to grow an 8000km new world wonder across the entire width of the Continent to transform the lives of millions living on the frontline of climate change.The UN Convention to Combat Desertification is a key partner in the initiative.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.Improving Millions of Lives The Great Green Wall is taking root in Africa's Sahel region, at the southern edge of the Sahara desert - one of the poorest places on the planet.More than anywhere else on Earth, the Sahel is on the frontline of climate change and millions of locals are already facing its devastating impact. Persistent droughts, lack of food, conflicts over dwindling natural resources, and mass migration to Europe are just some of the many consequences.Yet, communities from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the East are fighting back. Since the birth of the initiative in 2007, life has started coming back to the land, bringing improved food security, jobs and stability to people's lives.Link and Info:The Great Green WallUNCCD - United Nations Convention to Combat DesertificationThe Great Green Wall FilmYears of Living Dangerously- Series episode - 'Out of Africa'How to be good Socialwww.howtobegood.com.auInstagramFacebookLinkedInIf you like what we do and want to help us continue, please help us out by donating via Patreon; with two of the membership levels, we will also plant 3 or 5 trees monthly in your name.Email or contact us on:gareth@howtobegood.com.auGareth - LinkedIn - Instagramanca@howtobegood.com.auAnca - LinkedIn - InstagramPLEASE FOLLOW/SUBSCRIBE AND GIVE US A REVIEW - ALSO TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THE SHOW; THE MORE WE SPREAD THE WORD, THE BETTER FOR US ALL.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/howtobegood)Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/howtobegood)

Topics: Intro song: DJ Fact.50 - "Sonic Symphony - Orchestral Medley (Sonic 2)" Social Topics: Great Green Wall Initiative Media Topics: Windows 11 Announced Ratchet and Clank: Drift Apart Thoughts Guilty Gear Strive Thoughts Sports Topics: NBA Playoffs Week 5

It's the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drough, so it's a good time to check in on the Great Green Wall, a multi-country project in and around Africa's Sahel region to re-green areas that have turned to desert because of overuse, expanding desert and climate change. Plus: a retired couple in China's Gobi Desert have been running their own regreening project for nearly 20 years, planting tens of thousands of drought-resistant trees by themselves! More than 20 African countries are planting a 8,000-km-long ‘Great Green Wall' (ZME Science) Fighting desertification: A man's mission to make the Gobi desert green (CGTN) Keep this show growing as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement with an epic ambition to grow an 8,000km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa. Inna Modja, activist, model, and musician, joined to talk about a documentary about the Great Green Wall. For more info visit greenwall.org

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Africa Conference Digital 2021 conference will be happening on the 2nd and 3rd of June this year. It is the first-ever digital conference focused entirely on Africa's drylands and how integrative restoration practices can see them flourish once again. The meeting takes place when the world is still finding means to cope with the global pandemic, already impacting restoration. The series will tell you why the African drylands home to half a million people and over two million globally are critical. It will also explore solutions such as the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) bringing 100 million hectares of land in Africa into restoration by 2030, contributing to the restoration of these drylands. The 8,000 km Great Green Wall is stretching from Senegal to Djibouti, bringing life back to Africa's degraded landscapes, aimed at providing food security and jobs for the millions who live along its path. You will hear more about the upcoming GLF 2021 conference and the UN Decade on Ecosystem restoration, to be launched just after the GLF conference running from 2021 to 2030.

Dr Ciaccio (not a doctor) looks at a new form of levitation that uses carbon nanotubes to harness light energy to float on a little puff of excited air. Also, what's causing cacao trees to produce fewer seeds, threatening our supplies of delicious chocolate and cocoa? In some good environmental news, The Great Green Wall of Africa just got a big boost. And in Space Madness, NASA's Perseverance Rover is mere days from a dramatic and dangerous unassisted landing on Mars.

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Science journalist Rachel Cernansky joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about progress on Africa's Great Green Wall project and the important difference between planting and growing a tree. Sarah also talks with Václav Kuna, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, about using loud and long songs from fin whales to image structures under the ocean floor. This week's episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). [Image: Holly Gramazio/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Rachel Cernansky See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

L'INVITÉ : Révélée il y a plusieurs années par ses chansons pop enjouées, comme son célèbre titre French Cancan, Inna Modja est une chanteuse, musicienne et compositrice malienne de 36 ans, ambassadrice de l'ONU, engagée dans la lutte contre l'excision et le réchauffement climatique. Oui, Inna Modja, est tout ça à la fois, artiste et activiste, solaire et solidaire, déterminée à nous embarquer avec elle dans ses combats. Quand on lui demande de se présenter, Inna commence par « musicienne ». Arrivée en France après le bac, Inna met de côté la musique le temps de ses études. Mais la passion la rattrape vite : elle commence par composer pour d'autres, puis se met à chanter. Alors qu'on lui reproche de ne pas interpréter des titres « taillés » pour la radio, elle compose en une nuit « French cancan », titre qui caracolera en tête des hits parades français, européens, canadiens pendant des mois.  En 2013, elle sort un troisième album, « Motel Bamako », écrit dans sa langue maternelle, le bambara, où elle aborde des sujets plus intimes. Inna est une des voix qui s'élèvent, en France, pour lutter contre l'excision. Elle-même en a été victime à l'âge de quatre ans, à l'insu de ses parents. Elle est aujourd'hui la marraine rayonnante de La Maison des Femmes de Saint-Denis, fondée par Ghada Hatem, que nous avions précédemment interviewée dans À Vous Demain. Difficile d'interviewer Inna sans l'interroger sur son activisme écologique. Elle a tout récemment co-produit un documentaire remarquable, The Great Green Wall, qui parle de ce projet de grande muraille verte devant permettre d'arrêter la progression du désert au sud du Sahel. Co-produit par Fernando Meirelles (La Cité de Dieu, Les Deux papes), le film, comme un road-movie, nous fait voyager le long de 8000 kilomètres s'étalant du Sénégal à l'Éthiopie, à la rencontre des populations. Lancé en 2007 par l'Union Africaine, c'est un projet pharaonique, comme un mur vert géant pour stopper l'avancée du Sahara, régénérer les terres et permettre aux populations de survivre par l'agriculture.  POUR CONTACTER INNA : sur son Linkedin ! LA PERSONNE QUI L'INSPIRE ? : Frah (François Charon), chanteur de Shaka Ponk, engagé pour l'environnement avec le collectif The Freak. POUR SOUTENIR SES ACTIONS ? • aller découvrir le projet du Great Green Wall et rejoindre le mouvement en donnant, en signant la pétition, en partageant autour de vous • regarder le film The Great Green Wall en VOD • soutenir La Maison des Femmes, le projet de Ghada Hatem que nous avons interviewée sur À Vous Demain (épisode 16) POUR NOUS SOUTENIR : si vous aimez ce podcast, vous pouvez… • vous abonner à notre chaîne sur l'application de podcasts que vous préférez (Apple Podcast, Spotify, Deezer, Podcast Addict…), et la partager en cliquant sur les 3 points ; • nous mettre 5 étoiles et un commentaire sur l'application Podcasts d'Apple ; • en parler autour de vous ! (vive le bouche-à-oreille) Bonne écoute !

Empowered Africa responds to drought and desertification with new initiative. The post Jared P. Scott – The Great Green Wall #Venezia76 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

The Angry Clean Energy Guy on amazing reforestation initiatives in Pakistan, India, China, Ethiopia, Europe as well as the Great Green Wall from Senegal to Djibouti, the amazing lack of reforestation in the US and Russia and the criminal destruction of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest; on the climate movement's propensity to attack each other instead of staying focused on its civilization-saving agenda and as a case study of this drama, the wasteful attacks against what we know works: 100% renewable energy everywhere. Winner of the Week, Professor Marc Jacobson of Stanford University, who should win a Nobel Prize for his work on 100% renewables; Villain of the Week: President Bolsonaro of Brazil, for the crimes against humanity committed in the AmazonThe Angry Clean Energy Guy podcast will be back on 16 August