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the african continent is probably going
to end up becoming the location of the
most important demographic event of the
21st century
today the population of africa already
accounts for roughly 17
of the human population the second
highest of any continent after asia
which
represents almost 60 percent of humanity
however africa's population is growing
significantly faster than anywhere else
in the world
is right now by the end of the century
it's estimated that africa will by then
be home to roughly 40 percent of the
human population
while asia will by then be home to only
43 percent
the 21st century is going to be largely
defined by the rise of africa but the
continent
faces several serious challenges to
overcome in her rise to global
prominence
and one of the biggest of these problems
is desertification
everybody who's ever played civ 6 knows
this but desertification is essentially
defined as the degradation of land such
that it is no longer productive for
useful things such as agriculture
land can only provide so much and if the
demand is too great
then it cannot satisfy the needs of the
population
especially in the 21st century the
pressure is ever increasing on dryland
ecosystems across the world for
providing goods such as
food fuel building materials and water
that humans need
to survive and economies need to thrive
as the pressure to provide these
resources for the world's rapidly
expanding population increases
coupled with the growing threats of
global climate change drylands across
the world are experiencing more
soil erosion than ever and thus an
inability for the land to retain water
or
ever regrow plants again so while yes
the term does bring to mind the
windswept sand dunes of the sahara
it's important to remember that this
term reaches far beyond
just those living in and around the
world's deserts
if we take a look at the world at large
we can see the drylands cover roughly 38
of earth's total land area and cover
much of north and south africa
western north america australia the
middle east and central asia
and all of these areas are home to
roughly 2.7
billion people across the world today
but the major concern
isn't just that soil degradation is
happening but the
increasing pace at which it is happening
what used to take
30 years to degrade is now happening in
just a single year
leading many to worry about what these
expanding population groups will do
in these regions over the next century
possibly forcing them to migrate
elsewhere it is now of such a concern
that the united nations
even has a special convention the
convention to combat desertification or
the unccd
that regularly meets and is comprised of
122 countries
each committing to land degradation
targets
now focusing back in on africa as we
first discussed
it is home to the world's third largest
desert after both antarctica
and the arctic which of course are both
technically considered deserts as they
receive
far less than the 250 millimeters of
annual precipitation to be considered
one
but what we are focusing on here is the
sahara desert
this colossal desert which comprises
much of northern africa covers some 9.2
million square kilometers and spans
roughly 3
000 miles from coast to coast right
below this
vast pile of sand is a region known as
the sahel
it is tucked in between the sahara in
the north and the sudanian savannah to
the south
here some 135 million people live their
lives
but what is troubling is the increasing
desertification in the region which is
essentially
pulling the sahara desert south in fact
over the last 100 years alone
the sahara desert has grown by 10
percent
and much of that growth has been in this
southward direction
the fear is that if nothing is done the
sahara will continue to expand and thus
essentially
wipe out this entire region and push
even further into central africa and the
worst thing is that this is expected to
affect a
ton of people while today the population
of the sahel is a lot
at 135 million it is expected that by
2050 the population could grow to as
high as 340 million
or more or roughly what the united
states population is today
and without any productive land to grow
food on or to sustain a decent life
a spiraling cycle of even worse poverty
than the sahel currently experiences
will quickly emerge and this is actually
already sort of happening
for instance over the past couple
decades this issue has already fueled
severe food and water shortages which
in turn have caused recurring military
conflicts over these declining resources
and thus forced migration to better and
more prosperous areas
one of these resources the premier lake
in the region lake chad has shrunk to
incredibly low levels in recent years
what has historically been an
extremely important body of water for
countries like chad
cameroon nigeria and niger has seen its
levels shrink to less than 10 percent of
what they once were
when the lake was at full capacity
meaning that the 30 million or so people
who rely upon this lake each and
every year are under serious threat of
losing their entire
water supply in the face of this massive
challenge however
many community leaders scientists and
politicians have begun looking at
long-term solutions but finally in 2007
under the leadership of the african
union countries across the region took a
bold first step at
solving this problem by unveiling their
plans for what has become known as the
african great green
wall the plan is to essentially build a
wall across the entire southern edge of
the sahara desert
all the way from senegal in the west to
djibouti in the east
all in the hopes of blocking the
sahara's continued relentless
march south and this isn't just any wall
because it's a wall completely made out
of trees
which once complete will make it the
world's largest natural wonder
albeit sort of man-made it'll be a whole
three times as large as the australian
great barrier reef
once constructed the wall will be 4 800
miles long and be roughly 10 miles wide
through most of its path
which is about the same distance as a
wall from portugal all the way to
mongolia would be
the estimated cost of constructing such
a titanic structure
is believed to be around 8 billion
it's a small price to pay because in the
end it could transform the lives of
millions of africans who see themselves
on the very front lines of climate
change
and this isn't even the first time that
this type of project has been undertaken
similarly both china and india have
undertaken or are considering a green
wall of their own that would aid in
blocking the expanding gobi desert and
tar deserts respectively
the project in the sahel is being
spearheaded by the african union but
it's also being helped out by
many other organizations like the united
nations as well as several other
countries around the world with the
hopes of completing the wall by 2030
and once completed not only could it
stop the sahara from expanding
but the amount of co2 that all of these
new trees could absorb
will also provide a great bonus benefit
as well
it would be equivalent to the entire
state of california keeping
all of its automobiles parked for three
and a half
years but this project alone is not
enough to save this region
or for that matter all of the regions
across the world facing a similar crisis
in addition to this we as a species have
to begin taking better care of our
environment too
decades of overgrazing climate change
induced droughts
and poor farming practices are stripping
not only the sudanian grasslands of
their once
fertile topsoil but hundreds of other
regions like it across the world but
what is also needed is to allow for
regions to recharge their water tables
and create the microclimates necessary
to thrive
so that vegetation can flourish for
instance countries like mali burkina
faso
and niger are adopting a practice of
fencing off large
areas of land to allow it to recover
from the effects of over-grazing
likewise in agricultural areas farmers
are being taught to plant around
existing trees and vegetation rather
than just plowing over them
as far as the wall itself is concerned
there is a long way to go with just over
a decade left to meet the goal
the project is currently only 15
complete
with the most significant gains in
senegal with over 11 million trees
planted
nigeria with 4.9 million and ethiopia
with 15 million
however there is so much more work left
to do
some of the delays have been due to
funding but a lot of it is also just the
sheer
level of manpower required to plant so
many
trees but the stakes could not be any
higher
with what could be over 300 million
people living in the sahel after the
next
three decades it is now more important
than ever to save this land from falling
beneath the sands
for if not a mass migration could occur
unlike the likes we have ever before
seen
this year is my five year anniversary
creating videos here on youtube
it's pretty crazy to think back on the
journey that i began all that time ago
and all of the lessons and
all of you who have joined me along the
way back then
five years ago when i was just starting
out i didn't know a single thing about
animation
video editing or even how to record my
own audio i literally just learned as i
went through trial and
error and man was that a rough
experience
if you go back and watch any of my
ancient 5 year old videos from back then
you'll see exactly what i'm talking
about i would have
loved to have had a resource then that
actually walked me through
step by step how to actually make good
quality animated youtube videos
but thankfully a resource like that
actually does
exist today and it's called skillshare
my good friend evan from polymatter has
an
entire class on there called make
animated youtube videos
it's only 30 minutes long but it has 13
complete projects for you to practice
with that'll give you all of the
fundamentals you need to get started
with your own channel but even if you're
not interested in creating your own
animated youtube channel
there's thousands of other classes that
you can take on skillshare in almost
every field you can imagine
want to learn how to take great photos
for your instagram page i'd recommend
the class instagram worthy photography
shoot edit and share with brandon
woelfel or if you'd like to be more
productive
my friend thomas frank teaches an entire
productivity master class that will
teach you
how to stay focused and productive while
doing just about anything
when you become a member of skillshare
you can take these classes as well as
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it's the absolute perfect activity to
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and with its varying difficulty levels
it's still great whether you're a
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1 000 people who use the link down in my
description by doing this you can
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so go ahead and check them out and as
always thank you for watching