China has planted so many trees around the Taklamakan Desert that it's turned this 'biological void' into a carbon sink (www.livescience.com)

submitted 1 day ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/biodiversity@mander.xyz

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[-] highduc@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I'm not sure I get your question. More natural... is more natural better? The desert itself is natural, and it's expanding due to winds carrying the sand away - desertification. That's also a natural process, but it's not good for living things like vegetation and animals. It's hard for life to flourish in the desert.
"Making the desert bloom" we can argue is less natural, because it's made through human intervention. But it sure as hell will be good for the flora and fauna that will be inhabiting that area. And it'll be good for us humans too, and for "the planet/the environment" we can say, because food can't grow in the desert, humans and animals can't live in the desert, etc. There's no water, no shade, no food, nothing in a desert.
Afaik (and I'm no expert in the matter, I just saw videos and articles about this) Spain is also having issues with desertification, and so is Africa, and other places too probably. Humans there are trying to stop the process too, by building "green walls" and stuff. I think it's a good endeavor.

this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026

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Biodiversity

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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...

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