Africa’s Great Green Wall Project and the Balance Between Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
Africans Great Green wall might sound like a project similar to the Trumps Mexico — United states border wall but it is not. Unlike Trump’s wall which is focused on reducing illegal immigration and drug trafficking in the united states, Africa’s Great Green wall is focused on addressing food security and adapting to climate change by growing 8000 km forest across the African continent in the Sahel Region and hold back the expansion of the Sahara desert which if successful will restore 100 million hectares of degraded land, and sequester 250 million metric tons of carbon to combat climate change.
Despite this huge ambitious goal, progress has been slow. To date about 18 million hectares of degraded land has been restored which is roughly 18% of the total target. But will this help us to mitigate climate change completely?
The Leaky Pipe Analogy
You can associate climate change with a leaky pipe and the effects of climate change as the water dripping from the leaky pipe. The only way to stop this leaky pipe is to seal the leak or change the pipe. In this case , one of the ways to prevent climate change is adopting Mega projects such as the green wall. Mega Projects like the great green wall require significant time , energy and resources for successful implementation for multiple decades. Because of the duration of the project there will be many unforeseen circumstances which might result in the project itself being delayed or cancelled.
While we have been trying to mitigate climate change, the effects caused by it are more like the water from the leaky pipe that continues to rain down on us. But from the looks of what happened in 2024, it has not only been the warmest year but it has also surpassed the global average temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Instead of solely focusing on mitigation, our best chance right now is also to adapt to the effects of climate change. Let me bring the leak pipe analogy again, you can use buckets to catch and clean up the leaks . Currently these buckets are sea walls, installing green roofs and agricultural adaptations. How ever this is not enough , we can be too focused on the water leaking from the pipes ad forget about the pipe itself, which is mitigating climate change itself. Because if the climate keeps getting worse, nothing we currently have will prevent us from getting cooked. So we need to have a balance of both adapting and mitigating climate change , while we are solving the problem of the bigger leaking pipe , the floor has to be kept clean as well. As Thanos once said , “Perfectly balanced, as all things should be”
One thing what history has shown us is that when humanity unites against an environmental crisis, we can turn the tide in favor of us. For example , the ozone layer had a hole back in the 1980s , with cooperative efforts, today the ozone hole is healing proving that with cooperative action, nothing is impossible.