the eurocentric mind simply cannot fathom the idea that deserts are large carbon sinks, that they are complex ecosystems that host a large amount of life and a life that cannot exist anywhere else. and that is why they think turning deserts green is somehow a good, or feasible idea. a desert is not a wasteland. the dying plants that you plant on top of it because they cannot deal with the heat though? that’s a wasteland!

Wait deserts are effective carbon sinks? I knew a healthy prairie was but how can a desert sequester Carbon they can't sustain that much biomass or bury carbon quickly, cause Rainforest has high Biomass, and Prairies can bury carbon fast because of how prairie grass grows overtop itself but how do deserts sequester Carbon?

Most deserts actually have a lot of vegetation. The sandy deserts are the kind we usually think of, like the Sahara, but most look like this example in Australia:

Desert plants need to have deep roots to reach groundwater reservoirs. Those roots carry carbon deep into the soil, where it reacts with mineral to form calcium carbonate; not only do they sequester carbon, they sequester it in mineral form, where it's much more stable than carbon bound in plant tissues that will decay on a faster time scale!

A lot of carbon storage is done in the fungal networks around plant roots, as well, which are far denser and more extensive than the visible plant biomass on the surface.

i. fuckign thought thid. post was talkinh aboit desserts. the food. why am i so stupif

They also have a lot of carbon in them

Isn't it bad to artificially change any environment? Like, of course we shouldn't be trying to turn deserts into forests, but some areas are getting desert-ified because of human activity and that's the context where I've heard some anti-desert rhetoric?

you didnt put a nametag on your boyfriend and he despawned. sorry.

Discussion Questions

@experimentaldata

Tags that made me choke on my energy drink

Pffft

Okay lemme try

1, the lowercase makes it casual, so its funnier than if it was formal

2. The reference is minecraft

3. The boyfriend is implied to be a minecraft dog

And they said i couldn't follow instructions, ha!

What is it they say about autistic people? We take everything literally or something?

Well, actually, tamed wolves/dogs don't despawn! The boyfriend is thus implied to be a mob you haven't tamed, without a nametag, that you haven't put in a boat, that hasn't picked up your item, that isn't a boss (like the Wither or Ender Dragon)... So he could be most any mob, really.

Trees, like animals, can also experience albinism, though it is extremely rare.

the reason it’s rare is because without chlorophyll, the plant can’t get energy, and dies shortly after sprouting unless it has some other source of food. so if you see a plant as big as the one in the picture that doesn’t have any green in its leaves, it’s getting its nutrition from the roots of a neighboring plant of the same species, feeding on the sugars created by the other plant’s photosynthesis.

albino plants are basically vampires.

thats metal af

VAMPIRE PLANTS

Well, while there are vampire plants, like mistletoe, if this plant is feeding off of neighboring plants' roots, it is more likely that these are its relatives of the same species, and in a forest, they all support each other.

So it's more like a disabled tree getting the support of its community, to help them survive.

Edit: while purely albino trees have a hard time, there are also patchwork trees, with codominant albino and normal genes. And since they do have some normal leaves, they can survive on their own!