5 Most Epic Earth Healing Projects!

this video here is sponsored by ren but more on that later we are going to look at five of the most epic earth healing projects on the planet here this is a scale that we need to be working on if we're going to turn this thing around here biodiversity loss water shortages land degradation right deforestation these are the processes that are being reversed by these epic scale projects that are improving the lives of millions of people and countless species so sit tight here as we check out these epic projects and get inspired because we've got a lot of work to do [Music] so let's go down the list number five the arvari river restoration in rajasthan northwest india the arvari river in rajasthan india had run dry for 60 years water was no longer soaking into the ground throughout the degraded watershed when the monsoon rains arrived and so the water quickly ran off the hills and out through the dry arvari riverbed leaving the landscape parched and impoverished then came regendra singh the water man of india and his organization in 1986 they began to rebuild traditional crescent-shaped water harvesting structures called johards in order to supply water for farmers as they built these joe hods they noticed that water began to flow for a little longer in the dry arvari riverbed by 1990 the river flowed until october before it dried up they kept on building joe hods and other water harvesting structures by 1991 it flowed until january they kept on building joe huds by 1992 it flowed until february they kept on building joe hads by 93 it flowed until march by 94 april and then by 1995 just nine years after they started the flow of the arvari river became perennial again they had built 375 joe hods and treated all of the slopes to stop erosion over 500 square kilometers in 70 villages they formed a river parliament to take control of their new water resources and expanded their work to over 9 000 water harvesting structures since then four more dry rivers in the area have now become perennial because of their persistent work in restoring the watershed number four the chicopa project in zimbabwe southern africa springs were drying up in the lands of the chimanimani tribe in southeastern zimbabwe the hillside forest had been cleared and the land was dehydrated depleting the water supply for the village of titicati a small group got together to try and figure out how to revitalize their springs and in 1991 was introduced the idea of permaculture as a system for land design and water management the villagers got to work and built water harvesting structures and planted trees above the spring the spring flow started again after the rains and so they kept going and restored more land around the village with great success before you knew it the project had spread to the six villages of chicoa encompassing over seven thousand people they terraced the hillsides dug water harvesting swales built water tanks and ponds planted forests for fuel and building materials fence sensitive areas from grazing animals planted gardens orchard and brought their community from a place of food and water insecurity to great abundance where today 80 of households are food self-reliant from there they started a larger organization to help transform the entire chimanimani district working with 188 villages and engaging over 40 000 people in the work of land restoration food and water security on a side note the catastrophic tropical cyclone edai struck the region in march of 2019. when putting together this video i found from the satellite imagery that even the forested hills of the chicopa project were not immune and we can see landslides throughout the area we can also see that by 2021 many landslide areas had begun to heal number three gravis jodhpur in rajasthan northwest india this is a project that can literally be seen from space the tar desert is the most densely inhabited desert on the planet the only rainfall they get is from monsoon rains and for a short time every year there's water and people can grow crops but oftentimes in the dry season wells ran dry and people were forced to migrate seeking water food and income in 1983 an organization called gravis jodhpur was founded which began implementing small-scale water harvesting structures on farms all built by hand so when the monsoon rains came the water would soak into the ground instead of running off in flash floods each small watershed around the farms would be transformed by constructing ponds berms and rock walls to soak rainfall into the landscape over time the water began to refill the aquifer with each monsoon until the farmers had enough stored water to irrigate crops during the winter dry season so now farmers could grow two crops per year instead of one which meant they did not have to migrate away and their whole society became more stable and abundant gravis jodhpur has done this work in over 1500 villages affecting over 1.3 million people so now when we look at the tar desert from space during the dry season the green that we see are irrigated fields aside from some canals from the mountains they are watered from stored groundwater which is there because of the nearly 40 years of excellent work by gravis jodhpur and the villagers to harvest the monsoon rains before we move on we're going to take a minute to have a word about the sponsor of this video if you live in modern civilization then you have a carbon footprint i have traveled all over the world visiting amazing earth healing projects burning jet fuel gasoline powering computers cameras and the list goes on i didn't know how big my carbon footprint was and ignorance is bliss but then this company called ren offered to sponsor my video ren does a few things and one of them is a free online carbon footprint calculator let's check it out what the i'm sorry whoa this put me in a real tail spin but luckily i kept scrolling through their website and i learned that i can offset my carbon footprint with my carbon hand print meaning that ren is supporting all these amazing carbon sequestration projects like turning forest prunings in california into biochar instead of burning them or planting over 20 million trees in east africa or providing indigenous communities in the amazon with technology so they can monitor illegal deforestation and protect their ecosystem i can pay ran a monthly subscription based on my carbon footprint to support these projects this doesn't erase my footprint but it does make sure that i have a strong hand print as well so use ren and the first 100 people who sign up using the link in the description will have 10 extra trees planted in their name number two the lowest plateau in northern china i heard about this epic project through the filmmaker john d lew who documented it over 15 years in the series hope in a changing climate linked above the lowest plateau in northern china is a region that was denuded of plants resulting in serious soil erosion the land dried up because hills were stripped bare by deforestation overcropping and over grazing the earth was just washing down into the rivers causing floods of muddy water below winds were turning the unstable soils into massive dust storms which were blowing into china's cities and towns the government identified this problem and selected 35 000 square kilometers of the plateau to regenerate the way that the project leaders described it to the poor farmers was that they needed to dress the landscape the hilltops needed to wear hats and they were replanted with trees the hills needed to wear belts so they built terraces all along the slopes for planting crops and trees and the hills needed to wear shoes so they built dams for water storage the base of the slopes they designated the steepest slopes and gullies as protected ecological zones and farmers were paid not to farm them and to keep their livestock away from sensitive areas you can see the transformation through mr liu's footage over a 15-year period a region-wide design implemented from the tops to the bottoms of these slopes brought these landscapes and communities from degradation and poverty to natural wealth and financial abundance in just over a decade so inspiring and the number one earth healing project is the pawnee foundation in maharashtra western india the pani foundation is an organization founded by bollywood megastar amir khan they host a competition called the water cup which is a contest between villages in the state of maharashtra to see which village can install the most water harvesting structures in a 45 day since 2016 thousands of villages have competed and the resulting water harvesting structures equate to over 145 billion gallons or 550 billion liters of water storage capacity built between 2016 and 2020 this part of india receives nearly all of its rainfall during the three-month monsoons they can then be dry for the entire nine months remaining the year so all of the water they have for drinking and farming comes in a short period of time and needs to last all the way through the long dry season the water cup competition builds water tables and builds them fast with an all-volunteer labor effort the competition starts at midnight and the villagers get to work with a massive push over the 45 days they are then judged both on the quality and quantity of water harvesting structures built then all these structures await the monsoon rains when the rains come so much water is soaked into the ground because of all the work that water tables are replenished in just one rainy season and the entire fortune the village turns around in a very short time as people can now plant crops two or more times per year instead of just planting with the rains this stabilizes the economy and ends economic migration to the cities for work this project wins the number one position because of the sheer scale and speed by which they're restoring watersheds transforming rural society this is an example that can lead the world [Music] and as a bonus i'm going to tell you about the next most epic project on earth that's in development right now the business called regenerative resources is currently raising the capital to plant 100 million mangrove trees along the coastlines in three continents mangrove trees are the keystone species for creating regenerative seawater agriculture that yields food for people while restoring coastal ecosystems and dramatically increasing biodiversity mangrove ecosystems store up to 10 times more carbon than terrestrial forests this is one of the easiest wins for ecosystem restoration economic security food security and carbon sequestration on the planet so this is a scale of project that we need folks if we're actually going to stabilize the climate restore the water tables restore the forests bring abundance and natural wealth to humans and the environment we have got so much work to do and these projects are the scale that we need to be working at so let's get busy folks

Channel: Andrew Millison

Views: 513,164

Keywords: permaculture, permaculture design, Rajendra Singh, waterman of india, arvari river, chikukwa project, zimbabwe permaculture, chimanimani, rajasthan, resilient rajasthan, india water harvesting, india permaculture, gravis jodhpur, loes plateau, john d liu, hope in a changing climate, china reforestation, paani foundation, water cup competition, andrew millison, osu permaculture, oregon state university permaculture, ecosystem restoration, watershed restoration

Id: Tpozw1CAxmU

Length: 12min 44sec (764 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 28 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/AutoModerator]

Want to talk with your fellow apes and apettes to discuss how you can change the world together? Then join our discord: https://discord.gg/C3fK5Na6Tc

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/hugelkult]

R/ permaculture shoutout

[u/onefouronefivenine2]

I plan to pour 90% of my earnings into projects like these! Maybe developing some radically different new city subdivisions as well as a pilot project for others to copy.

[u/abmys]

Renewable energy and restoring the nature will be my main purpose

[u/Mr2day2]

I really like what mr beast does. His business model is honestly genius and insane. Just use the earnings from the last video to make the next video in which you give expensive ass stuff away or just money for no reason. People love it and it’s good for the world.