Desert-Encircling Forests Turn Taklamakan into Carbon Sink, NASA-Caltech Reveal
China’s Green Great Wall around the Taklamakan Desert has grown about 66 billion trees since 1978, transforming barren land into a carbon sink and modestly lowering regional CO2 as NASA-Caltech satellite data show atmospheric carbon dropping from 416 to 413 ppm; the effort demonstrates the potential of large-scale tree planting to reclaim desert landscapes, though global CO2 remains high and land available for forests is limited.