China's straw checkerboard 'Green Great Wall' slows desert spread

For fifty years, workers in northern China have embedded straw grids into desert sand — a method called "straw checkerboards" — as part of the vast "Green Great Wall" anti-desertification project. The initiative has successfully slowed desert expansion across vast areas. Scientists warn, however, that climate change poses an ongoing threat and the fight against desertification is far from over.