The sand took over... can we take this land back? Fighting desertification in North China

And I know you're probably looking at this teeny fragile thing thinking, "What is that?"

is that?" He thought it was just a game, like a virtual tree that you collect like Pokémon. Look at its little curly tail.

Pokémon. Look at its little curly tail.

Hello everyone from the desert. Today

I'm going to show you guys trees. Lots

of trees. Way more trees than you would ever expect could grow in this place.

This is what this place looked like 10 years ago. Empty barren sand. And now it

years ago. Empty barren sand. And now it looks like this.

Okay, let me explain. There are two different types of deserts in this world. One is the type that is naturally

world. One is the type that is naturally dry and just doesn't support any vegetation like this place. So, natural

deserts are okay. There's nothing we can do about them. But we don't want the natural desert to expand beyond its boundaries and start consuming land that was being used to grow things. This

desert might look perfectly still, but it's actually always on the move. Just a

few decades ago, whenever the wind picked up, this whole place would turn into a massive sandstorm, and the desert was creeping south by more than 10 meters every single year, which doesn't sound like much, but in Earth time,

that's super fast. But over the past 10 years, Ant Forest has helped over 600,000 trees take root here. And one of those hundreds of thousands of trees is

mine. The first time I ever heard of Ant

mine. The first time I ever heard of Ant Forest was when they won the 2019 Champions of the Earth award, and I've been planting trees with them ever since. You might be wondering how I

since. You might be wondering how I could possibly plant a tree all the way out here when I've been living in Nanjing and Hanjo all these years. Well,

let me explain to you how it works.

Lowcarbon activities like taking public transport, using public share bikes, and paying bills online convert to green energy in the Alipay app. Not only can you collect your own green energy, you can also steal it from your friends. And

once you collect enough green energy, they plant a tree on your behalf. Not

just here in Inner Mongolia, all over China. So all these years I've just been

China. So all these years I've just been planting trees remotely. And now I finally get a chance to plant a tree in person with about 300 other people who have come here from all around the country. Now we're on a 10 km trek from

country. Now we're on a 10 km trek from the middle of the desert to the beautiful oasis that Antforest created with the help of countless enthusiastic Alipe users. Over the past 5 years, I've

Alipe users. Over the past 5 years, I've planted 11 trees with Antestone. How

many trees have you planted?

12.

A planted more trees than me. But let me tell you guys something funny. When he

first started using this app, he thought it was just a game, like a virtual tree that you collect like Pokemon. And I was the one who informed him that actually they are planting real trees. And now we are here seeing them with our own eyes.

Yeah, that's nice.

Is not a man of many words.

Wow.

It was super cool to meet all these tree planting enthusiasts from around the country. And I even met a cockroach.

country. And I even met a cockroach.

Interestingly, he actually was not the only bug I encountered in these empty looking dunes. There were actually a lot

looking dunes. There were actually a lot of beetles crawling around. Guys, this

is the most exciting moment of this bug's entire life. It's like, what is that? This is the equivalent of like an

that? This is the equivalent of like an alien dropping down out of the sky. And

finally, as we approached the forest, we started seeing other creatures. Guys, we

finally found a life form other than beetles and a cockroach. There's a

lizard in these bushes. Look at its little curly tail. Most of the wildlife in these desert adjacent ecosystems tends to be pretty small. But in some of the other places where ant forest has planted trees or sponsored wildlife

protection zones, you can see much bigger animals. Whenever people think of

bigger animals. Whenever people think of China, what comes to mind is giant highrises or ancient villages or things related to human civilization. But

there's actually a lot of nature in this country. Wish I could see it with my own

country. Wish I could see it with my own eyes, but these creatures will not let humans get anywhere near them.

Rightfully so, I suppose, because throughout our history, humans have been a very destructive species. But

fortunately, we are doing the very opposite of that today. And I know you're probably looking at this teeny fragile thing, what is that? It's just a little twig, right? This is what it takes to restore a desert. You can't

just plop down some giant woody tree here and expect it to thrive. You have

to start from these little hearty, resilient shrubs. It's very tiny on the

resilient shrubs. It's very tiny on the surface, but it has the longest root network you've ever dang seen. Most of

this plant is actually underground. So,

you might think you're looking at an insignificant little shrub, but that shrub is holding together so much soil.

That shrub has sent roots this deep just TO FIND WATER. THAT shrub is working its butt off to survive in this inhospitable landscape. You can actually feel the

landscape. You can actually feel the difference in the soil if you touch this. It's firm like a skin over top of

this. It's firm like a skin over top of the dirt instead of back there in the dunes where the sand is blowing around all over the place. And it's this layer that helps to trap the soil in place and protect it from wind or from being

washed away so that we can have a healthy ecosystem here. The grass is way thicker in the places where trees have been planted. And you can also see more

been planted. And you can also see more bugs and small animals. This whole area used to be a dead zone and it's so nice to see life making a comeback. Something

I love about this forest is that the trees are not planted in perfect rows.

They're scattered around in little clusters here and there. It's not a monoculture with just one species. We

have different species of tree all coexisting, mimicking the way trees actually grow in nature. I know humans are very perfectionist and we love our rose, but that's not how nature works.

Nature actually likes a little bit of chaos because that creates a healthy habitat with varied and diverse environments. That's why my lawn is full

environments. That's why my lawn is full of weeds because that's nature. It is a thriving habitat. Okay. And this is also

thriving habitat. Okay. And this is also a thriving habitat with a bunch of different plants all together in here.

Because planting trees isn't just about greenifying the landscape. You want to create a biodiverse ecosystem that will last way longer than our own lifespans.

Worldwide, we've been losing forests at an unsustainable rate over the past few decades. But the good news is

decades. But the good news is deforestation trends are slowly beginning to reverse in some places thanks to better protection efforts and replanting projects such as ant forest.

Thank you. We won a prize.

Okay, Ace won the prize. Destruction

happens in the blink of an eye, but growing it back is incredibly slow, especially in regions threatened by desertification. Conditions are

desertification. Conditions are unforgiving out here, and the ant forest team has to work hard to make sure the trees survive. And today, we're going to

trees survive. And today, we're going to experience a little bit of that firsthand. It's a tougher task than it

firsthand. It's a tougher task than it looks. You have to get all the loose

looks. You have to get all the loose sand out of the way before you can even start digging. In the big cities, it

start digging. In the big cities, it feels like change is happening by the second. There's always some new

second. There's always some new technology, some AI thing. The rat race is intense, and humans are endlessly scrambling for limited resources. But

here, it feels like a completely different world.

Life here moves slowly. I can just sit on a sand dune and zone out and watch a tiny bug crawl home. It takes me a long time to collect enough green energy just to plant one tree. And all these little

tiny trees that we just planted, it will take years for them to grow even as tall as my thigh. And it will take them about a decade to grow this big. That is a level of patience that my 5-second

attention span cannot comprehend. For

the past decade, while much of the world has been busy keeping up with the rat race, there's been this group of people here in China focused on just one thing, planting trees. Their mission is to take

planting trees. Their mission is to take this barren desert land and one tree at a time, turn it into a home where life can take root again. Being here, you feel a totally different rhythm to life.

You let time run its course. The

progress might be incredibly slow, but if you just keep at it, change does happen. Anyway, regardless of what's

happen. Anyway, regardless of what's going on in the rest of the world, I will continue to collect green energy with Ant forest and continue to plant these cute little trees. It is one teeny tiny contribution that I can make to a

greener and more beautiful world. And I

hope you'll join in.