This photo should be accompanied by another that I can't find right now, but it looks much like this with a grid laid out on the dirt with reeds going back from the road several feet. I asked our driver what it was and he said, "It's to keep the desert from spreading"
Wow. I knew the Sahara would be wild, beautiful, alien looking... I did not consider that it was a rolling waste that consumed everything in it's path. The sand blows on, coating and killing the living plants, breaking them down in it's caustic oven over time and expanding it's reach.
And humans who search every day for shelter, water, shade - are building little grids out of sticks to hold back the onslaught of sand.
The incredible perseverance of these humans, the so very visible effects of climate change, the quiet acceptance of a difficult life faced with elegance in it's own way... I was just struck with the contrast between their world and mine, and the stark reminder that it's all the same planet in the end.
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