Eli5 Why can’t we just slowly plan trees out in the desert to turn it into a forest?
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You can. Sorta. In some places.
Deserts aren’t just places with few plants, they’re places with little rain.
Trees, like all plants, need water to live. Deserts don’t have a whole lot of water to support them, so just planting trees don’t help because the trees simply won’t be able to get enough water to survive.
There is a process called “desertification” where the destruction of plants results in less water retention in the soil which results in insufficient water to support the amount of the plants that it used to have because the water supplied by the rain doesn’t stick around long enough to support those plants. This ultimately results in a desert-like environment where there’s less plant life than you would expect from the amount of precipitation received.
This can happen both naturally and through human (usually agricultural) activity. You can reverse desertification by planting trees and other appropriate plants.
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