Welcome back to the As It Matters site for our 2021 season. We hope you all are staying safe and informed on our global crisis. We say "our" because the pandemic affects everyone everywhere. If you need more information on recent events and happenings in this space, visit the WHO and CDC sites.

This year we're starting with the great continent of Africa and their Green Wall effort. The Great Green Wall is a coalition of African countries that span from the west to east coast. They are hoping to create a new natural world wonder that, when complete, will be the largest living structure on the planet. This means, it will be 3 times the size of the Great Barrier Reef. Started in 2007, The African Union began a proposal to plant trees, shrubs, and various types of grasses along the middle portion of the continent. The project seeks to increase soil carbon content, increase crop yields, improve the diversity of household diets, and boost the economy. The Green Wall will be tended to and protected by farmers entirely. This means local support is required to maintain and grow the effort. Unfortunately, this has been the crux of multiple failures to push the project. You must imagine the difficulty in getting the local governments of 66 nations on the same page. This also creates issues with funding. The project is estimated to cost a total of $30 billion. The shame here is, that's not a lot of money in relation to other projects. For example, the Big Dig in Boston, Massachusetts, ended up costing over $23 billion and its a tunnel. Yes, a tunnel. If you're from Boston and you're upset that I'm downplaying your megaproject tunnel in favor of a natural wonder that stretches across an entire continent, continue to be upset.

There is some good news here. Africa's Green Wall project landed a pledge of $14 billion from a coalition of international development banks and governments. This will certainly push local governments to assist and hopefully grab the eye of other major donors. If you want to help, visit the Green Wall's website, and take action!