Why China’s decades-long ambition to green the desert could run dry

Why China’s decades-long ambition to green the desert could run dry

At the edge of China's Taklamakan Desert, rows of trees are slowly edging into one of the world’s harshest landscapes after decades of planting. Scientists say this shows how human action can transform extreme environments – but warn of the cost to water resources, and that such schemes might not be easy to repeat elsewhere.