Fighting drought with trees in Burkina Faso

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Most media stories about Africa convey gloom and doom. Add climate change and you might expect … double gloom and doom. But author Mark Hertsgaard recently found something quite different in the western Sahel. He was there researching a book on living with climate change. What he found was a small green miracle that offers a valuable defense against increasing heat and drought. It’s being pioneered by illiterate farmers… and their secret is trees. Hertsgaard prepared this reporter’s notebook from the West African country of Burkina Faso. (Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/rietje)

Quiet greening of West Africa

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The Sahel region of West Africa is being hit hard by climate change. But in this reporter’s notebook from the country of Burkina Faso, Mark Hertsgaard spotlights a small green miracle that’s helping farmers fight the warming trend. The secret, he says, is trees.