Go to ground.news/tunnelvision to stay fully informed on every side of every story. Save 50% on unlimited access with their Vantage Plan through my link. It's their biggest sale of the year!
One small tangent/addition is that the US exports alfalfa to Saudia Arabia as well. Alfalfa is an incredibly water-intensive crop that was actually banned in Abu Dhabi because of such and SA had been reducing domestic production. One of the US states that exports that alfalfa? Arizona.
If I had a nickel for every time I watched a video where Cristophe investigates circles in a desert, I'd have two nickels…which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
How much would the pumping of deep underground water impact the rise in sea levels, since water is being added that wouldn't have usually been in the system.
I LOVE that you show us all of the tools you use to make these videos and do this reporting. A lot of these post-Vox journalism videos can sort of blur together, and that little detail makes this channel stand out so clearly to me. I’m thrilled that it’s part of your mission here!
Is there something specific you all leaned at Vox that makes y'all so good at reporting, story-telling and motion graphics? Johnny, Cleo, Sam and yourself were previously at Vox, and I love how in-depth and well-researched your videos are, and how well you design your motion graphics. Keep up the good work though!
It seems a lot more likely that those qualities and style is why they were picked to work for vox, then it was encouraged and developed throughout their time there.
@@samuelkimuhu1916right? I suspect they use a lot of the same resources, programs, and people to expedite and flesh out the videos as well. A network that was built over time, and not something you would give up just because you change jobs. Surely some of the techniques they did indeed learn thru vox, but I would imagine it easier to seek out people that already align with your vision than to start fresh. Maybe not necessarily easier, but faster I reckon is what I mean. Rather than stopping your projects or slowing them considerably to build a team to fit your vision, take a little time up front to gather some people that already show the same inclinations, then share with them the secret sauce to really make it pop.
I love this. I love hearing the story of obtaining the story. It feels like a new kind of journalism. Johnnie Harris on the ground giving the micro perspective and Cristophe giving the macro view. Two perspectives of the same story.
From the title I thought it was going to be a very straightforward answer, since you see similar areas like this in the US. However, the deep dive into their agricultural strategy was very interesting!
I remember looking around on Google Earth a while ago and finding some of these farms in Saudi Arabia. I was so confused. I am so glad to finally see someone demystify these farms.
the production quality of videos by all of you guys (Johnny, Search Party, and Tunnel Vision) is insane.. even some movies with multi million dollar budgets dont achieve this kind of quality.. and the content is really valuable.. the downfall of traditional media and there content quality leaves me hopeless, but channels like yours generate faith.. you guys will inspire the upcoming journalists, and the world really needs good journalism.. KUDOS!
you guys should form an association, pitch such quality journalism to some investors to raise money and fund upcoming journalists to produce such valuable content.. we need more journalists like you guys..
Saudi Arabia also had alfalfa farms in Arizona for the longest time. One of the four leases was terminated in October 2023 and the remaining three leases were not renewed when they expired in February 2024. All of them ended for environmental/political reasons.
I live in AZ. You can see ton of these circles all over AZ and Nevada. Fun part, a lot of those circles are leased by Saudi Arabia and they do farming here in US soil
Sometimes called “precision agriculture,” this approach pumps water up from far underground and delivers it in rotation around a center point, creating a circular agricultural field. Vegetables, fruit, and grains grow abundantly within the circles.
I found these in egypt aswell when I was traveling down to Aswan. I was completely obsessed with them for a few days too. Nice to see you guys had the same :)
I almost missed this video because of the channel name change. I'm not sure why it happened but you may want to make a post about it in your community section.
phoenix arizona has something similar. a canal of water artificial water way goes from colorado river and wraps around the perimeter of phoenix. feeding farms around the perimeter and peoples houses.
We have those same things here outside of Phoenix, Arizona and I always wondered what the heck they were! Well, this video just made me finally look it up. Just centerpoint irrigation systems.
What do you mean by new style? This is literally made on the same formula than any of their videos on their channels. Don’t misunderstand me, it is great, but nothing new here.
we have some of these farms in the usa.... was on google earth trying to look at antartica and was going down a rabbit hole like the eye of the sahara and the desert looks like it has huge ripples from water from the great flood and so fourth and just came across this video
Because most humans on the planet don't have a reference to a US state size. Yet this is still something that gets requested by you guys. There are other countries in the world...
The land grab part near the end made me think of how Saudi Arabia did a similar thing in Chicago. Except instead of land for agriculture, they now own a huge amount of the parking in the city. I'm not joking; Saudi Arabia owns the parking meters in Chicago, and Chicago has to pay them every time the city wants to build a bike lane or do anything that might infringe on downtown parking. Obviously not the same as restricting countries' access to their own water, but it is another chokepoint that matters to Chicagoans.
The one question not answered is why did Saudi go into crops with pumped water they already knew was a finite resource? Sounds to me like a wasted investment (but maybe drilling and pumping is super cheap to do, I don't know and it sure would have been nice for this video to answer the question).
لا ياشيخ ، الكلام الي قلته في نوع من الصحه اولا كان فيه دعم على القمح فلذالك كانت الزراعة كثيرة ثانيا المياه الجوفيه مب محدودة لان اكتشفو انه هناك انهار تجري تحت الما فلا يضير انك تسحب الماء من تحت الارض بكميات كبيرة واخيرا هذولي اسمهن محوريات وهو رشاش ما يدور على مركز الدائرة وهو شي اساسي للزراعة بالسعودية ونقطه اخيره : ترت كان يمديك تسال اهل المزارع وبيرحبون فيك ويعطوك الجواب الكافي الشافي بدال هالتعب والمطرسة الفاضيه وشكرا❤❤
#1 thing this doesn't even cover is: How much fertilizer are they also using on these "desert farms"? The quality of soil also determines how good of wheat you can grow, besides lots of water. Sand doesn't have much nitrogen and phosphorus. The farms must use literally tons of manufactured fertilizer.
I think it is going over the audience's head just how perilous the situation is for Saudi in the long run. Lets look at the case study of this agriculture experiment. With an effectively near infinite supply of money and the absolute gift of the subterranean water supply they still have nothing to show for it. They blew it on growing absurdly subsidised wheat. They needed to guard that water with their lives. Instead they're now renting farmland on the international market. This is a perfect metaphor for the industrial/economic strategies of the oil rich nations. They've had all this oil revenue and now have shockingly little to show for it.
Okay but we’ve done this with almost all of our crop land in the western United States and it’s just as insidious. We’ve built cities in desserts and grow our food in them with pumped and imported water, like in all of california. Also, Saudi Arabia owns land in the US where it grows food for export.
No it failed because it was a stupid idea! It was a stagnated source and not a stream! Billions of dollars just to empty a bucket for a couple of years
I love how you (probably) spent months researching this "mystery" when a simple "saudi arabia circles" tells you the whole story. But that wouldn't make an interesting story, right? :D Love your content Christophe!!
Very interesting, this reminds me of a fantastic video by the channel Climate Town, where they show how there is land in deserts in the US Southwest that is owned by Saudi Arabia on which they grow another incredibly water-intensive crop in alfalfa, a crop that was banned from being grown in Saudi Arabia because of how water intensive it is, and the usage of water there is dramatically harmful to the sustainability of the region. Would highly recommend a watch for anyone who's curious to learn more about Saudi Arabia's purchasing of farmland abroad (video is called "Who’s Taking America’s Water?").
The future may not seem bright right now, but Sudan has great opportunities for agricultural development and prosperity. Wait for us on the other side once the war comes to end.
If the water usage doesn’t create rain, where does the water go? It has to stay in the atmosphere right? Does it create higher water levels in other places?
You didn't mention that Saudi Arabia owns land in Arizona, in the US (not a developing country!) and irrigates with water from the Colorado river... which is way over allocated. Other countries, like China, also own tracts of land in the US for water/food as well. And of course none of this will last much longer... the ecological footprint of a country like Saudi Arabia is huge, and they could never support themselves just using their own land. It's also worth mentioning the place we call Saudi Arabia used to have rivers, lakes, trees, etc. fed by the fossil water. Now that the fossil water is gone, that will never come back. Much of that water was millions of years old. Humans are at least partly to blame for the desertification of Saudi Arabia even before they were able to use the fossil water by pumping it. As the saying goes: forests precede us, deserts dog our heels.
The problem with Malthusians is they believe all resources are finite and we confidentially can quantify that amount. How do we know? We only know what we have found. Remember Peak Oil with "scientific community consensus" in 2010 saying we hit peak oil production and then will run out in 10 years. The problem is we keep discovering more oil and the price of oil collapsed in 2011. Then we have the crisis of running out of rare earth metals but keeping finding new deposits of it. We don't know how much underground water we haven't discovered.
Go to ground.news/tunnelvision to stay fully informed on every side of every story. Save 50% on unlimited access with their Vantage Plan through my link. It's their biggest sale of the year!
Christophe, you have an unhealthy obsession with repeating satellite shapes lol
One small tangent/addition is that the US exports alfalfa to Saudia Arabia as well. Alfalfa is an incredibly water-intensive crop that was actually banned in Abu Dhabi because of such and SA had been reducing domestic production. One of the US states that exports that alfalfa? Arizona.
If I had a nickel for every time I watched a video where Cristophe investigates circles in a desert, I'd have two nickels…which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
Thanks for sharing your 2 cents 🪙 🪙
Wait when?? I’m stipid
How much would the pumping of deep underground water impact the rise in sea levels, since water is being added that wouldn't have usually been in the system.
I was born and raised Saudi, did a lot of flying. Always was fascinated by these, glad I wasn't the only one.
I LOVE that you show us all of the tools you use to make these videos and do this reporting. A lot of these post-Vox journalism videos can sort of blur together, and that little detail makes this channel stand out so clearly to me. I’m thrilled that it’s part of your mission here!
Love how at 15:02 it loosk like the farms just absorbed all the water...
Love might be the wrong emotion. Definitely a powerful visual of exactly the path this follows.
now im interested in that actually. Is that bc of climate change? is that normal for a huge lake to dissapear that fast
Is there something specific you all leaned at Vox that makes y'all so good at reporting, story-telling and motion graphics? Johnny, Cleo, Sam and yourself were previously at Vox, and I love how in-depth and well-researched your videos are, and how well you design your motion graphics. Keep up the good work though!
It seems a lot more likely that those qualities and style is why they were picked to work for vox, then it was encouraged and developed throughout their time there.
@philbert006 Oh, yeah, makes sense. So more of a correlation than a causation.
@@samuelkimuhu1916right? I suspect they use a lot of the same resources, programs, and people to expedite and flesh out the videos as well. A network that was built over time, and not something you would give up just because you change jobs. Surely some of the techniques they did indeed learn thru vox, but I would imagine it easier to seek out people that already align with your vision than to start fresh. Maybe not necessarily easier, but faster I reckon is what I mean. Rather than stopping your projects or slowing them considerably to build a team to fit your vision, take a little time up front to gather some people that already show the same inclinations, then share with them the secret sauce to really make it pop.
@@samuelkimuhu1916 Vox has become Trash though recently
Well, thry have a whole media like team
Your editing is so good. I feel inspired watching you every time and try to learn more for my own videos. Love from Brazil ❤
I love this. I love hearing the story of obtaining the story. It feels like a new kind of journalism. Johnnie Harris on the ground giving the micro perspective and Cristophe giving the macro view. Two perspectives of the same story.
From the title I thought it was going to be a very straightforward answer, since you see similar areas like this in the US. However, the deep dive into their agricultural strategy was very interesting!
A great video. I'm glad I took Johnny's advice to subscribe. Great video.
I remember looking around on Google Earth a while ago and finding some of these farms in Saudi Arabia. I was so confused. I am so glad to finally see someone demystify these farms.
Not even joking I found these about 4-5 months ago and thought what the hell! Soon as I seen your thumbnail I clicked like omg it’s those things 😂
For scale, that one section of farms is the size of Yellowstone National Park.
the production quality of videos by all of you guys (Johnny, Search Party, and Tunnel Vision) is insane.. even some movies with multi million dollar budgets dont achieve this kind of quality.. and the content is really valuable.. the downfall of traditional media and there content quality leaves me hopeless, but channels like yours generate faith.. you guys will inspire the upcoming journalists, and the world really needs good journalism.. KUDOS!
you guys should form an association, pitch such quality journalism to some investors to raise money and fund upcoming journalists to produce such valuable content.. we need more journalists like you guys..
Just watched Jonny’s video and I just watched yours. I like that you guys put his clips in with yours. Nice collab.
What u mean google can provide images from 1984?????__ we didnt even have internet they were saving satelite images>> this alone deserves a video
Saudi Arabia also had alfalfa farms in Arizona for the longest time. One of the four leases was terminated in October 2023 and the remaining three leases were not renewed when they expired in February 2024. All of them ended for environmental/political reasons.
Ten years ago, we had weakening these circles because there was no good control of this field.
But now everything is under control
Man I am really glad you created your own channel and with Johnny Harris too!!
Peak level content by you and Johnny ! Had me hooked the entire time , it almost feels illegal to be able to watch this for free!
Keep it low, i just found a way to milk arabs money.! It is an Edge !
I live in AZ. You can see ton of these circles all over AZ and Nevada. Fun part, a lot of those circles are leased by Saudi Arabia and they do farming here in US soil
Sometimes called “precision agriculture,” this approach pumps water up from far underground and delivers it in rotation around a center point, creating a circular agricultural field. Vegetables, fruit, and grains grow abundantly within the circles.
These aren't "RUclips videos" anymore these are legitimate films. Impressive editing
I found these in egypt aswell when I was traveling down to Aswan. I was completely obsessed with them for a few days too. Nice to see you guys had the same :)
These drone shots + music remind me Denis Villeneuve films, spectacular. Amazing documentary.
I almost missed this video because of the channel name change. I'm not sure why it happened but you may want to make a post about it in your community section.
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite RUclips Channels
Hi. Saudi Arabian here. We are farming grass (and other things).
Jonny re-directed us here😂😂
Love the documentary ❤
Now that Johnny is in Saudi Arabia, why not look into sustainable agriculture happening in Saudi Arabia?
im from saudi and always had qustions about this, may allah bless us with this
Finally subscribed to your channel from Johnny’s channel. thank you for all the work you guys do, look forward to seeing more of your videos!
I thought this channel was called Tunnel Vision? Not Christophe
hoooooly intro. Christophe this is sick!
Great job, this video is rad! Very nice idea of merging two videos to bring more viewers to the new channel. Best of luck ❤
California, Nevada, Arizona has a bunch these agricultural circles throughout their desert
phoenix arizona has something similar. a canal of water artificial water way goes from colorado river and wraps around the perimeter of phoenix. feeding farms around the perimeter and peoples houses.
15:00 What was that water body that dried up so quickly in Egypt?
Toshka lakes
Fantastic video Christophe
We have those same things here outside of Phoenix, Arizona and I always wondered what the heck they were! Well, this video just made me finally look it up. Just centerpoint irrigation systems.
They also have a massive destallination plant plan
Wow I did not expect the research to land where it did!
This channel will hit 1 million soon I can for sure!
Love the double down on the Saudi trip.
These are all over the USA as well
I love the retention bar on the bottom
Love your style of editing and thank you for the information. New sub from Johnny's channel!
Dude how do you guys keeps pioneering new journalistic style?
What do you mean by new style? This is literally made on the same formula than any of their videos on their channels. Don’t misunderstand me, it is great, but nothing new here.
we have some of these farms in the usa.... was on google earth trying to look at antartica and was going down a rabbit hole like the eye of the sahara and the desert looks like it has huge ripples from water from the great flood and so fourth and just came across this video
3:36 sneaky capture
Great video, can't wait for more
from jhonny to christo love it
Great video , enjoyed this
Well done great video
here before many! that's crazyyy
BRilliant work guys
2:28 why would you chose 46 manhattans as a unit. What state fills that area?
Because most humans on the planet don't have a reference to a US state size. Yet this is still something that gets requested by you guys. There are other countries in the world...
He's from Brooklyn so I guess it's very relatable for him?
The land grab part near the end made me think of how Saudi Arabia did a similar thing in Chicago. Except instead of land for agriculture, they now own a huge amount of the parking in the city. I'm not joking; Saudi Arabia owns the parking meters in Chicago, and Chicago has to pay them every time the city wants to build a bike lane or do anything that might infringe on downtown parking. Obviously not the same as restricting countries' access to their own water, but it is another chokepoint that matters to Chicagoans.
😊 Awesome team work! Keep winning! 💜🌹
Very interesting. Wonderful video. New to this channel. Subscribed. Greetings from Norway.
Beautiful video.
This guy keeps delivering
We want more of these videos please
I saw circles in the desert of China 👀👀
The one question not answered is why did Saudi go into crops with pumped water they already knew was a finite resource? Sounds to me like a wasted investment (but maybe drilling and pumping is super cheap to do, I don't know and it sure would have been nice for this video to answer the question).
people are discovering that Saudi is not just a desert and they can’t believe it 😂
just finished the 50 minutes of the Saudi Arabia series
Part of me still felt like watching more. Like if it was 45 minutes plus.. Either way, good stuff.
Much love from Kenya.
Such a good video!
First time I have seen such circles in a big scale was in the US on Google maps
لا ياشيخ ،
الكلام الي قلته في نوع من الصحه
اولا كان فيه دعم على القمح فلذالك كانت الزراعة كثيرة
ثانيا المياه الجوفيه مب محدودة لان اكتشفو انه هناك انهار تجري تحت الما فلا يضير انك تسحب الماء من تحت الارض بكميات كبيرة
واخيرا هذولي اسمهن محوريات وهو رشاش ما يدور على مركز الدائرة وهو شي اساسي للزراعة بالسعودية
ونقطه اخيره :
ترت كان يمديك تسال اهل المزارع وبيرحبون فيك ويعطوك الجواب الكافي الشافي بدال هالتعب والمطرسة الفاضيه وشكرا❤❤
#1 thing this doesn't even cover is: How much fertilizer are they also using on these "desert farms"?
The quality of soil also determines how good of wheat you can grow, besides lots of water.
Sand doesn't have much nitrogen and phosphorus. The farms must use literally tons of manufactured fertilizer.
Johnny meets up with Solomon and is like, "Hey are you ready to go to the desert?" Bro is probably like, you mean my back yard?
Can you share the muisc that you have used in here? Its amazing
I just downloaded GroundNews😊
I think it is going over the audience's head just how perilous the situation is for Saudi in the long run. Lets look at the case study of this agriculture experiment. With an effectively near infinite supply of money and the absolute gift of the subterranean water supply they still have nothing to show for it. They blew it on growing absurdly subsidised wheat. They needed to guard that water with their lives. Instead they're now renting farmland on the international market. This is a perfect metaphor for the industrial/economic strategies of the oil rich nations. They've had all this oil revenue and now have shockingly little to show for it.
Those circles remind me of those high-up farms in Mad Max.
Babe! He posted again. time to grab a popcorn.🍿
Damnnnnn. Love from Brazil.
Came here from JH's Channel.
Okay but we’ve done this with almost all of our crop land in the western United States and it’s just as insidious. We’ve built cities in desserts and grow our food in them with pumped and imported water, like in all of california. Also, Saudi Arabia owns land in the US where it grows food for export.
we nee dmore in depth and lengthier videos!!!!!! keep it up
Small note but 1984 was actually 40 years ago.
Do the video about Lybia water project that failed because they overthrown Gadafi.
No it failed because it was a stupid idea! It was a stagnated source and not a stream! Billions of dollars just to empty a bucket for a couple of years
amazing video
They’re farming our desert in Arizona pumping huge amounts of water of course
These are all over Spain also. Do see them when flying to the south of Spain.
Most of the fields in the video were planted to Alfalfa not Wheat. Very clearly in the last fields pictured.
Now they grow alfalfa for their race horses in use of Arizona’s precious ground water for irrigation.
I love how you (probably) spent months researching this "mystery" when a simple "saudi arabia circles" tells you the whole story. But that wouldn't make an interesting story, right? :D
Love your content Christophe!!
Thanks
Very interesting, this reminds me of a fantastic video by the channel Climate Town, where they show how there is land in deserts in the US Southwest that is owned by Saudi Arabia on which they grow another incredibly water-intensive crop in alfalfa, a crop that was banned from being grown in Saudi Arabia because of how water intensive it is, and the usage of water there is dramatically harmful to the sustainability of the region. Would highly recommend a watch for anyone who's curious to learn more about Saudi Arabia's purchasing of farmland abroad (video is called "Who’s Taking America’s Water?").
I have got photos of those circle in my geography class book years ago
The future may not seem bright right now, but Sudan has great opportunities for agricultural development and prosperity. Wait for us on the other side once the war comes to end.
If the water usage doesn’t create rain, where does the water go? It has to stay in the atmosphere right? Does it create higher water levels in other places?
investigate that lake disappearance next, 15:01
You didn't mention that Saudi Arabia owns land in Arizona, in the US (not a developing country!) and irrigates with water from the Colorado river... which is way over allocated. Other countries, like China, also own tracts of land in the US for water/food as well. And of course none of this will last much longer... the ecological footprint of a country like Saudi Arabia is huge, and they could never support themselves just using their own land.
It's also worth mentioning the place we call Saudi Arabia used to have rivers, lakes, trees, etc. fed by the fossil water. Now that the fossil water is gone, that will never come back. Much of that water was millions of years old. Humans are at least partly to blame for the desertification of Saudi Arabia even before they were able to use the fossil water by pumping it. As the saying goes: forests precede us, deserts dog our heels.
As a farm kid from irrigated south central nebraska who's dad had a friend who sold pivots in/to saudi...im interested where this goes
Great ❤
The problem with Malthusians is they believe all resources are finite and we confidentially can quantify that amount. How do we know? We only know what we have found. Remember Peak Oil with "scientific community consensus" in 2010 saying we hit peak oil production and then will run out in 10 years. The problem is we keep discovering more oil and the price of oil collapsed in 2011. Then we have the crisis of running out of rare earth metals but keeping finding new deposits of it. We don't know how much underground water we haven't discovered.