Making The Desert Bloom

With the threat of climate change looming, and growing ambivalence about whether the world can meet its stringent carbon emissions reduction targets to limit global warming, many people are searching for new solutions. But some people think they’ve already cracked it, as well as the solution to world hunger, simply by growing plants in salt-water. Dr. Dennis Bushnell, NASA's Chief Scientist, explains the potential he sees in the salt-water loving plants, known as halophytes. We'll also hear from two scientists, Dr. Dionysia Lyra and Dr. RK Singh who are working to make that potential a reality, at the Centre for Biosaline Agriculture in Dubai.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Low chenopod shrub, Samphire (Salicornia europaea), a kind of halophyte. Kalamurina Station Wildlife Sanctuary, South Australia. Photo credit: Auscape/UIG via Getty Images)