The Damage: Land

Desertification is a degradative process by which dry land regions become dryer and more arid. This process often occurs following the removal of vegetation, when soil becomes dry and easily movable by winds or floods. As the dried topsoil layer disappears, lower layers of infertile soil are exposed, making farming or reestablishment of plants and animals increasingly difficult. Processes driving desertification include deforestation, overgrazing, irrigation increasing soil salinity, agricultural tilling, and more.  However, direct human actions are not the only force behind deforestation: on a larger scale, desertification is caused by climate change, drought, poverty, inadequate infrastructure, and growing population size (Oasisglobal.net). While many of these factors can be seen as interrelated, you might be curious about poverty as a driver of desertification upon first glance at my list. Below is a very informative video explaining how drought and poverty, as well as social inequality, contribute to desertification.

http://www.alternativechannel.tv/communication-durable/videos/Conversations-with-Earth/Drought-causing-devastation-Kenya/2743/;jsessionid=82E834461041010E1203132B03A235A8

Unfortunately, the reason desertification has thus far not received much global attention is because for now, it is primarily (90%) occurring in the arid regions of developing countries, whose people are more concerned with surviving than implementing eco-friendly practices (Carrington, 2010). Additionally, economies are driven by pleasing city dwellers rather than very poor farmers, and not much thought is put into what good soil actually means to our species (Carrington, 2010). The following image illustrates the regions of the world that are at varying risks of desertification. Notice how many of the high risk regions are in developing regions, such Africa and the Middle East:

wikipedia.org

“The top 20cm of soil is all that stands between us and extinction.” This statement may seem radical, but is somewhat legitimized because it was uttered by the United Nation’s top drylands official, Luc Gnacadja. Mr. Gnacadja also believes that desertification and land degradation are the greatest threat to humanity at present. He goes on to explain that general land degradation by humans directly affects humans: desertification is connected to the Somalian political conflicts for productive land security, record Asian dust storms that impacted human health (see the following image), and the food price insecurity following a Russian drought. 

sciencedude.blog.ocregister.com

To put things in perspective, we have degraded roughly a quarter of available lands between the 1980s and today, and an additional 1% continues to be virtually ruined annually. This is particularly significant because aside from the aforementioned harm to humans, desertification plays a large role in decreasing biodiversity and climate change. This is due to the large carbon concentration in the top layers of soil that are lost during desertification. Once this layer is gone, many organisms that rely on the mineral nutrients it provides are unable to survive, including our crops! 

Today, half of the world's livestock and a third of our crops are grown on drylands. As our population continues to grow, do we want to jeopardize the livelihood or our soil, livestock, and crops, not to mention ourselves? Clearly, we need to take this issue seriously before we irreversibly damage the land and soil that we so desperately need.

The following section will be dedicated to the positive changes we have made, and what we have to look forward to, or work towards, in the future.

Works Cited

Carrington, Damian. Desertification is Greatest Threat to Planet, Expert Warns. Guardian.co.uk, 15 Dec. 2010. Web. 4 Jun. 2013.

What Causes Desertification? Oasisglobal.net, 2006. Web. 4 Jun 2013.