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Tackling desertification
Tackling desertification
Tackling desertification
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Brief Introduction According to the World Ecology Report of Spring 2009, dry lands comprise of 41% of the earth’s total land area, and are home to roughly 2 billion people, or 34% of the earth’s population. It claims that currently (2009) over 250 million people in more than 100 countries were directly affected by desertification and more are at risk (This number would have increased already). The situation is more severe in Africa, where 66% of the total land area are arid or semi-arid. Not only is desertification harmful to the earth and its inhabitants, but it is also expensive each year, the world loses US$42 billion to desertification and its effects” (World Ecology Report, Spring 2009) . Desertification in Nigeria is a very delicate issue, because of the roles which the nation plays in Africa and globally. Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, with a population of 168.8 million people as at 2012, and a total land mass of 356,669 sq miles. According to the Federal Ministry of Environment of Nigeria, the country losses about 600 meters of its arable land mass to desert encroachment yearly. And also according to the Minister of Environment (Nigeria) Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, Nigeria loses an average of 2,168sq km of range and crop land to desertification yearly, and she also went ahead to disclose that 43.3 percent of the total land area is prone to desertification . In fighting desertification in this country, the federal government is calling for the support of both state and local government support, as well as support from other organizations and the general public at large. This reason (call of support buy the federal government) as well as the 50 million United States Dollars grant price, together woul... ... middle of paper ... ... 06:00. http://dailytrust.info/index.php/editorial/3668-halting-deforestation (Cited 12-2-2013) this source is the reason why my work is coming in late as I decided to change a source which citation date I forgot. • Hugo Odiogor (May 03, 2010), Special Report on Desertification in Nigeria: The sun eats our land. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/05/special-report-on-desertification-in-nigeria-the-sun-eats-our-land/ (cited 12-3-2013). • Federal Ministry of Environment of Nigeria (Date not stated), Drought and Desertification Amelioration. http://environment.gov.ng/about-moe/departments-agencies/technical-departments-3/drought-and-desertification-amelioration/ (cited 12-3-2013). • World Ecology Repert (Spring 2009), SPECIAL FOCUS: Desertification: Its Effects on People and Land http://worldinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/library/wer/english/2009_Spring_Vol_XXI_no_1.pdf
His expertise may attract an array of readers, both newcomers and old-timers. It seems that his intended audience might be those who share his love of the desert and also those who want to know more. The essay is quasi-organized like an educational brochure or an expert interview with an inveterate desert denizen. An unintended audience of course might include the fledgling environmental activists who were emerging in the 1960s to fight for the protection of wilderness. Because of its focus on natural history, the article and the anthology, Desert Solitaire, in which it was published, might...
Water is the foundational basis of life on Earth. Ecosystems, society and humans are completely dependent on it, and as the world population continues to grow, there will be more mouths to feed, and those people will need water to continue their daily lives. However, shortages and poor management leads to the destruction of natural habitats and human suffering. Desertification of land in China is ever-increasing, turning green, lush land into desert. However, this is due mainly in part, because of human activity, and global warming (Wang, Yang, Dong, & Zhang, 2009). The United States could experience a crisis similarly to China’s, but for now they have averted such a catastrophe, because of heavy regulation of water. Though there are water shortages in many parts of the world, it is unwise to export water from the Great Lakes to those regions. Two major reasons why diverting the Great Lakes is a terrible idea, one: it allows for waters wars to start on the basis of who is allowed to access it and for commodification purposes. Two, diverting water on such large scales could have cataclysmic effects on the local residents as well as the environment.
On the heart (center) of California is a flat area with miles and miles of farms and up to 230 different crops. The central valley agriculture is essential to the United States; it not only delivers almost half of the produce but also helps the economy by also giving more job opportunities (California Department of food and agriculture, 2014). Many families depend on the central valley agriculture to survive economically in the United States. It is a well-known fact that rain and snows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains are a very important element in the central valley. No rain in the central valley can cause many devastating issues to occur quickly. Recently in the year of 2013 California received less rainfall than years before. The small amount of water the central valley is receiving is harming not only to the land but humans and animals as well. It’s destroying the habitats of animals with forest fires caused from the dry spells occurring. The central valley is going through a drought, so much that around this time of year the central valley usually accumulates enough rain for the necessities in the valley, agriculture for example. This year, however, has been different, the central valley hasn’t received enough water and this has caused a drought in the valley. Water is an important element in this world for not only human life, but for the environment in general, a shortage of water supply can bring issues to the environment and those living in it. The central valley holds the largest percent of class one soil, not only that, the valley grows a third of all the produce being grown in the United States, that’s more than 230 crops that are being grown in the central valley. However, this drought isn’t only affecting the resident...
Holdsforth, J. R. "Deforestation Estimates for Eight National Biozone Regions and Implications." 1990. http://www.biozone_project.html (7 June 2003).
Couttenier, Mathieu, and Raphael Soubeyran. "Drought and Civil War in Sub-Saharan Africa." Paris School of Economics, July 2011. Accessed June 9, 2014.
Traditional agriculture requires massive forest and grassland removal to obtain land necessary to farm on. Deforestation and overgrazing has caused erosion flooding, and enabled the expansion of deserts. But with drainage systems, leveling, and irrigation provided by the Green Rev, all this terra deforming will unlikely happen again. We can retain clean air and lessen the global warming effect caused by deforestation.Many people argue that a revamp in agriculture will be way too expensive and unrealistic especially for those poor farmers in third world countries. However many times, they exaggerate the price.
Works Cited Attoh, Samuel Aryeetey, ed. Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa. 3 rd. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2010. Book.
McMean, G. (2007, June). Artic climate impact assessment (C. Symon, Ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge Univercity Press. http://www.acia.uaf.edu/pages/scientific.html
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Nigeria has one of the world’s highest deforestation rates of primary forests. Deforestation is the process of cutting down and removing all or most of the trees in a forested area. Nigeria is a country located in the western part of Africa; it is a country that has diversity in forests and wildlife, including several species of both plants and animals. What are the causes of deforestation? Trees are being cut down and used for different purposes, but cutting the trees is resulting to different negative factors affecting our society and also affecting the atmosphere. It can also erode soils, contribute to desertification and the pollution of waterways, and decrease
According to the book, A History of Nigeria (2008), Nigeria is historically unique for three different reasons. First, it was found that there had been a high level of migration from the Northern part of Nigeria to the Southern part due to the Savanna. Second, humans within the regi...
“For most of the history of our species we were helpless to understand how nature works. We took every storm, drought, illness and comet personally. We created myths and spirits in an attempt to explain the patterns of nature (Druyan).” According to Fox, Drought came also be seen as a slow- motion train wreck. We still have a very short time to get the people off safely before the crash. This drought is causing long dry period in regions were rain fall is usually frequent enough. From there this drought is turning to more like a famine because the area in drought is so huge and is causing much conflict for the survival of the people (2011). These areas include Somalia, southern Ethiopia, and northern Kenya.
Peters, Gretchen. "No Quick Solution to Deforestation in Lush Chiapas." Christian Science Monitor 14 Jan. 2002, World sec.: n. pag. Print.
The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest desert area. The word Sahara comes from the Arabic word sahra’, meaning desert. It extends from the Africa’s Atlantic Ocean side to the Red Sea and consists of the countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Sudan. It is about 5,200 miles long. Overall, the Sahara Desert covers 3,500,000 square miles. The geography of the desert is varied. In the west, the Sahara is rocky with varied elevation. It does contain underground rivers, which sometime penetrate the surface, resulting in oases. The central region of the Sahara has more elevation than the other areas, with peaks such as Emi Koussi and Tahat. Even though the area lacks rainfall, these peaks are snowcapped during the winter. The Eastern part of the Sahara, the Libyan Desert, is dry with very few oases.
70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well as not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human-caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to a UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades. One of the main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide.
Although systems have been looked at, South Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change because, amongst other things, a large proportion of the population live in abundance to poverty and have low resilience to extreme weather. With already a low and variable rainfall pattern, predictions testify that by 2050 areas will be experiencing extremely high temperatures in Spring, Summer and some parts of Autumn with Winter experiencing rapidly decreasing temperatures below -65 degrees Fahrenheit. It will also become drier and hotter affecting agricultural production and biodiversity distribution. Saving and conserving fresh water now will ensure that in times of drought and extreme weather, people will have other alternatives to turn to especially with the amount of rainfall to be expected in the adjoining future.