Policy Changes Related to How People can Farm, Trump's Anti-Wind Stance Even Makes Him Falsely Claim Wind Turbine Noise To Cause Cancer, 2. In this article, we’re going to give you an idea as to what are the causes of desertification, the effects that desertification has, and what we can do in order to deal with the problem at hand. There are many historical accounts of how various people groups throughout human history experienced collapse of their civilization as drought and desertification occurred to their lands. Can You Recycle Photos? Desertification is a process of degradation of the land. There is probably no need to explain how crucial these services are for our wellbeing. As mentioned previously, grasses and other perennial plants also prevent water runoff by slowing it down and promoting rainwater infiltration into soils. WMO also coordinates the efforts of Members for drought preparedness and teaches them how to stop desertification caused by droughts. One third of the land surface on Earth has fallen victim to desertification and according to the estimates, another 12 million hectares (approx. One of the biggest transitions that has forced first farmers in the early Holocene to abandon their lands happened when their previously fertile lands started to turn drier and drier. Overpopulation and excessive consumption, 9. Unable to grow crops, farmers had to leave their villages in search of better lands. Without plants stabilizing the soil and slowing down the runoff, rainwater flows faster and floods human settlements in the blink of an eye. With significantly reduced rainfall, drought occurs and triggers problems such as failing harvests, drying creeks and boreholes, poor pasture that weakens livestock, and more frequent outbreaks of wildfires that destroy remaining vegetation. Once land turns from arable to arid, it is often on longer suitable for farming purposes anymore. In the long run, this may turn from arable into arid land over time, and it will no longer be suitable for farming purposes after a few years of excessive farming since the soil has been damaged too much over time. Desertification may alter the living conditions of the local flora and fauna that makes it impossible for animals and plants to sustain their populations. Its depletion causes desertification. Desertification affects topsoil, groundwater reserves, surface runoff, human, animal, and plant populations. The reasons why this has happened are longer periods of droughts and the overextraction of water for irrigation and mining projects [12]. Policy Changes to Other Types of Land Use, 6. Mining often implies the destruction of large areas of land. Countries affected by desertification do not have to be located only in hot regions of the world because it is the local climate and land use that shape the health of the land. Soil erosion is often one of the final steps that closes the loop of continual soil deterioration that is difficult to revert. #1 Overgrazing Overgrazing and desertification have been always closely linked together. It is where we live, breathe, eat and raise our children. In fact, in some areas overgrazing has led to complete desertification. Due to unfavorable conditions, plants grown on these damaged soils strive and often do not produce sufficient yields. Watch the video to learn more about destructive sandstorms and advancing desertification they have to face more frequently. This means that the original ecosystem of these lands is well-adapted to withstand dry seasons during which plants enter so called summer dormancy, a temporary cessation of growth, in order to preserve themselves, only to turn green and strong as soon as rains come again. As the days get warmer and periods of drought become more frequent, desertification becomes more and more eminent. Forests are being cut down at much larger scale than ever before, to be used as fuel, to provide products we use in our daily life, or to simply create more space for agriculture to sustain growing human population. A true environmentalist by heart ❤️. But it is important to realize one thing if we want to know how does climate change cause desertification. Our overall level of consumption is also increasing at a steady rate. Increased salinity happens because irrigation water mobilizes naturally occurring salt in these soils. (And Are They Compostable? Desertification often causes rural lands to become unable to support the same sized populations that previously lived there. When it comes to health effects, dusty desert air can cause respiratory diseases. However, it is the paradox of life that especially in these vulnerable regions, animal herding is often the only livelihood people can have and there are no restrictions in place that would regulate the maximum number of animals for a given space. and space to grow food and build settlements. Keep reading to learn more about the causes and effects of desertification as well as the best methods for bringing it to a halt. Our goal is to inspire people to change their attitudes and behaviors toward a more sustainable life. According to expert opinions from FAO and UN, this high level of land loss to desertification is what has triggered a civil war in the country. Desertification is a significant global ecological and environmental problem.”. Flooding is not the only problem, sand storms are another big issue, mainly because wind-blown particles (including those that are polluted) can travel long distances and cause health problems to people even in distant urban areas. All problems related to desertification can eventually be traced back to water related problems. Animal grazing is a huge problem for many areas that are starting to become desert biomes. While heavy machinery keeps spraying #monocrops with #pesticides and #fertilizers, millions of #family #farmers are applying agroecological approaches to redress those impacts and revive #rural areas. And when you think about it, it’s just a natural reaction of any living organism to survive – “fight or flight.”. Desertification also increases vulnerability of whole regions to the unpredictable effects of climate change. Land desertification, species extinction and climate transformation, these three problems all are a long term problem to the world. Oxygen Levels of Oceans Are Decreasing At An Alarming Rate [Recent Study], 4. In many instances, these people go to larger cities, hoping for better life by finding a new livelihood. By adding these to what we should be doing with land, we can ensure that we don’t turn the entire world into a desert. Higher food prices, water availability, violent conflicts for land, migration, increasing poverty, pollution from wind-blown dust particles coming from distant lands, could be the outcomes of desertification if we let it consume more of our planet. Therefore, planting trees in the affected areas not only prevents desertification but also fights against additional environmental issues. The situation in Mongolia is alarming, particularly because this land degradation has taken place just recently. Causes of land desertification are a combination of natural phenomena and human activities. The vast majority of desertification in the present day is caused by harmful human activity. These negative events are directly linked to the wellbeing of people. ), Can You Recycle Lotion Bottles? Urbanization, logging, mining, overgrazing, alterations in soil moisture, air pollution, fires, chemical pollution, and leaching out of minerals all damage or destroy soils. The direct cause of desertification is poor land use. Besides constantly eroding soils by creating gullies and channels each time it rains, water also picks up loosen soil particles and transports them into water bodies. This results in mass migrations out of rural areas and into urban areas (urbanisation), particularly in Africa.
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