Desertification: Causes, Effects, And Solutions
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Loading... - Lesbia Salihou
- 24 Aug 2022
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Soaring temperatures and improper disaster management have resulted in increased desertification rates across the globe. Coupled with droughts and a drop in agricultural productivity, the effects of desertification cannot be ignored. To curb such high rates of land degradation that many regions of the world are experiencing, effective risk management is needed. What is desertification and what are the main causes and solutions?
What is Desertification?
Desertification has a few varying definitions, but mostly centres around semi-arid, sub-humid lands; in simple terms, it can be described as areas with low or variable rainfall. In addition, there is also the added element of human-induced land degradation owing to an expanding population and rampant deforestation.
Land degradation is a systematic global issue. The scale of the problem has been questioned for decades, with estimates of degraded areas ranging between 15 to 60 million kilometres. Currently, an estimated 2 billion people live on drylands vulnerable to this phenomenon and scientists predict that the effects of desertification could lead to the displacement of around 50 million people by 2030 as a result of the soaring temperatures, large-scale deforestation, and ecosystem damage in many parts of the world. Read More...
