Desertification: Where the glass is half empty

The Great Lakes basin, which includes Michigan and its neighbor states, is the most famous freshwater locations in the world. Identifiable from space, our water sources seem unlimited. Sometimes it is hard for Michigan's population to grasp an existence without ample water. Even with the knowledge of how precious our situation is we exploit it. The Great Lakes has another identifier-it is the world's most heavily industrialized area, and the pollution from this and from another threat, global warming, reduce the quality and quantity of our water supply. Yet for many living in the region, these threats are not yet apparent in overt destructive force. What minor setbacks we experience in our dwindling water supply are instead felt by other parts of the world, and the negative effects spread like ripples in a pond.

Those who are affected most severely are the populations living on land without accessible water, called "drylands." Here, water scarcity is a reality, and the effects of short-term industrialization choices and global warming are immediate and painful. Drylands contribute to 41% of the world's land, usually occupied by poorer populations. An issue associated with drylands is called "desertification," which currently occurs on all continents except Antarctica. Desertification is what happens when land becomes degraded, changing into arid, semiarid or dry subhumid areas because of excessive resource overuse by humans, or climate changes (which could be referred to as evidence of excessive human use). The United Nations has acknowledged it as one of the greatest environmental challenges of our current worldwide society, affecting a third of the entire human population. In this regard, the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification was formed, under the umbrella of the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), which was originally formed in 2000. The MA's objective is to "assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and to establish the scientific basis for actions needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems and their contribution to human well-being."

One of the consequences of desertification are droughts, and this can be used to judge dryland susceptibility to desertification. For example, three of the areas most at risk lie in Africa, known as the Sahel, Southeast Africa, and the Horn of Africa, where severe droughts can happen every 30 years. Thirty years may seem like a long time, but put in perspective that means it affects every generation of the area's population at least once. One cause of desertification is short-term decisions in regards to fuel, food, building materials, etcetera, which prevent sustainable ecosystems. As global warming is reducing worldwide water supply, the stress on dryland areas is increasing. The defining aspect of drylands is that they are affected by water scarcity, and the world's climate is only increasing the severity of the impact. The prior listed parts of Africa are of monumental concern, located within areas of the greatest vulnerability, which also include other sub-Saharan and Central Asian drylands.

In order to understand the far-reaching effects of desertification, we can use examples from everyday life. Development, such as building or parking lot construction, can cause irritating blow-offs of grit that obstruct pedestrian traffic. Similarly, dryland deconstruction causes dust storms thousands of miles away. Other adverse indirect effects include downstream flooding and climate change at a regional or global scale. Since most of the dryland countries are developing countries, desertification creates significant setbacks. People who are already impoverished cannot afford to lose any more, and that is exactly what the process of desertification is doing to the world. Hearkening back to a saying "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link," ignorance and lack of action on the part of developed countries results in an increase in our own poverty.

Current global trends suggest that the issue at hand, one of the most critical for modern society, has the benefit of greater worldwide cooperation. There are also increases in the levels of interaction of commerce-countries providing adequate resource transfer between different countries, with less hoarding of resources. This is important in reducing the stress of desertification, as resources increasingly become more readily available to countries that cannot normally obtain them.

One of the best solutions to the problem of preserving our drylands and rescuing their current populations is the introduction of alternative lifestyles for the people residing in these areas. Education is usually limited, and a modern worldwide viewpoint is not always available to the populations. As most solutions to overwhelming problems, this is a local remedy, requiring the intervention of either the indigenous population or the help of outsiders, such as educational and non-profit organizations. Another solution is to create more job opportunities in urban centers, with the result of consolidating human population into less at-risk areas.

Desertification is a complicated issue because of the number of factors involved in its creation. Another factor to consider is cultivated land. If proper land use techniques are not used in the cultivation of land, it will inevitably one day become dryland. Most proactive land and water use management is expensive initially to implement, which is why it is not always the first consideration by a developer. However, the long-run benefits of sound, usable, sustainable land are enormous. Most cultivated land utilized woodland and rangeland, as opposed to developing dryland areas. Since the lack of education is high in this subject, a solution today is only feasible if stakeholders in the land and the surrounding communities implement desertification prevention policies. As stated in the U.N.'s Desertification Synthesis of 2005, "local communities can prevent desertification and provide effective dryland resource management but are often limited by their capacity to act... Implementation of such practices in drylands requires institution building, access to markets, technology transfer, capital investment, and reorientation of farmers and pastoralists."

Efforts to combat desertification in Africa have been tried as early as the 1970's, but failed because local land managers were not directly involved in the process. It is important to realize that the effects of desertification may never be completely reversible. For example, in the United States during the 1930's, the Dust Bowl was created. This was the result of some climatic factors combined with undereducated farming practices. The battle to restore land to its prior conditions had to be fought repeatedly in order to supplant the Dust Bowl's conditions with healthy land. First, restoration was tried in the 1930's, then again in the 1950's and 1970's. Even the migration of 1 million people could not prevent desertification of that area from coming back. The United States, as a developed country, used every resource at their disposal, which is significantly more that what most countries in drylands can do. Major policy changes were made, such as cash payments for letting land lie, zoning laws for fragile areas, and farm loans, which enforced federally approved land maintenance. Even with the best of strategies, there was a Dust Bowl II and III. Roughly half of the United States is actually considered dryland, which means these areas are at higher risk of desertification.

Recently the weather took an odd turn and dust from a gigantic sand storm in the Sahara Desert actually blew across an entire ocean to the United States' eastern shore. The issue at hand triggered the dust cloud, illustrating another vital reason to reduce the effects of desertification.

Support of groups enacting local change within high-risk communities is beneficial, as is self-education on the situation as it stands. Many different outreach organizations are already working with local farmers and industrialists in third world countries to combat desertification. They not only teach appropriate farming and building methods, but they also build water filtration and transportation systems, educate people to become informed citizens, and help the needy in any way they can. The best solution to this problem, as with so many others, is local programs with worldwide support.

Written By Faye Spinniken

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