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| Africa Subsaharan |
| The Greening of the Sahel |
| 2006-06-07 |
| There has been a long history of assertions of widespread and irreversible desertification occurring in the Sahel of Africa (Dregne, 1983; Lamprey, 1988; Middleton et al., 1997). During the 1970s, in particular - when Lamprey's report was originally written - the United Nations spearheaded a massive media campaign to warn the world about the phenomenon; and as recently as August 2002, leaders of the UN Environment Program told the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg that over 45% of the continent was at that time experiencing severe desertification. Several years earlier, however, scientists had already begun to realize that these assertions were no longer true. Posted to remind us that prior to Global Warming and Kyoto, the big eco-crisis was desertification. The predicted consequences were remarkly similar to the current GW scare - large parts of the world uninhabitable and tens/hundreds of millions of refugees. The scare may change but the agenda remains the same. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #3 e.g. ASWAN DAM = THREE GORGES, etal. local dams, where premature or inadequate, State-planned economic dev held priority over cost-prohibitive, extensive empirical studies on how local riverine systems/water tables affected the surrounding region(s). FAIR WARNINGS WERE PREDOMIN IGNORED. THREE GORGES > Chicom and other scientists are now realizing that Three Gorges is actually contributing to the intensifying desertification of nearby Chinese regions and even beyond China, NOT STOPPING/HALTING DESERTIFICATION, albeit the full extent of actual vs potential/future damage is not yet known!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-06-07 22:36 |
| #2 Just the next phase for the Anti-Globalization, Anti-Developement, Anti-America crowd. Most of which have gotten stinky rich with the current system, I might add. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-06-07 22:18 |
| #1 You mean the earth changes over time? It doesn't stay exactly the same as [pick year from "activist's" adolescence]? Well, DUH! From the link: "Is carbon dioxide a harmful air pollutant, or is it an amazingly effective aerial fertilizer?" I know an amazing amount of |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-06-07 18:58 |