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Desertification : a global challenge

Desertification : exploding the myth

Desertification, the conversion of fertile land on the fringe of the arid zones of the tropics to sterile, useless waste, is one of the great issues of global environmental concern. Blamed on global warming, poor agricultural practice, population pressure or soil erosion, it has generated a large scientific literature, great global concern, massive research funding and a host of policy and environmental books intent on investigation and control. The point of this book is to argue that the process of desertification as an objective scientific measurable reality does not actually exist and that the need to demonstrate that the "threatening ever-expanding desert" and its corollary of irreversible environmental change, arises more from social, political or ecoactivist priorities than scientific ones. Here, David Thomas, an internationally known authority on dry land geomorphology, and Nick Middleton, science writer and desert researcher, examine the origin of the "desertification myth", how it spawned multi-million dollar research initiatives and became regarded as a leading environmental issue, and with the aid of recent research findings, including the use of evidence from geographic information systems, they demonstrate that this much vaunted problem is very much smaller and less locally significant than previously accepted and that the "global process of desertification" as an environmental problem is simply chimerical. The book explores the political and institutional factors that created the myth, sustained it and now protects it against scientific criticism. As both an account of how the scientific method works and a critique of certain forms of environmental thinking, this book should be of interest to students and researchers in geography and environmental science, as well as those interested in institutional politics at the international level, and should alert the general reader to the political position-taking and wilful or inadvertent misuse of science that is behind at least one great environmental issue.

Desertification : natural background and human mismanagement

Desertification is a problem on whose solution the survival of millions of human lives depend. This book aims to arrive at an understanding of what is commonly called "desertification" - a term which has a connotation of irreversibility - the spreading and emergence of desert-like landscapes. This book proposes the term "land degradation" to replace it and describes in global terms what has happened in the way of land degradation already and what might be done to improve things in the future. Each type of technology used on the land, whether excessive or insufficient, creates its own difficulties, which can be reflected in a decrease in soil productivity and which can eventually lead to land degradation. The book describes the ecozones which have undergone the most severe land degradation and offers an overview of existing phenomena, the mechanisms by which they have reached that stage, and existing solutions. This monograph on ecology, desertification control and geography is intended for practitioners, researchers and students.

Endangered earth

Includes tex and chronological chart. Includes text, ancillary maps of "Ice age vegetation 18,000 years BP" and "Greenhouse-effect vegetation zones...

Map of South Africa to illustrate the paper by James Fox Wilson, Esqre., and Dr. Livingstone's theory of ancient lakes

Relief shown by hachures. Zones of varying vegetation, rainfall, and arability shown by shading. Approximate southern limit of tropical humidity is...