Comments on: Desertification Revisited

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:54:13 +0000

It’s certainly worth remembering that even if the worst case scenarios about greenhouse gas related climate change are true, there are still many, many other factors at work in climate change, particularly at a local level such as seen in these photos. Rise in sea level: likely to be due to CO2/methane emissions. Re-greening of a section of Northern Ethiopia: at least as likely to be due to something like a ban on firewood collection or grazing of goats.

By: Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:14:40 +0000

Roy asks an interesting question, and the Cat replies, which shows how keen we all are to find ‘answers’ – even when there is so little information. But I would urge readers to reflect that if the pictures were reversed, we would all be sure it was due to climate change! The message I take is that the world is always changing… In this case, a major influence is that people no longer need, or are allowed (?) to take firewood….

By: Stephen Klaber

Stephen Klaber — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:44:28 +0000

Desertification has multiple causes. One of the main ones is aquatic weeds. All across Africa, there are thousands of square miles of these weeds. Typha Australis, in particular, clogs the Lake Chad basin and numerous other waterways. These are dessication machines. Their presence is in some places anthropogenic (we make dams and such). Their removal would largely stop the process. And with Typha and perhaps some of the others, this can be done at a profit in food and fuel. And a profit will be needed, because to clear these weeds is a never ending task. Consider the corner the government of Chad has painted itself into. It could be resolved by using half their military to harvest cattails (typha) and make it into charcoal. In the process they would restore their streams and aquifers.

By: Machiavelli's Cat

Machiavelli's Cat — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:55:14 +0000

Or random patterns of rainfall? Way too little information to be useful – all the variables have to be accounted for before any sort of analysis can even be attempted in such a complex subject matter.

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:41:47 +0000

What does it say about how they managed to improve the land? Is it due to changes in human behavior, or due to climate change in one of the lucky areas?