Posted on 06/04/2006 6:31:56 PM PDT by Daralundy
The world's deserts are being threatened "as never before", particularly by climate change, but can still be used as a key resource if action is taken to protect them, according to a report released on Monday.
The study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlights the problems facing desert areas but also their potential uses in vital sectors such as energy, food and medicine.
Shafqat Kakakhel, from UNEP, said: "Far from being barren wastelands, (deserts) emerge as biologically, economically and culturally dynamic while being increasingly subject to the impacts and pressures of the modern world.
"They also emerge as places of new economic and livelihood possibilities, underlining yet again that the environment is not a luxury but a key element in the fight against poverty and the delivery of internationally-agreed development goals."
At least 25 percent of the Earth's surface -- 33.7 million square kilometres (13 million square miles) -- has been defined as desert and is home to more than 500 million people, according to the report, "Global Deserts Outlook".
But one of its authors, University College London geography professor Andrew Warren, said the unique landscapes, ancient cultures, flora and fauna in deserts were at risk of disappearing.
"What alarms me now is that they are threatened as never before by climate change, by over-exploitation of groundwater, salinization and the extinction of wildlife," he said.
He added: "Many have unique adaptations and genetic make-up which may contribute to new crops and livestock capable of coping with a rapidly warming world."
The study outlines that there has been an overall temperature increase in desert regions of between 0.5 and two degrees Celsius between 1976 and 2000, compared to an overall rise in world temperatures of 0.45 degrees Celsius.
Hotter temperatures have meant glaciers are receding, meaning there is less water to sustain deserts in places like Central Asia and both sides of the South American Andes.
The report assessed that glaciers may decline by between either 40 percent and 80 percent by the end of the century in the Himalayas.
Increasingly dry rivers, inefficient water use like irrigation and population growth will all add to water shortages, it added. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, western China, Chad, Iraq, Niger and Syria will be particularly affected.
Warren told reporters at the study's launch in London that most deserts' groundwater levels are dropping "very, very quickly" as ancient underground aquifers are exhausted.
Meanwhile, road-building, pollution and hunting are threatening flora and fauna while rising water tables and irrigation was causing the salinization of soils and groundwater.
Other threats come from political instability, leading to increased used of desert areas for activities such as military training, prisons and refugee camps or increased population of desert fringes.
UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall told reporters that the 148-page report -- the release of which coincides with World Environment Day on Monday -- was designed to challenge the idea that deserts are "seas of sands that are unchanging, indomitable".
Instead, it was an "early warning" of the current and future problems to help policy makers around the world.
Kaveh Zahedi, deputy director of UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Centre based in Cambridge, eastern England, added that action was needed.
"These deserts are unique and dynamic eco-systems and, if sensitively treated, can provide the answers to many of the challenges that we face today, whether it's for energy, for food or for medicine," he said.
Deserts could become the "carbon-free powerhouses of the 21st century", the report noted, harnessing the wind and sun.
An 800 by 800 kilometre (500 by 500 mile) area of desert like the Sahara could capture enough solar energy to generate all the world's electricity needs and more, it added.
Plants found in Israel's Negev desert have anti-cancer and anti-malarial properties while others in Argentina, Arizon and Morocco have been found to help combat other conditions.
"The pharmaceutical potential of desert plants has yet to be tapped," the report notes.
This, plus sustainable eco-tourism and conservation schemes, could benefit not just the local desert communities but the wider population, it added.
We must protect the deserts, rain forests (formerly known as "jungles"), glaciers, blah blah blah.
Nothing has ever changeed in the past. The climate has always been exactly what is was in 1990 or 1977 or whatever, and the slightest change is reason for DOOM.
This has gotta be from The Onion, right? "...less water to sustain deserts..." LOL. Alarmist claptrap of the day award.
Deserts are under threat? I'd say so - a lot of them are covered in Muslims.
It's okay though - from what I hear Global Warming will insure more deserts.
. Meanwhile, road-building, pollution and hunting are threatening flora and fauna while rising water tables and irrigation was causing the salinization of soils and groundwater.
So which is it? Are the water tables rising, or are the levels dropping? Are the aquifers being exhausted, or are they filling up? Asinine article.
I am shocked at your unconcern for wetlands (formerly "swamps")
ROFL
What shall we rename deserts? Drylands?
Turn the desserts to glass. Much easier to clean.
Figures the desert center would be in England!
I suppose it's just bad wording, but if three-quarters of the earth's surface is covered by water, and 25 percent is defined as desert, well ... something ain't right.
Less Dessert?? Never!
Funny, eco-tourism is also the answer to sustainability in all the rural areas of the US. Eco-tourism can replace manufacturing, high-tech, finance, and every other sector of the economy in all parts of the world! /sarcasm off.
Seriously, in Pennsylvania where DCNR is using it's regulatory powers to shut down what little industry is left and to stop any new businesses, they are telling the local governments that eco-tourism will replace all those jobs and tax revenue, and the area will be more economically vibrant than it ever has been. How many eco-tourists do they really think there are??? How can that possibly be a replacement for other sectors like manufacturing? Employees in the tourism industry are notoriously part-time and low pay, so that's not exactly a replacement for a mining or steel job...
All I know for sure is that $Billions of US dollars given to the UN is the solution.
... and this is bad , because??? I remember moving up the MSR from Kuwait to Baghdad... 50 mile stretches at a time with nothing - absolutely nothing, but dust... not even sand - just dust. No plants, no animals, no nothing - as far as you could see in all directions. Then suddenly, a little village of, guess what - dirt shacks. I remember thinking - just WTF are these people doing out here? LOL!
This is lunacy, receding glaciers do not equal 'less water'.
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