[dasboot]

I though L. Ron Hubbard was nuts.

[yankeedame]

The world is turning to dust, with lands the size of Rhode Island becoming desert wasteland every year... the United Nations says.

(sigh) Fine. Whatever. How much do you want this time?

[kidd]

source=http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc.html

Today's regions that are classified as 'desert biomes':

Source=http://www.aptoshs.net/~agoldenk/Melissa%20Buron/desert%20page

Conclusion: Things were once much worse

==========================================

Present total land surface area = 57,500,000 sq miles
Non-desert area = 6/7*57,500,000= 49,286,000 sq miles
Area lost to desert = 1374 sq miles/year (0.002%/yr)
Conclusion: In 1000 years, at this rate, we will lose 3% of non-desert land to desertification.

==========================================

This is natural, and is no cause for alarm

[Junior]

Well, look on the bright side. Now there will be more places for all those baby boomers to retire to.

[Natural Law]

Sure hasn't stopped people from moving to Arizona and Nevada.

[Modernman]

Fossilized pollen and seeds, along with ancient tools like grinding stones, show that much of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and North Africa were once green. The Sahara itself was a savanna, and rock paintings show giraffes, elephants and cows once lived there.

So, this process probably started well before humans made any significant impact on the environment.

[Bommer]

From the mid-1990s to 2000, 1,374 square miles have turned into deserts each year an area about the size of Rhode Island

Lets see. The earth has 57,308,738 square miles of land mass. Say 10 million of that is already desert, so over 47 million habitable. At a rate of 1,374 miles a year turning into desert, in 34,000 years we're looking at a disaster starring a very very old Dennis Quaid in, "The Day After Tomorrow...34,000 Years From Now!"

[auboy]

The UN could always start a "sand for food" program.

[Doomonyou]

Its the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) Lyrics - Document Album

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane - Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn - world serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs. Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height, down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population, common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite. Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs. Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic, slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

[ElkGroveDan]

Waaaah HOOOOO!!!

[sergeantdave]

The UN should rename itself "The Tower of Dome."

They could wear black robes and read chicken entrails every day for a year and issue disaster warnings. Then to rescue them we'll send in 10 tank battalions to blow up the tower. We can film it and call it "The Day After the Day After Tomorrow." or "Repitition Breeds Insanity, Over and Over."

[Zeppo]

with lands the size of Rhode Island becoming desert wasteland every year

Boy, that specter is enough to keep people awake at night (not). About as alarming as saying, "lands the size of tiny Luxembourg are becoming desert wasteland every year". Ho hum...

[DCPatriot]

Well if people can survive in Afghanistan they can survive in that type of environment.

Remember those sand people in the 1st Star Wars movie that were dressed like hood monks? ;^)

[xrp]

``It's a creeping catastrophe,'' said Michel Smitall, a spokesman for the U.N. secretariat that oversees the 1994 accord. ``Entire parts of the world might become uninhabitable.''

Like this FARMLAND IN THE DESERT:

The Al Khufrah Oasis in southeastern Libya is an irrigation project that enables cultivation of agricultural products in the dry, hot desert. Image #SAF1-E1112444.

[DannyTN]

``In some respects you may have greener vegetation showing up in people's yards, but you may be using water that was destined for the natural environment,''

So the problem is that all lands are turning into deserts, except those that are greener and they are using too much water.

[mykroar]

From the mid-1990s to 2000, 1,374 square miles have turned into deserts each year — an area about the size of Rhode Island. That's up from 840 square miles in the 1980s, and 624 square miles during the 1970s.

Did anyone catch this one?? LOL. Mid-90s = probably 1996.

So for what - 4 or 5 years this happened? On a global scale?

Give me a break. /rolleyes

[madison10]

They haven't visited the Great Lakes region recently, have they? Desert my butt. Try swamp.