Africa's deserts are in "spectacular" retreat

New Scientist.com ^ | 18 September 02 | Fred Pearce

[twigs]

I'm taking a geography course right now and the textbook says that all cycles of warming are followed by cooling--that the attention of the world should now be on how to handle the coming cooling, because it is sure to create massive changes throughout the world that could cause major physical, social, political and economic disruptions.

[js1138]

...there is confusion over why the Sahel is becoming green. Rasmussen believes the main reason is increased rainfall ...

LOL

[facedown]

ping

[Pagey]

Vegetation is ousting sand across a swathe of land stretching from Mauritania on the shores of the Atlantic to Eritrea 6000 kilometres away on the Red Sea coast.

Well,Thank God the USA won't have to give them anymore money and they can grow their own food now.Whew.Perhaps they can feed the rest of their continent.Now there's an idea.

[HeadOn]

In August, the UN Environment Programme told the World Summit in Johannesburg that over 45 per cent of Africa is in the grip of desertification, with the Sahel worst affected. But a team of geographers from Britain, Sweden and Denmark ...told New Scientist that the unpublished analysis shows that "vegetation seems to have increased significantly" in the past 15 years

Well, heaven forbid someone question the U.N. scientists. I'm so confused. Who should I believe?

[TX Bluebonnet]

Yeah, next they'll be installing flush toilets and electricity. Then the whole continent will go to hell in a handbasket.

[RightWhale]

This follows the "ozone hole is shrinking" story

The Antartica icecap is also growing. What other bad news is coming in the next few days? Saddam and Arafat have eloped and moved to Paris?

[cogitator]

Good news to read. I wonder if Lake Chad will stop shrinking, too. (Not to be confused with any of the Florida chads).

AFRICA’S LAKE CHAD SHRINKS BY 20 TIMES DUE TO IRRIGATION DEMANDS, CLIMATE CHANGE

[VOA]

bump

[Delbert]

Some penicillin or antibiotics should clear that right up.

[The Person]

This is IMPOSSIBLE.

Al Gore assured me that global warming was making deserts much larger, thus starving people.

First, there was the story of environmentalists in Southern Africa preferring starvation for their people over eating genetically engineered food. Now this on global cooling. I long for the old days when people thought that environmentalists weren't crazy people who favored death over development.

[CWRWinger]

The fastest way to lay waste to land is to raise goats instead of cattle. Ethiopia did that starting in the '70's and it has devastated their countryside. This has, in part, has lead to the starvation they experience now.

[MinorityRepublican]

The Antartica icecap is also growing.

You got a link?

Thanks.